Digestive impaction and yellow poo

We managed to clear Charity's crop completely, which took a long time, but she still isn't eating enough (likes layers mash) and we are having to supplement it. However three days ago she stopped talking and her crop is not emptying properly again. A check on her abdomen revealed it was swollen and I am now convinced the yellow around the poos is caused by a urinary tract infection. She's gone back onto Baytril but is so light her chances are slim. Problem is her sister Verity is so fond of her now that any separation has her wailing for her return, so that's a major stress problem that may surface with obviously dire consequences.

In the meantime we've bought a couple of Buff Orpington hens to restore the numbers. Perhaps Verity will bond with them?
 
HI Chris,Just wanted to check in - what happened to Charity in the end?
 
She's still with us Gemma, which is a minor miracle. The uptake of the first dose of Baytril was inhibited by the probiotic in Avipro Avian plus the excess Calcium in layers pellets. So it wasn't entirely effective and the infection reoccurred. The yellow was I think the result of a urinary tract infection. Anyway we held back on the AA and put her onto rearers pellets (1% Calcium instead of 3.8%) and the repeat course was completely successful, although at the end she had lost ¾ of her bodyweight and had so little energy we thought she wouldn't get through the night.

At 5 years old she gets tired easily so we have to take her in early evening and put her in a dark room. She is now top hen because both her sisters died during her absence. At the moment she will be cruising the enclosure looking for fallen cherries and is living a very happy life. She gets taken out after we are sure she has eaten. It became apparent that she has a drinking disorder -she dips her beak but doesn't swallow and we think that was the route cause of her illness. So her crop is checked at night and if it seems firm or she is wrenching her neck we give her 20mL of water by syringe. She has also become rather talkative for the first time in her life!
 
Aww I'm glad to hear she's fully recovered. Sorry about Verity and the others though. Was it stress from missing her or something else?
 
It was something else Gemma, a nasty parasite called Trichomonas Gallinae which causes 'cankers' in the throat and airways. Our Orpingtons are carrying it and are quarantined from all the other birds to avoid infecting them as well. It arrived with the two original hens we bought and is apparent only when they get run down with something else. One of her sisters (Ollie) had chronic worms of a type not specific to chickens. They didn't respond to Flubenvet at all, but we had some success with Verm-X. But they ran her down and the TG flared up to the extent she couldn't breath properly and had to be PTS. Verity was in perfect health but suddenly started bleeding profusely from her beak and was PTS immediately.

Unfortunately Charity impacted on cherry stones again, shortly after my last post and was PTS as she hadn't the strength to get through it. So now we have another three -Sweetie who was a nearly completely bald breeding stock hen from a local breeder (but is in perfect health now), Amber and Ruby who both have laying disorders after their first year and are now simply pretty hens in the garden.

Worth adding that medication for chickens is virtually unheard of here. There is one vet who claims to be able to treat them but he is 40 minutes away and charges £50 for a consultation + medication costs! The treatment for TG is Flagyl in England -we've treated one quarantined cockerel (Claude a TNN) with complete success using it.
 
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