Help...hens wattles have gone!!!

[greenlady]

Hi
I'm sorry to start with Help..but I'm at a loss what to do.
I have kept Bantams for about 15 years, and still have an old one - a grey Belgium D'Anver who's about 10. As she was getting lonely I got 3 ex-battery ladies last summer. I thought I knew how to keep chickens, but last month one of them died, (I put it down to worms) and now another one is showing the same symptons. I've been on the net, and am now thoroughly confused...and feel like I am killing them!

They are free range.
They are fed on layers pellets and corn, and whatever they can find in the garden.
I haven't had an egg for a couple of weeks - but we have had a miserable summer.
After loosing the last one, I de-wormed then, cleaned the henhouse thoroughly, and de-liced them all.

The symptons are...
Listless, not eating, and hunched up. She can't get up to her roost, and is very thin. I noticed there is a black scab on the underside of one of her feet, and the wattles have turned white and almost disappeared, the comb is floppy. Yesterday, I thought it was sour crop, so I cleaned out her crop. It wasn't smelly, there was a grey-black gunge with no grass, and a few bits of corn. But there has been no improvement, and the crop is a little full, it feels like fluid. I've tried to feed her with cooked egg white, but it's as if she can't open her beak. She's just about drinking.

It has been a quick descent, on Friday she was fine. I haven't checked for red mite .. will do that tonight, but does anyone have any suggestions....

Many thanks

 

[tygrysek75]

They may have mycoplasma with all that rain,black spot on feet it may be just begining of bumle foot.I would sugest a visit to the vet as they may need some atibiotics .Otherwise it may be a red mite problem(have you had ever outbrakes in your cop)the vet can give them fronline spray for them if they not in lay anyway.Do they have any darkening of the comb(like purple colour)any discharge from nostrils.

 

[Marigold]

HI Greenlady and welcome to the Forum. I'm sorry you are worried about your hen. I'm sure you're not doing anything wrong, we always think that, don't we, even though we know they are having the best of kind care.
Did you use Flubenvet to worm them? The herbal remedies may help the but to resist worms but are not effective at actually killing them.
When the sick hen last laid, were her eggs normal, or soft- shelled or otherwise odd?
As you have had these exbatts for a year, they are at least three years old by now, and this is a good age for hybrids that have spent their first two years in intensive commercial conditions. Sad to say, I think she may just be coming to the end of her life and probably there is little you can do except keep her comfortable, unless you decide to give her a peaceful end. Of course spend money on a visit to the vet if you want to, but the vet may say it would be kinder to have her quietly PTS. On the whole, hybrids are not so long lived as purebreds, especially if they've not had the advantage of a more relaxed regime in early life, but at least the ones that are rescued, like yours, have a good year or two to enjoy themselves.

 

[chrismahon]

The general weakness could be red mite Greenlady, particularly with the wattles shrinking, from lack of blood perhaps, although by the sounds of it they would have sucked her dry already and she should be dead by now. As Marigold says she is getting old for an ex-batt as well. The scab on the bottom of the foot should be OK unless the pad is swollen, which is infection and needs treating by a vet I would suggest.

 

[Chuck]

She is not old even by battery hen standards, assuming she came to you straight out of the cages but they are completely unpredictable in regard to health and stamina. Some go on for years and lay for three or four years, others keel over at various stages, often within weeks of arriving at their new home.
I'd say red mite is the most likely cause by weakening and lowering resistance.

 

[greenlady]

Thanks for all your help, and trying to make me feel less of a failure. There was no sign of Red mite, but will keep checking. It it just so late when it gets dark that I'm usually fast asleep by then - I have a 6 month old baby so am shattered! But, sad news is that she didn't get better, so we let her go and she is now resting under the rhubarb. Would red mite have such a quick effect? - just a matter of days from perky to peeky?

 

[chrismahon]

Yes they would Greenlady. They will remain perky for a while until the blood loss became so bad they couldn't recover from it in the day. Then it's rapidly downhill. We had a hen came out of the coop and collapsed. First sign of red mite normally. She recovered in a short while but her comb was pale. Few mite visible in the coop until I stripped it down and sprayed then there tens of thousands coming out from every crack and crevice in it! We steamed it after spraying, because the things were jumping and biting. Few weeks later we creosoted and put the coop out of service for a month.

Put 2" lengths of drinking straws in the corners and check them in the morning. They will go and hide in them and are easy to spot by looking down the straw or tapping them onto a white surface. Or wipe the corners in the morning with toilet paper and the red streaks tell you you have crushed the ones there. A big one is half the size of a pinhead.