Help! Sick hen

Pony Girl

Pony Girl

New member
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
117
Reaction score
0
Location
Hastings, East Sussex
Had to take Bella to the vet today. She's a salmon favorelle, approximately 1year old . Found her this morning, very pale, listless and thin, liquid yellow diarrhoea. Was fine at weekend. Vet has given her antibiotics to have twice daily and wormed as precaution (though I've been worming them with flubenvet regularly). Said to monitor and bring back Thurs if not eating.

Two weeks ago I found first evidence of red mite. Have been treating house and de-lousing birds and only found one red mite last weekend so I think I managed to catch it in time.

Vet was concerned because she hasn't laid any eggs yet - we bought her from the vet in July and she says she should have started laying 4 months ago and all the other hens from the same flock are so there may be an underlying problem. Has anyone experienced this? Why would she have yellow / caramel diarrhoea?

I've bought some maize meal as someone said this is good - can anyone recommend anything else to tempt her to eat? She's such a lovely girl - gotta save her!

Thanks
 
Are you sure that she has been eating the Flubenvet wormer. We have several that used to starve rather than eat pellets with it on. So we started using Marriages layers premixed with Flubenvet which worked on them all -some love it that much they gorge themselves. Perhaps it tastes better than Smallholder Layers. Reason I ask is that the yellow diarrhoea is a possible symptom of chronic worms.
The treats list is huge. So listed in favourite order as ranked by Bottom our pet cockerel based on the excited noises he makes:-
Cooked beef
Maggots
Cooked chicken
Yorkshire pudding
Spiral pasta
Spagetti
Boiled rice
and now the healthy ones
Grapes
Apple
Tomatoes
Yoghurt
Fresh sweetcorn (off the cob)
Cherries (fresh)
Cucumber (not the skin)
Sunflower hearts

Probably forgotten loads. Try feeding her wet mash or wet pellets as they go down a lot easier. Our hens eat any wet feed they find in preference to dry stuff.

Vet treatment seems sensible with a good point about laying, but that's not important at this stage.
 
You need to give the antibiotics a chance to work. When they kick in, the appetite might improve but for some reason, some lose it and don't get it back again. Sometimes they waste away even though they're eating.
It does seem as though there is an underlying problem if she's so far behind her contemporaries.
 
I agree with chuck, perhaps there is an underlaying problem with her that goes beyond worms. At her age i wouldn't think having a worm burden that huge would be the main cause, especially as you have been worming them, and although she may not have eaten much, it would have prevented her getting a significant number to make her this ill.
As chuck said, some birds just ''go light'' and fade away, doesn't help you i know, and i understand you want to try and save her, but sometimes there's not much you can do for them.
I also think trying all different foods isn't a good idea, there's quite a few things listed above which i personally wouldn't give to chickens as they can cause an upset and make matters worse, perhaps not in a well bird, but certainly in an unwell one. (sorry chris.) Best to stick to basic feed, and maybe tempt her with a little cooked scrambled egg,( with no added milk or butter etc.) and maybe try an electrolite fluid designed for poultry/birds to replace lost body salts through not eating. I hope she gets better. ;)

JubesX
 
Thanks everyone. I kept her in a box in the kitchen last night and managed to get her to eat a bit of scrambled egg and spaghetti. She ate quite well when I tried handfeeding her but otherwise just picking listlessly now and again (and occasionally eating) the shavings rather than food, which is a worry. Why would she do that?

Also made sure she had some water with poultry tonic added. One green tinged poo this morning, runny but not yellow liquid as before.

It's really worrying reading some of the older threads about wobbly hens and mustard coloured poo - sounds very similar. We lost another bantam a couple of months ago and she just went downhill overnight - sadly it was too late to save her and she had to be put to sleep. She was two years old and laying - from a different breeder to Bella but no runny poo as I recall. The vet said she had a chronic lung obstruction, so don't know if Bella's going to go the same way, I guess it's too early to tell yet.

Am I just unlucky or is this going to wipe them all out one by one? :( I've been so careful with everything - can't understand what's going wrong. :(

I've put her back in with the other two today whilst I'm at work (she's top of pecking order - other two are pekin bantams) as she seems more alert and less sleepy in company - walking a bit, making litte favorelle noises and showing a bit more life. Will bring her in tonight to make sure she gets some more food / fluid.
 
If you keep her in a warm box at night hunny, line it with newspaper rather than shavings so she can't eat them. Or an old towel.
We all try and be as careful as we can, and good husbandry is paramount when keeping any animal, but as i said before, no matter how careful and clean we are, sometimes things just happen. :|

JubesXX
 
have you checked her crop? yellowy and green poo can also mean she's not getting enough food in her gut. maybe it's getting trapped somewhere in the cycle of crop or gizzard? this would cause excessive bile build up. I think I would feed boiled rice and scrambled eggs(cooked as Jubes suggested. I don't think it's a worm problem...the vet would know that straight out of the box. Its more likely to be an internal organ problem. sorry hope she mends soon. :(
 
chrismahon said:
Are you sure that she has been eating the Flubenvet wormer. We have several that used to starve rather than eat pellets with it on. So we started using Marriages layers premixed with Flubenvet which worked on them all -some love it that much they gorge themselves. Perhaps it tastes better than Smallholder Layers.

Where can you buy Marriages premixed food? I've only got the 2 bantams, and 1 favorelle - do they do small quantities? Is it okay to feed it daily or just when you want to worm them?
Click to expand...
 
Bertie & The Chooks said:
have you checked her crop? yellowy and green poo can also mean she's not getting enough food in her gut. maybe it's getting trapped somewhere in the cycle of crop or gizzard? this would cause excessive bile build up. I think I would feed boiled rice and scrambled eggs(cooked as Jubes suggested. I don't think it's a worm problem...the vet would know that straight out of the box. Its more likely to be an internal organ problem. sorry hope she mends soon. :(
Click to expand...

When I found her yesterday she was really thin and breastbone prominent - think her crop was empty. Vet gave her some liquid wormer just to be sure and said to bring her back tomorrow if still not eating to force feed her, or bring her back on Saturday if she is managing to eat. After I fed her last night, little and often over a couple of hours, her crop felt full.
 
The Marriages feed only comes in 20kgs, or 25kgs bags PG, so a bag would be way too big for you alone, i heard a few folks buy a bag between them so it isn't wasted, maybe something to ask around your area? Or even at the feed merchants where you buy it from, to see if any of their other clients would be happy to split a bag with you? Any feed store who has a license to sell wormers can order it in and get it for you if they deal with marriages or not. You only feed it for 7 days when you're worming them, so can't use it up otherwise.
Maybe someone should write to marriages, and explain that alot of poultry keepers only have a few birds, so don't need to buy the big bags, and suggest they start selling it in smaller quantities, say like the 5kg bags?

JubesXX
 
jubilee said:
If you keep her in a warm box at night hunny, line it with newspaper rather than shavings so she can't eat them. Or an old towel.
We all try and be as careful as we can, and good husbandry is paramount when keeping any animal, but as i said before, no matter how careful and clean we are, sometimes things just happen. :|

JubesXX
Click to expand...


Thanks, Jubes. I'll empty the box tonight. I don't think she ate much of it. It's so stressful when they're sick! :(
 
Pony Girl said:
Bertie & The Chooks said:
have you checked her crop? yellowy and green poo can also mean she's not getting enough food in her gut. maybe it's getting trapped somewhere in the cycle of crop or gizzard? this would cause excessive bile build up. I think I would feed boiled rice and scrambled eggs(cooked as Jubes suggested. I don't think it's a worm problem...the vet would know that straight out of the box. Its more likely to be an internal organ problem. sorry hope she mends soon. :(
Click to expand...

When I found her yesterday she was really thin and breastbone prominent - think her crop was empty. Vet gave her some liquid wormer just to be sure and said to bring her back tomorrow if still not eating to force feed her, or bring her back on Saturday if she is managing to eat. After I fed her last night, little and often over a couple of hours, her crop felt full.
Click to expand...

doesn't sound like crop then, maybe gizzard or pancreas. :( poor mite. She might right herself though soon, so stay positive. :D
 
Marriages comes in 10kg bags with a 3 month shelf life -we've just had two mail order as no-one North of London seems to stock it. It's enough to treat 10 -15 hens (10kg). Only used for 7 days every 6 months and during the 7 days no treats or fallen fruit etc so kept in run, which ours hate.
 
There is definitely a gap in the market for someone!!

Progress report: Bella much improved today. I brought her in again last night and gave her some scrambled egg with a few meal worms mixed in, which she ate well. Also drinking okay. Left her in the box with the remains of the egg and a bit of spaghetti, plus a few normal pellets and some corn with a bit of poultry spice as well, and this morning when I came down to the kitchen she had polished the lot even though it was still dark! More poos as well, looking more normal coloured but still a bit watery. Full crop and back to her self behaviourally. :)

I will take her back to vet's on Sat for a checkup.

The other thing that concerns me though is that one of the others, our newest bird, a bantam (Floss) seemed to have an empty crop when I checked her last night. None of them seem to eat much of their pellets - they just don't seem to like them. I changed them to Fancy Feed Layers Pellets a few months ago because they didn't seem keen on the previous pellets but they're still not eating much of them.

I know it's important for them to have pellets as their main food supply but if they don't really eat it, can we feed them something else? Now the days are getting shorter it's difficult to give them corn in the afternoons before it gets dark, particularly when we're working all day. Is it okay to feed it in the mornings?
 
You could try making a sort of mash out of the pellets. This is what I did recently when mine stopped eating the pellets. Just add small amounts of hot water at a time until you get a crumbly texture and feed it to them warm (not hot). Mine loved it and it started them eating again. I did add some sultanas, meal worms and sunflower hearts later. Don't add anything to start with though because they'll just pick out what they want and leave the pellets.
 
Sue said:
You could try making a sort of mash out of the pellets. This is what I did recently when mine stopped eating the pellets. Just add small amounts of hot water at a time until you get a crumbly texture and feed it to them warm (not hot). Mine loved it and it started them eating again. I did add some sultanas, meal worms and sunflower hearts later. Don't add anything to start with though because they'll just pick out what they want and leave the pellets.
Click to expand...
Good advice! :-)17 A lot of birds go off their feed this time of year, making it a tad more interesting without adding too much complicated stuff helps to keep their appetite up. ;) Keeping the corn scatter feed until the afternoon is best if you can.

JubesX
 
I agree with Sue and Jubilee - from November onwards i give my girls a daily 'supper' of pellets soaked in warm water until just nice and crumbly, with cod liver oil or some other supplement sometimes, plus cut-up bits of fruit or veg peelings etc, maybe a bit of chicken corn or sunflower seeds and mealworms mixed in. They always clear this up to the last scrap, although eating very few of their boring old dry pellets, and thus always go to bed with nice full crops for the long cold stint until breakfast.
 
I like mine to have something solid in their crops for the long winter nights and anything soft is given in the morning. They don't need feeding like invalids !
If you feed from hoppers, you can anticipate how much pellets they will eat and put some mixed corn on the top which they will get to late in the afternoon.
 
The point is Chuck that they're not eating the pellets (the same as mine) and getting them to eat food of any description is important, so if they will eat the mash (which is made out of the pellets) they are getting all the goodness from the pellets. They're not being fed like 'invalids' (although not sure what you mean by that, don't 'invalids' eat normally then!!), but if they're not eating well at this time of year they won't be up to the correct weight to get them through the winter.
 
I suppose I'm trying in my own way to try to suss out why so many chicken keepers get so many problems with their birds. In the long term this could be more helpful than the reactive approach where every little illness, sneeze, cough, feeling under the weather for a day or two is dived on, analysed, diagnosed with obscure ilnnesses and pumped with medication ! However, I think I'm on a loser as their is a whole new culture in poultry keeping which I am completely out of tune with.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top