Wheezy bird again

[Sue]

Please could anyone give me some advice on what to do about my speckled sussex. She and also my French blue maran were 'off colour' about 5 weeks ago (not sure exactly) and I took them to a chicken friendly vet (keeps his own hens). They were wheezy and the maran was sneezing and coughing, but not the sussex, she was just wheezy. They are both fully vaccinated against everything and the maran has been sneezing more or less since she's been here. None of the others were affected. They are now 12 months old. They have both been through the moult (nearly fully feathered now). They both had 2 injections of Baytril two days apart and they both seemed to recover. The maran was doing her usual sneezing, but was eating and seemed well. The sussex, I thought, had stopped wheezing. Over the last few days the sussex has started wheezing again and isn't eating as much as she should. She has finished her moult more or less and has almost a full set of feathers. She will eat bits and pieces and if I hand feed her. My question is should I take her back to the vet for more Baytril? Should she have had a longer course and 2 wasn't enough to clear it? Should a different antibiotic be used? There are no other symptoms, no runny nose, eyes or bottom. I didn't get an actual diagnosis last time, he just treated the symptoms.

 

[chrismahon]

Bad chest infections can damage the lungs permanently and make them susceptable to re-infection our vet said. We have seen this with Isabella -a buff Orpington we were too slow treating. They are susceptable to chest infections anyway. She gets wheezy often but we have increased the air circulation in the coop by leaving the pop-hole partially open and she has improved without Baytril. Worst chest infection was a Buff Orpington Cockerel caused by dusty bedding -took a double dose of Baytril over full 10 days to clear it. We added another vent in the coop , chaged the bedding regularly and it never came back.
Baytril is the one for chest infections but sounds like she needed a longer course. Moulting produces a lot of dust so you need to keep the bedding fresh and extra ventillation helped a lot for us.

 

[Marigold]

Moulting produces a lot of dust so you need to keep the bedding fresh and extra ventillation helped a lot for us.

Yes, at the moment in the morning the coop has got lots of Marigold's feather scales all over the floor, as well as a shower of her feathers (which the others pounce on and eat if I brush them out into the run, they must taste lovely.) I agree with Chris about the need for plentiful ventilation and as you know I leave the pophole half open. (You can tell my Mum brought me up to have the bedroom window open whatever the weather!)

 

[Sue]

Took her to the vet this morning. She was very wheezy when I caught her, so glad I decided to take her today. He gave her an antibiotic injection (Baytril) and because I can't take her in on Monday, he has given me some oral Baytril to give her. I have to give it by syringe twice daily and I can see this is going to be fun! Does anyone have any tips for the best way to do this? I thought I would wrap her in a towel gently to keep her from struggling and get someone to hold her while I tried to open her beak. He told me I had to dribble it in, rather than squirt it all in one go. I don't want to choke her after all! Any tips for getting the beak open without causing her panic or at worst damage? It's only 3/4ml, but at the moment that actually looks quite a lot!!!!!

 

[chrismahon]

Its best a 2 person job Sue. One holds and the other does the rest. With a loaded syring in reach put your little fingers behind the head and use your thumb and index finger to pry open the beak. Long finger nails help and you may need the other hand for assistance. Then leave your finger in the open beak to hold it open -they are not strong enough to hurt your finger with the beak open. Then take syringe and trickle to back of throat allowing tongue to swallow it. Grape afterwards to get rid of the taste -for the hen not you.

 

[Sue]

Chris, I'll need a double gin and tonic, so a grape just wouldn't be enough anyway!!!!! My nice chicken vet has even mixed some syrup in with the Baytril to try to make it taste better.

 

[beejud]

Sue, I had the same problem just a few weeks ago when I was trying to give oral doses to eight hens and with no help to hold them. Steph suggested using something tasty like boiled rice which I found quite successful. I just squirted the baytril over a tablespoonful of rice in a little dish and fed them individually. Apart from the occasional unwanted beak pushing it's way in it worked for me and they all looked forward to their daily doses. The doses were given for seven days per instructions on the baytril bottle and that seems to have shifted the wheezing. I wasn't sure how long to withdraw the eggs but they were point of lay and only just one or two of them had actually started laying so less of an issue really. I have only started using the eggs now some two weeks after finishing the baytril treatment.

 

[Sue]

I've managed to give her two doses today without any problems really. Easier than I thought it would be. The first time I had help to hold her, which I must say was easier because I could just concentrate on getting her beak open and they Baytril down. The second time I just sat her on my lap and laid a towl over her back. She obviously thought she was being held down, because she just sat there and let me open her beak. She is a sussex and so is a fairly calm, laid back bird anyway. Did you get your Baytril from the vet beejud? I think I may need to give some to another bird as she is sneezing, but didn't know whether I could buy it elsewhere cheaper. Still had the gin and tonic tonight anyway!!!!

 

[Marigold]

She obviously thought she was being held down, because she just sat there and let me open her beak. She is a sussex and so is a fairly calm, laid back bird anyway.Still had the gin and tonic tonight anyway!!!!

i'm really glad you managed to get it down her, Sue, another chicken-related skill you've acquired in your eventful year with hens! I hope she responds soon. Interesting that you say she's so calm, as my Buff Sussex is the hardest to handle out of mine, although she's had near-daily 'pickups' ever since she arrived in March age 5 weeks. Obviously yours is so much brighter than my Marigold, who still can't even find her way in and out of the run reliably! However, I'm left wondering who had the G&T, you or the BS! (Maybe both? - very medicinal and soporific!)

 

[chrismahon]

Baytril is obtained by vet prescription only Sue. But you could get the vet prescription and buy it elsewhere, like on-line. I wouldn't bother though myself, as it is very cheap anyway. At our vet's it's £20 for the consultation and £5 for the baytril. They might charge £5 to write out a prescription for you? But recent change to the law says they have to if you ask -this gives you the chance to buy it cheaper, so maybe they can't charge to write one?

 

[beejud]

Chrismahon is correct about the baytril requiring a prescription from the vet. I don't think you can buy it anywhere without one. My vet agreed to let me have some based on description of symptoms so no consultation fee but the actual baytril was well over £ 20. That was for a 100ml size as eight chickens to dose and there is quite a lot left over. That does seem very expensive compared to yours Chrismahon. Glad your girl is taking her medicine so well sue. I think it is better to dose straight down the hatch if you can because you know then she got the full dose. It was a bit hit or miss on a couple of occasions with my skittish bunch. Hope it works this time and she is better soon. I wasn't sure if it had at first with a couple of my wheezers as they still sounded rattly after the dosing finished but it did finally clear a day or so later.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Beejud. Our price £5 was for one chicken (10mL), so £20 for eight with plenty left over is very cheap I think. If we had gone for Synulox that's £18 each chicken (or two small ones).

 

[Sue]

Marigold I hadn't considered giving the G & T to the hen, but that might be a good idea!!! It's actually my speckled sussex who is being treated. My older buff sussex (12 months now) is the easiest of all of them to handle and the most tame. She was the one who was being bullied and badly pecked by potty dotte when I first had them and because of this she was handled several times per day. She didn't have the best start because of all the upset of being separated from the others, having to be on her own a lot and caged for her own safety!!! But, because of all that, she is now the easiest to handle. My younger buff sussex is the 'Michael Crawford' of the hen world! I don't know whether I put this on here before, but after she had been introduced to the older girls and they had settled down a bit I decided to let them out of the run to have a wander around. There are lots of large pots in this area with various plants and in one of them there is (or was!) an obelisk that had a clematis growing up it in the summer. She decided to investigate this and walked right into the middle of it. At this point she suddenly realised that she couldn't get out again!!!! So panic ensued with her screaming and flapping and generally panicking. Luckily I stayed with them to supervise their first excursion. All I could think of to do was stop her flapping and struggling because she was going to injure herself, so I just flattened her wings to her side and held her there. She stopped struggling, but continued to scream! This was the point where I started to wonder how on earth I was going to get her out! There was no one else home and no one to call for help and my hands were full with the bird! I decided that unless I wanted to spend the whole day in this position with her screaming, I had to get her out somehow, so I squeezed her and managed to manouvre her out backwards much to the relief of us both and with no 'physical' injury to either of us! I regularly laugh about this now, but I definitely needed a large G & T at the time!!!!