I have a sick chicken

I have one of my chickens with a problem. She has yellow crusty stuff around her eyes and nostrils. Only one eye is open. The other one is kind of sunk in. Both eyes very watery. Normally I would not be able to catch her. Today was no problem and she just let me carry her no problem. She is not sleeping though.

On the good side: she is not sneezing, wheezing, or gasping. She is eating and drinking very well (including the cottage cheese, oatmeal and garlic treat I just gave her). She is pooping normally.

I gave her a drop of VetRx down the throat. What else should I do besides the garlic?

No other chickens (she was with 19) are showing symptoms.

Claire

Sorry to hear about the sick-chicken. I have no good advice to give, Just wanted to say "hang in there, one of these very knowledgeable folks will come around soon!"

CMoxon: I have no chickens at all, but Im sure from your care the chicken might get better.

Should she be isolated from the other chickens?

well, fo rhe rcold start with ACV and garlic... get some ticnture from the health food store, or if you have tea, dilute it in her water [i cup tea bag per half gallon water]. like Echicnacea or something for her immune system to knock out the cold.

you could also pick up some antibitics, but not knowing WHAT it is could cause more problem if you use the WRONG antibiotcs.

clean the eye twice a day.

see if you can get topical antibitocs, called oxyterramycin, or referred to as terra cream. pretty expensive for a tiny tube, and apply twice daily after cleaning.

yes, always separate a chicken that isn't well. doesn't matte rif they are ocntagious, you need to keep a closer eye on them, and protect them from teh flock turning on them...

hugs
tf

Thanks all! I will see my vet tomorrow (dog vet) and see if he has oxyterramycin. She is separated and in a plastic dog crate for now, in the wick building so she doesn't get cool in the wind or anything. I'll also ask my vet if he sees chickens. He was trained at Iowa State U and I don't know if they do chickens in his training.

Will update when I've looked at her later.
Claire

take her with you, he can swab it & send to vet lab... to see which antibiotic is best, plus if its catching...

Here she is, poor thing. See the matter around her eyes and nostril.

Poor thing has weepy eye and it is getting her feathers all matted up.

I think she's an EE or possibly a true Ameraucana, because the people I got her from said they had real Ameraucanas and she does have the beard.

She does look like she's feeling poorly poor thing. Is her tail sort of humped over?

MollyD

I didn't see anything notable about her tail but I wasn't really looking for that. I shall look at it tomorrow. What would that be a sign of?

Only of how she is feeling. Mine curl their tail so that their rear becomes rather rounded when they feel ill. The worse they feel the rounder it gets.

MollyD

Awww...that's so cute and sad at the same time. I will check her tail tomorrow and see how it looks.

They do look very sad when they do it. A great non-verbal way for them to communicate with us.

MollyD

OK, just came back from the vet. Vet says she has a sinus infection and also some staph infection on her belly skin. She is on streptinomycin which he said is good for chicken respiratory problems. 1 cc of liquid twice a day.

Molly - her tail is a bit droopy, yes. Interesting to note!

The vet said she is probably pretty old too. He said the stress of moving from her former location and all might have brought it on. He said if the rest of the flock was going to have a problem they would be showing signs by now. He thinks she should remain isolated but that she will probably make it.

Claire

Oh. I hope she recovers soon.

poor little thing...please keep us updated and stay positive!
~music

What a blessing you found a vet who does chickens!!

Claire I hope she recovers for you. If temps where you live are on the cool side you might add a heat pad with thick towels between it and her cage for a little extra warmth.

I've found that droopy rounded tail makes a good early warning that something is going on.

MollyD

Yes, he seemed quite knowledgeable, which made me feel good. I now know where I can take any sickies. Also it was great that they got me in right away at 9 am and I only called at 8:15 am. It is a "country" clinic so maybe not as busy as the usual.

I like the heating pad idea. Right now she is in a large dog crate in the Wick building, which means she is out of the wind and it stays relatively warm in there right now. If it starts to get cooler, I will put the heating pad under the crate with a towel around it. My heating pad has a dial for low to high temps so I can keep it on the lower side so as not to fry her footies!

Wish I could find a country type clinic. Those vets seem to be in it more for the animal and less for the dollar.

MollyD

We have country type clinics, great goat vet, doesn't do chickens. Don't know where I'd have to go. 'Cept maybe here.

I just called around until I found one... :-)

Clarie what do you ask them? I mean what kind of answers told you this is the place I want to use?

MollyD

I asked them if they had any veterinarians on staff who were trained in chicken illnesses and who had prior experience with treating chickens. A couple of the places I called sort of laughed and said they only do pets. I wanted to say that a chicken can be a pet, but their attitude put me off anyway! I had one place say that they would not look at her because they did not have the right medications for avian diseases. I thought that was a nice honest answer. Then one place that I called said that they could not look at her but they had a recommendation for me if I was interested. I called that place and asked my question (same as above) and she said "Oh yes, Jim often works with chickens. Would you like him to come out and see your chicken or would you like to bring her in?" That was enough for me because I felt like already they cared enough to even send him out to me, which was significant to me. If I had been uncomfortable with him when I took her in, I would have sought a 2nd opinion, but he spent about 10 minutes even before I got her out of the carrier learning where I got the chickens, how long had I owned them, what kinds were they, were they laying, any other health problems noticed in the flock, and then focusing in on what her symptoms were so far and when I first noticed them and what I had done so far. He was extremely thorough and I felt really good about that. He was very gentle with the examination and I liked that. Then he told me more about her that I didn't even ask, for example that she had the staph infection on her belly skin and that she was definitely an older chicken and he checked her carefully for mites or lice (which I didn't ask for but it was part of the overall exam) and checked her vent and wanted to see inside her mouth and all. I just felt like he covered all the angles and didn't just make snap judgements. Then she pooped in her crate and he offered to let me use their sink in the back to wash it out before getting back in the car, etc. I thought that was nice too. And it was $47 for the antibiotics and exam combined, which I know is probably a lot to some folks, but for me, I thought it was a good value. Plus, where I am new to chickens, I learned a lot and now if I have a chicken with the same symptoms, I think I could buy the antibiotic myself, but at least I know what to look for.

Man, I talk too much.

You have a dream vet!

Thank you Claire! You've given me some excellent guidelines to use in our search for a new vet for our goats. I really hope your hen gets better.

Yesterday Paul and I were talking about vets and their training and it's a darn shame but most of the vet schools just focus on horses, cows maybe sheep, dogs and cats. Almost everything else is excluded! There are a few schools doing a better job of including birds of any kind and small ruminants but not nearly enough.

MollyD

I agree - it's also hard to find vets who are good with rabbits (past experience!). I think maybe the "money" is in the standard animals, but when all the vets are focused on those, I would have thought there would be more niche opportunities for vets to focus on avians, reptiles, etc.

You'd think wouldn't you that someone would get rich filling that need! Around here it's getting nearly impossible to get a vet for anything besides a cat/dog/horse. Most don't want to work with traditional farm animals at all. Forget sheep and goats!!

MollyD

One time I brought a baby rabbit into my vet. He laughed when he saw her, said he hadn't seen one since vet school. And he thanked me for bringing her in to refresh his memory of how to check out a rabbit!

i wanna be a chicken vet...

Oh. I wish you would be. Maybe there is a scholarship somewhere.

i already have the ag degree. don't know if you have to be a DVM first. DVM dont' get trained in avian except through specialty courses...

Could you start as a tech and then specialize?

i'm looking into that... i owuld be more than satisfied to just work FOR a chicken doctor...

If you were a vet tech you could wear those cool scrubs--maybe find some with a chicken theme to advertise your expertise.

Then send a picture of you in the scrubs!

i want dr suess scrubs!

It's totally different training to be a vet tech from being a vet. Vet techs get two years training in how to assist the vet and care for the animals per the vets instructions.
Vets spend first 4 years in college getting a BA or BS usually in a science related field followed by 4 years of vet school followed by a 2 year internship if they want to specialize. After they finish school they have to sit for a test sort of like a lawyers bar exam . The test shows they're qualified to practice medicine on an animal. Similar to becoming a human doctor. There are less than 30 veterinary colleges in the US so it's harder to get a seat in one of them than in med schools.
Sorry wasn't trying to lecture but I spent many years as a college admissions counselor explaining this stuff to dewy eyed high school kids!

MollyD

Yes, but it is the vet techs that get to wear the neat scrubs. If you are a vet you have to wear a boring white coat.

It is actually harder to get into vet school than medical--few of them so the standards are higher. Scary.

I am dewy eyed or google eyed thinking about going through that much education


(again!).