Sick hen help needed - possible coccidosis

[Birker2020]

We have a sick hen aged 3 1/4 years. She has gone off food, not drinking, tail down, we found a mishappen egg in the nest box today so think its from her. She is walking but very slowly and seems very weak although she did preen herself today and managed to take herself up the ramp to bed tonight (god knows how). She has whitish creamy pooh in her vent feathers and crackling sounds from her lungs when she breathes. Have been dosing her with Baytril since yesterday evening at a rate of 10mg per 1KG body weight which is what we read on the internet (Baytril given to us from a friend who was using it for her horse).

At the moment we think she has either a respiratory infection of coccidosis does anyone know if this is likely? She is in a pet carrier in the lounge to keep her warm overnight and we will keep her isolated from the others. Is there anything else we can do? We think sadly we may need to cull her tommorow if she is no better as we don't want her to suffer.

We have six other hens that (touch wood) are all okay at the moment. They are all ex battery hens.

 

[paddi22]

i had a hen with something similar except she sounded weaker and was off food completely. took her to vet and got vitamin injection and antibiotics and she was fine.

 

[Birker2020]

Just to add, batts have antibiotics fed in their food on a daily basis. I have had the same problem with some of mine. A course of antibiotics normally will see them right in 24 hrs. Dont dispair but see to it first thing. Is she snicking, if so it could be gape worms, they get into their throat.

She has been out of the battery cage and with us for 18 months now, she is 3 1/4 approx and has been top dog and healthy all that time. Not heard the term snicking before but guessing it is a bit like gasping. We have treated her with olive oil for gape worm a few days ago, so know its not that.

Think we are going to have to look at taking her to the vet on Monday if she is no better by then, and if she gets worse tommorow I will get my partners brother to cull her as he has done that with two of our previous hens that were dying.

 

[jrp204]

It sounds like IB (infectious bronchitis) have a listen to the others whilst they are roosting to see if they are sneezing, if they are the vet will give you some antibiotics for them. If the others are seeming fine I would probably cull her as the vet will charge you an arm and a leg and she is getting quite old (ok, i may seem heartless, but we have 2500 hens so they are not pets).

 

[SJcrazee]

I agree with JRP Infectious bronchitis is the most likely cause, especially as she is "rattling"
Very, very unlikely to be coccidiosis, it is very, very rare in hens her age, plus as an ex- batt she will have been fed at some point in her life anti coccidiostats , they are not, however fed antibiotics daily as someone above said.

Please worm them with flubenvet if you haven't done so already, ex batts don't build up as much resistance to internal parasites like the free range girls do, flubenvet can be bought premixed in either mash or pellet form these days, so really easy to administer.

She'll need Baytril for 3-5 days, but she could be too far gone already, if she were mine and had not picked up by monday, I would cull her out.
If it is IB you will need to treat all of the hens in the group - good luck.

 

[Dolcé]

Just wondered with you saying she can walk but slowly, is she swollen around her abdomen and sort of waddling. Ex batts are very prone to egg peritonitis, their abdomen fills with fluid and this presses on their internal organs and makes it difficult for them to breathe. Apparently this can also be something to do with tumours. You can have the fluid drained (if you use a practise that knows anything about hens) but it is likely to come back again. We have only 2 left out of an original 30+, over half have died with this. We have had some that have seemed to have recovered over the winter periods but then it has returned come laying period.

 

[Birker2020]

I agree with JRP Infectious bronchitis is the most likely cause, especially as she is "rattling"
Very, very unlikely to be coccidiosis, it is very, very rare in hens her age, plus as an ex- batt she will have been fed at some point in her life anti coccidiostats , they are not, however fed antibiotics daily as someone above said.

Please worm them with flubenvet if you haven't done so already, ex batts don't build up as much resistance to internal parasites like the free range girls do, flubenvet can be bought premixed in either mash or pellet form these days, so really easy to administer.

She'll need Baytril for 3-5 days, but she could be too far gone already, if she were mine and had not picked up by monday, I would cull her out.
If it is IB you will need to treat all of the hens in the group - good luck.

Thanks guys you have been very helpful, its so refreshing to hear people talking about culling poorly birds. We don't have the money to spend at the vets, we are both on limited incomes and these are exbattery hens so you have to be sensible. It doesn't mean we love them any less than any of our other pets but we can't afford to spend a small fortune on a hen. Vets do charge an arm and a leg it is ridiculous. They wanted to have £68 of us for the last dying hen on a Sunday afternoon and that was before drugs which was the injection to pts. She had been bitten by a staffy who had leapt our gate. We had her neck pulled by partners brother who came round 20 mins after we phoned him and is used to doing this with his own hens. With the hen we did have pts by injection it took two injections and 3/4 hour for her to die, very upsetting, not all vets know about hens for sure.

Actually HP (Henny Penny) is still with us today, and not only with us but appears to be slightly improved. She is walking around (albeit slowly) and having a half hearted attempt to peck the grass in the garden. The dreadful rasping noise has stopped (think it was the humidifier tent we made for her in our lounge last night). Her tail is slightly raised too. We are hoping that she makes a return to good health, but if she doesn't we feel comfortable that we have done our best for her. We will carry on with the Baytril for another couple of days. It could well be bronchitis and maybe the night in the warm lounge with a steamy atmosphere has helped her although they have plenty of straw in their coop to keep warm. I know that battery hens have just about every antibiotic administered in a very fine mist when they are chicks so you are totally right to assume that she won't have coccidiosis.

We have started egg withdrawal since she has been returned to the flock and will ensure this is done for ten days following the last dose being administered. JRP the others were sneezing yesterday but we haven't heard them today. We have heard them to this once before many months ago.

 

[Dolcé]

You are wonderfull Applecart. I have had hens in my kitchen, they recover and stay in the bluddy kitchen. I have lambs in my bottom oven in the AGA and they stay as pets. Good luck to you!!

LOL, you sound as bad as me, 2 cockerels living in the dining room, one of the cockerels couldn't go back with others so stayed with his new mate and then joined by 6 chicks. I now have my dining room back but have 4 silkie hens living in the downstairs toilet on a night and looking permanent!

Glad you hen is looking a little better OP! Especially with ex batts, as sad as it is, you have to remember that every minute they have had with you has been better that their first 18 months or so.

 

[juliette]

Sounds like you are doing all you can. I too would avoid the vet, last time we had an ill silkie we spent roughly £70 at the vets and she was no better and frankly the vet was less knowledgeable than me! In the end my husband had to do the sensible thing and end things and in hind sight i wish we had done this without involving the vet. Would have been cheaper but more importantly better and less stressful for the silkie. He said it was not very nice killing my daughters pet though, somehow much worse than doing pheasants!!!