Solitary chicken - need advice

[thewhitehouse]

Anyone any ideas about this please?

 

Saturday my Tikka came out of the eglu with a mucky botty (white and runny). I thought maybe she'd eaten something. Sunday she was withdrawn, hunched and fluffed up and not her usual self. I caught her to wash her and had a good look at her vent. It was very swollen and mucky but there was a very red and sore patch on top of her vent right underneath the base of her tail. Off to the vet who didn't know what had happened except to ask if she'd been bitten. I'm sure she hadn't because she there's nothing to bite her, no kerfuffle to suggest a fox (not seen one in our garden). He gave her an antibiotic injection and an anti-inflammatory injection. She has responded well to both but still has a drippy botty and the wound is still there but healing (better than it was). We go back tomorrow. She will eat mealworms but is not really interested in food. She potters around the garden when I come home from work but tends to keep herself to herself and sit behind the compost bins. The others are not pecking at her but I have isolated her (in my friends spare eglu) just in case.

 

Anyone any ideas what may have caused this? All the others are fine.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Guest

[Guest]

is the liquid coming from her vent or from the wound?

 

If it's coming from her bottie I'd give her some some pro-biotic yoghurt which will help to stabilise her gut or you can try some bokashi bran.

 

If it's coming from the wound, just keep the wound clean with a mild antibacterial/antiseptic solution til it's healed.

[thewhitehouse]

Thanks. The liquid comes from her botty. They already have bokashi bran mixed with their pellets. I'll give her a trough full tomorrow.

[Egluntyne]

How old is she and is she laying yet?

[thewhitehouse]

Hello Egluntine - I'm a great admirer of your sound common sense!

 

She is about 8 months old and started laying just before Christmas even though she doesn't have a proper comb - at least I think she is - her sister Korma wouldn't be laying 2 eggs a day would she?

 

She's been back to the vet tonight. She is improving - the swelling's gone down thanks to the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory jabs. The wound above her vent is not so angry and is scabbing over. She is a bit better in herself but is not eating much and I guess not drinking muck. I've separated her from the others as a precaution.

 

She's been back to the vets tonight and he took off a lot of necrotised (is that right?) flesh. He thinks she may have had a dietary upset and then got blocked up and the acidity of the urea caused the wound. She's had a long lasting antibiotic jab and he wants to see her in a weeks time.

 

I think we'll sort this but my worry is what has caused it and will it happen again? Is it something I've done? None of the others have had a problem. I consider myself a sensible animal person having been in pedigree dogs for 30 years this year - but very inexperienced in poultry (although I'm hooked now).

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

[Egluntyne]

 

It sounds as if you vet knows what they are about.

 

Is she free ranging and eating a lot of one particular plant?

 

It might be a good idea to just keep her on pellets and water for a while to see what happens.

[thewhitehouse]

Thanks Egluntine,

 

Yes they freerange probably about three afternoons a week at least. I'm racking my brain to remember what they were doing last Friday (it started Saturday)

 

They usually munch away on the grass but I notice they've been attacking the day lillies (hemerocallis) that are starting to sprout. They love to scratch around in the leaves and gravel (we have low maintenance borders - membrane, gravel and mainly grasses and prairies plants) She must have perhaps found something that disagreed with her. Their run is on bark chippings.

 

I haven't seen her today (left early for a conference and just got back) and hubby has sorted them. He let them out for 30 minutes on the grass tonight and said she appeared much perkier. I'll have a good look at her botty in the morning.

 

Fingers crossed we've caught it in time

 

Thanks for your advice - I'll update in a few days time with hopefully good news.

[thewhitehouse]

Came home at lunchtime today and a good job I did. Found Tikka straining to expel an egg but blood spots everywhere. Found the egg binding thread (thanks Egluntine), tried warm water and olive oil but decided to take her back to the vets.

 

The vet agreed with me that that egg wasn't coming so made a v small incision and out it popped. She is very sore and is still straining although an internal showed that there is nothing there. She's had a pain killer and is now tucked up in the spare eglu. The next 48 hours will tell. The worry is now that she has accumulated scarring around the vent this will reoccur. There is no way I want to see her like this again so we'll take each day as it comes at the moment.

[Guest]

poor Tikka, when my budgie had a sore vent the vet told us to rub sudocrem http://www.sudocrem.co.uk/what-is-sudocrem.html into it every day. I did it each morning for a while it seemed to help.

 

the problem was, the budgie started to say "how's your bottom?" which was hard to explain to visitors!

 

Why don't you try that with tikka it might also help as a lubricant in case she lays another before she heals properly?

[thewhitehouse]

Thank you Poet. I'm very familiar with sudocrem - memories of my son's nappy rash

 

Tikka very poorly this morning with a bad prolapse. She wouldn't come out of the nesting box and looked very bad. So took the decision with the vet to put her to sleep and she went off very peacefully.

 

I have read that prolapses are not the end of the world but what with the scarring around her vent and the egg binding last night the last thing I wanted was for her to go through that again.

[Groovychook]

Sad news. Sorry to hear about Tikka. xx

[Guest]

oh no, poor Tikka, night night little girl xxxx

[abwsco]

So sorry to read about Tikka

[chelsea]

sorry i missed this thread,

 

so sorry about Tikka.

[sandyhas3chucks]

feel so for you x

[Egluntyne]

Very sorry to hear it.

[badgerbluebadger]

RIP Tikka - you did the right thing - I know its horrible but you did everthing you could.

[Chickvic]

Sorry to hear about Tikka.

[ChookieCaz]

Sorry about your news. It isn't an easy decision but now she has no more pain and suffering.