Angela & Ken Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Our gorgeous Barbu D'Uccle bantam, Button, who is about 18 months old or so, is unwell. She's been hunched, pale in the face and comb for the past day. She's not eating (although she ate some dried mealworms from our hand) and we're worried about her. Not sure how long this has been coming on. We kept her in overnight with us, to keep her warm. I'm attaching a photo or two of her poo this morning and I hope someone can help. She's not lost weight (but will do if not eating). Her crop is ok. I'm not sure if she was laying as our other bantam may also be the one who's started laying over the past 2 weeks. I can't see or feel any swellings, either by her vent, or anywhere else. We have antibiotics (not prescribed to her but another hen previously) which we gave her last night but do we continue or do we give her coxoid or flubenvet or something else? We live in London and the vets around here know less than we do about hens, so we'd rather go with our own experience. Bit stumped at the moment. All the other hens are well. Thanks in advance for your input. Ps trying to upload photos from photo bucket.com but can't, for some reason....it keeps coming out as code? Any help you can give, I'd be grateful. Perhaps it's me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Pale face and comb can mean red mite Angela&Ken. With such a small girl they can go downhill fast. It springs to mind simply because we have just steam cleaned two coops to get rid of the things after puzzling over smaller eggs in one coop and no eggs in another. She may not be eating and drinking simply because she hasn't the strength to do so. If the poos are OK, that would be my guess. Alternatively worms, crop bound or sour crop? Perhaps egg bound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela & Ken Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Thank you, Beantree. We have looked for red mite (although they are notorious for not being detected easily). We've steamed the Eglus out, as always, and given them a good scrub and powder with Diatom. I hope your hen is fully recovered? We've taken Button inside with us and she's looking really awful, although some colour has come back into her comb now. We're giving her antibiotics, syringing her some baby chick food, as she wont eat, some electrolyte and we've also dosed her with Flubenvet and Coxoid. That all seems overload but we're desperate and she looked on her last legs yesterday. Seems less at death's door today but still very poorly. She fought us tonight, giving her her meds, so that's a good sign. I can't see any problem with the vent....doesn't look swollen or sore and doesn't look like it's red or straining. It's pale, in fact. At a loss so have sent Retford Poultry Partnership a poo sample this afternoon, so we'll see. Takes 3 days for the analysis to come back. If she dies, I'll send her for an autopsy, as I'm baffled by this illness. Poor love. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
