AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

We have a 3 year old Isa Brown who periodically gets sick. Her symptoms are; off her food, often doesn't come out of her coup and does runny white poos. She has done this a number of times and she has managed to come back again to normal, laying, eating etc. However this time its not been long between bouts of sickness. Does anyone have any suggestions. She has a lovely coup and freeranges in our yard.

Molly1

Do you regularly worm her?

Yes we do worm her, and have recently done so.

She has just thrown up clear fluid.....loads of it. Would love it if someone could give some advice.

Hi Molly1

Sorry to hear about your girl being sick. I love my Isa Browns. They are dear little things that loyally give me an egg just about every single day of the year. It amazes me how they just keep going and going and going. But with that said, Isa Browns are a commercial breed of chooks whose life is purely bred for egg production and nothing else.

The wear & tear of producing so many eggs in such a short time span means their little bodies get worn out very quickly and as such their life span is normally only 2-3 years. Although I have heard of some members on this website with Isa's that are about 6.

It sounds like your girl might be coming to the end of her life, but if it wasn't for the wonderful life you've provided her she may have dropped off the mortal coil a long time ago.

That said though, have you given her any antibiotics? Oxymav (B) or anything else from a vet or pet store?

The fact that she's just thrown up a heap of fluid, might mean she is trying to drink a lot to help get one thing that is stuck in her crop down(or back up). Have you tried giving her crop a massage to loosen up what might be in there or maybe even tip her upside down & massage the contents back out her mouth? Once youve done this give her some yoghurt or off milk as that will help establish some good bacteria in her crop. Then maybe she might be able to start eating again. It could very well be something like that.

Hope this info helps

Cheers
Chicka-Dee

Hi Chickadee

Last time she was sick we gave her yoghurt via syringe and after a few days she came good. Will try this again tomorrow. Just trying to figure out why it's happened again
(. Thanks for your input.

Hi Molly1

No worries happy to try & help, but once they develop a problem in their crop it does seem to be a perpetual problem moving forward. Same as when chickens get egg bound, when it happens once they're susceptible to it happening over and over agin.

So, considering her age, it may happen more often just so you're aware.

Cheers
Chicka-Dee

Hi Molly1. Sorry that your Isa is unwell. I would have to agree with Chickadee. My oldest living Isa Brown is only 3.5 and she is very unwell as we speak and I think this will be it for her . I have been nursing two Isa Brown's on and off for 12 months. They constantly had either crop problems or egg problems. Probably both linked. Given all the liquid coming up, could your hen have sour crop? One of my Isa's died about a month ago, and the last one now has peritonitis. I did find that between the ages of 2-3, I have constantly been nursing their health problems. I take the view that if I can treat it, I will. So persisted with treating them, especially for sour crop, over and over. But in between the illness their quality of life was good. Unfortunately you may have to accept that your hen may be sick on and off from now on. I found with my two that they eventually got sick with something that I couldn't treat, but I opted to treat them while I could. As I said, I nursed mine through for 12 months, so don't give up hope yet. I think the constant crop problems mine were getting were related to other health issues, particularly reproductive issues. They pretty much stopped laying at 2. But then they would suddenly start trying to lay again... and as soon as they did.. I knew we would be in a for a whole lot of problems again. On my vet's advice (although she was no chicken expert), I treated my sour crops with baytril and antifungals. They always came good. Sometimes mine would go months between bouts of illness, other times only a few weeks. Sometimes they would look sickly for a week and then bounce back all by themselves. At times it was very trying and I wondered if I was doing the right thing by my hens. But when they were well, they were happy, so I just couldn't end it. So it is unlikely that you are doing anything wrong. Unfortutanely it may just be the very short Isa circle of life. I hope she bounces back for you.

Hi Lady Jane,

My Daisy is sounding very much like what you're describing your chooks do. She is normally a very happy healthy girl. She has rested in her coop all day today and her crop still seems quite full. She had a tiny bit of yoghurt this morning. Will try massaging her crop later to see if this might help to dislodge anything that might be there. Where do you buy the anti fungal treatment you mentioned you use?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. It breaks your heart when they get sick. Kind of hard to put it all into perspective isn't it when they cost so little compared to say your dog but equally you want to provide care and help for them when needed but hesitate at a costly vet bill. I took our other chook to a bird vet a couple of years ago and it cost over $400 and she died that same year!

Thanks again

Hang in there Daisy! I buy Nystatin from my local pharmacy (anti-fungal). I live in a rural area though and they are quite used to selling items for animal use, so they had no issues selling it to me. I am also lucky that my vet will sell me Baytril without ever seeing any of my chickens. Most of the time I treated the sour crop with just baytril. I know everyone says that it is a fungal issue, but when I asked the vet she suggested baytril, and every single time I used it (which was quite a few times), there was a marked improvement within 48 hours and they were always better after 3-4 days. After struggling with a number of cases of sour crop (with the same 2 chickens), I started using the nystatin as well to try and cover both bases. Can't say I noticed that it improved anything. A few times I vomited the chickens to clear the very putrid smelling gunk. One day I thought I killed the chicken because she couldn't catch her breath and just flopped her head back and looked like she was dying. So I stopped the vomiting, and only just used the antibiotics and the result was the same. A couple of times when I caught the sour crop early I just used Oxymav B and they recovered. I took a guess at what amount a chicken should be having and made it into a paste and syringed it a little at a time into the hen's beak, and then just let her swallow. I always have Oxymav B on hand which I just buy online. Yikes... $400 you poor thing. My husband would kill me if I took my chooks to the vet (but don't worry, I have thought about it!). Our vets don't know much about chooks, and they seem to die so easily, so I have had to accept that my own care is as good as it is going to get. I have spent plenty of money on meds though even to do it myself. Oh, and my hens were not really laying, so of course I did not have the issue of not being able to eat the eggs after all those antibiotics! Let us know how Daisy gets on.....