pardon the long winded post - I have recently been nursing a sick hen and am having trouble diagnosing the illness. when I noticed she was in trouble I isolated her from the group and she now seems to be recovering.

her symptoms were: purplish lesions (I guess) on the sides of her head, one eye gummed shut - the other squinting, mild headshaking and was generally listless. I have a temporary over-population of roosters and had (last Sunday's dinner) a drake Pekin who was overly interested in the chicks. at first glance I thought she had been mauled by the boys but when I got her in the house and inspected her more closely I changed my mind.

possible diagnosis: Erysipelas, Infectious Coryza, Chicken pox, Fowl Cholera. problem is, like a hypochondriac, as I read the symptoms of the various diseases they all start sounding right. she is now perking up and the purple areas are sloughing off revealing what looks like scar tissue below. am planning to keep her in the house for another week or more before reintroducing her to the flock. am providing electrolytes and terramycin in her water.

do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone here on the board? recommendations? (LQ - I did go to the poultryconnection first but like many others don't find that board user friendly and prefer the opinions of Countryside or whatever we are called now :^) )

for those interested here is the url for a site to help with fowl diagnosis (even though I'm still confused after reading it!). I think I got it from this forum after someone posted it earlier: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/~cus1fb/fowl/Ailments.html

thanks in advance

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002

Answers

First, has this hen been vaccinated? If she was, then you can rule out those diseases. Two of your candidates are bacterial infections, which could give the crusting/gumminess around the eyes. According to the Oklahoma Extension Service, http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/exten/poultry/f-8300.pdf web site; Coryza will have a foul smelling discharge from the nasal area. So was there a smelly yellow nasal discharge?

This site has a number of links dealing with chickens and you might want to bookmark it for future reference: Univ, Ext. Links, http://aggie- horticulture.tamu.edu/alternatives/alternativelinks.html#c

Hope these suggestions help.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 22, 2002.

thanks for the link BC. I'll check it out.

the old girl is a feed store chick and I did not vaccinate. no nasal discharge that I noticed and no more smelly than an adult chicken living in a rabbit cage in the dining room seems she should be. I have a small flock and haven't as yet geared up and educated myself about poultry vaccinations. this is good incentive. thanks for the info.

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), February 23, 2002.