A couple days ago, I found my 4.5 year old Gold Star sitting in the lowest roost, all droopy and sad looking. I've had several chickens from her "batch" die from old age recently, and I figured that's what was happening so I separated her and made her as comfortable as possible for her passing, fully expecting her to be gone by the morning after I found her. However, she is still hanging on to life - which is probably not a good thing.
She is laying there, beak on the ground, wings drooping. And she keeps on "spasming", like she is having a seizure. She will twitch, and push her head into the ground, and then lie still. I keep on expecting her to die soon, but she just won't. She will drink if I help her, but she hasn't been eating. When she isn't spasming/sleeping, she is alert. If I touch her she will look at me.
I noticed that her underside was getting dirty from sitting in one place, so I gave her a warm bath and cleaned her up, and clipped away some of her vent feathers to help keep her clean. I looked for any sort of abnormality - any growth, lumps, squishiness, etc. but found nothing. Out of curiosity, I flexed her wings/legs to see if she any control of them. Her left side is basically non-responsive - she has no control over her toes or lower leg, still has a little over her upper leg/thigh. Her left wing does nothing. Her right side is more "tight", and is where most of the spasming is happening. Her right toes are limp/non-responsive.
So, all that to say....is it worth trying to get her better? I have no clue what this could be. (She has CRD, but I don't know if that's related or not.) I am all for helping her get better if we can, but I also know it might be wisest to just put her out of her misery. Any thoughts on which would be better?
She is laying there, beak on the ground, wings drooping. And she keeps on "spasming", like she is having a seizure. She will twitch, and push her head into the ground, and then lie still. I keep on expecting her to die soon, but she just won't. She will drink if I help her, but she hasn't been eating. When she isn't spasming/sleeping, she is alert. If I touch her she will look at me.
I noticed that her underside was getting dirty from sitting in one place, so I gave her a warm bath and cleaned her up, and clipped away some of her vent feathers to help keep her clean. I looked for any sort of abnormality - any growth, lumps, squishiness, etc. but found nothing. Out of curiosity, I flexed her wings/legs to see if she any control of them. Her left side is basically non-responsive - she has no control over her toes or lower leg, still has a little over her upper leg/thigh. Her left wing does nothing. Her right side is more "tight", and is where most of the spasming is happening. Her right toes are limp/non-responsive.
So, all that to say....is it worth trying to get her better? I have no clue what this could be. (She has CRD, but I don't know if that's related or not.) I am all for helping her get better if we can, but I also know it might be wisest to just put her out of her misery. Any thoughts on which would be better?
