Advice for sick chicken please....

I have one like this now. Listen very closely to her breathing. Pick her up and listen.in my birds case she has a rattling and its respiratory. So I'm treating with baytril then will go to tylan if no improvement. So check her breathing and report back here. My bird was also fine yesterday. Today she is exactly like you're bird. So let us know if when you pick her up you hear a rattling wheezing type sound. If yes its likely a URI. Upper respitory illness. I previously lost two birds with these symptoms and no wheezing.. if she's not eating or drinking consider tubing her for her fluids and food. Looks like I'm going to have to start tubbing myself. I wish you the best. Please let us know what you find when you do a full exam on her. Breathing check her crop make sure its empting like it should check her vent report anything that you find unusal. Then we can go from there. Best wishes to you.

Bird is dead already....now I'm worried about the rest of the group

So sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you can get this figured out and save the others.

My sick chicken episodes have finally stopped. I have not had an instance for well over a month. Out of the original 10 chickens, I have six left. I am hoping to produce chicks next spring that are immune to that dreaded Marecks that they apparently had. It was suggested that I kill them all, but couldn't find it in myself to kill seemingly healthy living things. They are doing very well growing like they should eating a ton of food. I will never give any away knowing they are carriers.

It is now April of 2014, many months from when I last posted. I ended up loosing 5 of the 10 chickens I started with. I did them in before they suffered too much. I had 4 roosters with one little hen left; which wasn't a good situation as they matured. We ended up culling three of the roosters leaving only Itty Bitty Hen and Bubba Rooster. The roosters were harassing each other along with Itty Bitty spending her days perched in a bush to stay safe. For the last few months now the two chickens have been having a great relationship like a happily married couple. Itty Bitty gives me one egg each day. I bought her a chicken saddle as Bubba was paying way too much attention to her leaving her with a bald spot on her back. I was hoping that Itty Bitty might sit on her eggs, but that wasn't going to happen.

I have now received 6 more vaccinated Araucanas chicks. Actually had to order 15 (plus they included an extra 1), but found a home for the 10 extra. They are doing great in the brooder here in the family room; while Bubba and Itty Bitty wait out in the rain for them to join the flock. I have a Jack Russel mix that has killer written all over herself so my chickens do not free range. The run is the size of a small backyard with lots of cover. I continually add compost that is stirred up and pecked through. I am a passionate gardener so compost is never in short supply. Worms are thick in there. I have a pitch fork handy so I go in there to turn the pile over; which creates a feeding frenzy. Bubba will find a worm and then call his woman over to gobble it up. They now know what I mean when I say, "see what I have" as I weed close by finding more worms to toss their way.

I also deep litter; which gave my vegetable garden a sigh of happiness as I spread it about this spring. I love having a whole group of living beings that love my weeds and compost from the kitchen. I love the relationship between myself, the chickens and the garden. I dump my coffee grounds in another composter barrel. I wish they liked the coffee grinds as the worms are incredible in that container. It often appears that it is about 50/50. I often just pick a few out to toss over the fence. I will indeed go out to get the new chicks a few to enjoy. They love those dried grubs you can purchase. I need to actually start a bin to raise my own as we are often shopping challenged in our small rural area.

Here is Itty Bitty in her cute little chicken saddle that I thought was the silliest thing I'd ever seen until she came up bald. My neighbor even had to super glue her hen together after the rooster damaged her beyond reason.