- Nov 30, 2009
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We have about 30 chickens and my daughters (10 & 13) take care of them primarily through the week. I take a look at things on the weekends and check everything out. Last week, the girls found two chickens dead in the middle of their run on two different days. Both chickens had been acting normally according to them up until that point.
On Saturday (July 19), I was starting to check everything out when one of my daughters told me that Lucky (one of our roosters) was moping with his tail down and had been unsteady on his feet when she saw him the evening before. We went over and sure enough, he was standing, tail down, and when I approached, I saw him wobble a bit. I brought him out of the pen and he ate grass and drank water, but didn't move around a lot. I noticed at that point that his comb was turning dark.
Later in my inspection, I found that my youngest had been feeding the chickens moldy food!
(She had accidentally forgot to close the feed door one day and it had rained. She didn't want to get scolded for wasted food)
I immediately changed and cleaned all the food and water containers and gave the "healthy" chickens water with ACV. I took Lucky into the garage and made him some sick quarters. I gave him vitamin water, but then switched to vinegar water when I noticed that his poop was green. The next day I started mixing molasses in with the vinegar water.
For two or three days, his comb continued to darken - like a flower drying out. About Tuesday (July 22), his comb appeared more "juicy" and pink, but then continued to get more pale. His wattles are normally pretty red. Where it is currently more red (on the ends) is where is was more dark at it's worst. One positive is it doesn't appear to be 'drying' out.
Today (July 24) his poop is still green, he's pretty lethargic and he's off his appetite, although he has continued to eat and drink some. We've tried eggs and oatmeal, but he prefers his regular food.
I would have taken the lightening of the comb and wattles as a good sign, but paling out doesn't seem to be good either. With his lethargy and green poop, I'm afraid he's still very sick and not out of the woods yet.
Any ideas of what I should do at this point?
Photos taken moments ago are below.
On Saturday (July 19), I was starting to check everything out when one of my daughters told me that Lucky (one of our roosters) was moping with his tail down and had been unsteady on his feet when she saw him the evening before. We went over and sure enough, he was standing, tail down, and when I approached, I saw him wobble a bit. I brought him out of the pen and he ate grass and drank water, but didn't move around a lot. I noticed at that point that his comb was turning dark.
Later in my inspection, I found that my youngest had been feeding the chickens moldy food!
(She had accidentally forgot to close the feed door one day and it had rained. She didn't want to get scolded for wasted food)
I immediately changed and cleaned all the food and water containers and gave the "healthy" chickens water with ACV. I took Lucky into the garage and made him some sick quarters. I gave him vitamin water, but then switched to vinegar water when I noticed that his poop was green. The next day I started mixing molasses in with the vinegar water.
For two or three days, his comb continued to darken - like a flower drying out. About Tuesday (July 22), his comb appeared more "juicy" and pink, but then continued to get more pale. His wattles are normally pretty red. Where it is currently more red (on the ends) is where is was more dark at it's worst. One positive is it doesn't appear to be 'drying' out.
Today (July 24) his poop is still green, he's pretty lethargic and he's off his appetite, although he has continued to eat and drink some. We've tried eggs and oatmeal, but he prefers his regular food.
I would have taken the lightening of the comb and wattles as a good sign, but paling out doesn't seem to be good either. With his lethargy and green poop, I'm afraid he's still very sick and not out of the woods yet.
Any ideas of what I should do at this point?
Photos taken moments ago are below.
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