- Mar 9, 2014
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Hello everyone, I was hoping someone here could give me some insight.
We have a small free range flock of three young (22 weeks or thereabouts) Ameraucana hens and one GLW roo. All have been exceptionally healthy and hale since bringing them home.
Roughly four days ago, I noticed our little blue hen wasn't with the others. When I went out to look for her, I found her laying down under a hedge, listless and weak. I took her inside and assessed her. She had a pale comb and could barely keep her head up. It also felt as though she had a hard lump in her throat. We syringe fed her some water, and Olive oil, thinking it could be a crop impaction.
We isolated her inside and kept an eye on her. After a few hours her comb really reddened up, and she could stand. We tried more Olive oil, and a crop massage, but nothing happened.
She stayed indoors for two nights, we gave water, and she ate a few bites of food here and there, but was still listless. We felt for a stuck egg, but her pelvis feels empty (she hasn't begun to lay yet). We gave her an epsom salt bath.
Nothing. She was just sort of hanging in there.
Yesterday afternoon she seemed to perk up, ate quite a bit of food from my hand, and so we let her out to walk around. She was walking and foraging a bit, but slowly and was definitely still very lethargic.
Today, she seems to be back sliding again. This morning she seemed to have a bit of a head tilt, but it doesn't seem to be there right now.
I'm stumped. It happened literally overnight.
There are no wounds, aside from a superficial looking scratch on her comb. No discharge. No respiratory sounds. Her vent looks ok. All droppings look normal, except she hasn't had anything but urates in a couple of days.
The lump in her neck seems to be her bones, as she has lost weight. Obviously whatever is wrong had been going on long enough for weight loss, though I have no idea how I didn't notice, since I interact fairly closely with them daily. Her behavior had been completely normal prior to finding her under the hedge.
Any insight at all would be very much appreciated.
We have a small free range flock of three young (22 weeks or thereabouts) Ameraucana hens and one GLW roo. All have been exceptionally healthy and hale since bringing them home.
Roughly four days ago, I noticed our little blue hen wasn't with the others. When I went out to look for her, I found her laying down under a hedge, listless and weak. I took her inside and assessed her. She had a pale comb and could barely keep her head up. It also felt as though she had a hard lump in her throat. We syringe fed her some water, and Olive oil, thinking it could be a crop impaction.
We isolated her inside and kept an eye on her. After a few hours her comb really reddened up, and she could stand. We tried more Olive oil, and a crop massage, but nothing happened.
She stayed indoors for two nights, we gave water, and she ate a few bites of food here and there, but was still listless. We felt for a stuck egg, but her pelvis feels empty (she hasn't begun to lay yet). We gave her an epsom salt bath.
Nothing. She was just sort of hanging in there.
Yesterday afternoon she seemed to perk up, ate quite a bit of food from my hand, and so we let her out to walk around. She was walking and foraging a bit, but slowly and was definitely still very lethargic.
Today, she seems to be back sliding again. This morning she seemed to have a bit of a head tilt, but it doesn't seem to be there right now.
I'm stumped. It happened literally overnight.
There are no wounds, aside from a superficial looking scratch on her comb. No discharge. No respiratory sounds. Her vent looks ok. All droppings look normal, except she hasn't had anything but urates in a couple of days.
The lump in her neck seems to be her bones, as she has lost weight. Obviously whatever is wrong had been going on long enough for weight loss, though I have no idea how I didn't notice, since I interact fairly closely with them daily. Her behavior had been completely normal prior to finding her under the hedge.
Any insight at all would be very much appreciated.
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