Sick Hen- Need Help Quick!!

rosecreek

In the Brooder
10 Years
Aug 19, 2009
19
0
22
SoKY
I went out to feed my flocks and just so noticed a Turken hen (Mortisha) stumbling, like she just couldn't keep her balance. She kept wanting to fall backwards. I went on and watered, and then fed. Another hen bumped into her, and she fell down, so I reached in and took her. The rooster Gomez is not happy with me right now!

Anyway, I was checking her for injuries and noticed her rear-end and belly are swollen, and dark colored, almost like a huge bruise. From about two inches below her vent to her belly. She's a turken, so they don't have feathers there. I even looked on several of the other hens, and they are nice and tight and pink colored. It almost feels watery, if that makes sense, and the bruise is not on top of the skin like normal. It's like it's under the skin. She also had a very small sore on her foot, but I'm not sure those are related.

I put her in a separate cage, and she's eating and drinking, but I'm not sure what to do. She's a pet to my kids, and I don't want to lose her.

I'm thinking the worse already. Like her bowels or something have leaked into her abdomen. I'm sure that's possible, right? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. If my camera was working I would post pictures, but it died on me. Thanks Everyone.

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Chicken, Turken Breed, Age about 1 /12 years, normal weight

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Loss of balance, falling over.

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Just a little sore on her foot, but probably not related.

4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I don't know.

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Yes, she's doing so now.

6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
I don't know yet, she hasn't in the last few minutes that I've had her separated.

7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Separation, food and water.

8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Heal her myself.

9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use
She was in a large coop and outside (but fenced in) area with six other hens and a rooster.

We feed them four-grain scratch, layer, and some garden left-overs, but they haven't had any garden goodies for a while, plus they sort-of free range in their large pen.
 
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I don't know what it could be... I hope one of the more experienced members can help.

How old is she? Is she laying? Pooping regularly?

I hope she is OK!
 
Update on Morti. I put her in a cage by herself in the building where we keep the feed.

She is eating and drinking, going after the food like she has never eaten before.

She still cannot stand up and is very weak. I can just touch her and she falls over.

She has pooped-lots. And it looks normal. She has not laid an egg, but she wasn't really laying regularly anyway.

What do I do? I mean, of course I'm going to keep feeding her and doing whatever she needs to have done, but what could have caused her to go down like this? And this suddenly? I'm worried it could be something that could be spread to the res of my flocks!

HELP!!
 
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It it is that serious I wouldn't wait a whole lot longer. You can try calling the Chicken Doctor at www.firststatevetsupply.com; he is a poultry expert and may be able to help you Anytime a bird gets to the point where you are very worried, it is a critical issue and time is limited, so I would try calling him asap. Failing that, you could try calling the agriculture department of a university near you; sometimes they have poultry experts within those departments who can be a good source of information. I'm sorry I have no clue what it could be, sounds like some kind of internal injury but from what I have no idea.
 
Im no chicken expert at all . . . I was just thinking that maybe an egg was broken inside of her. I have heard that this can happen but im not sure how it looks or what happens when it does happen. hopefully somebody can help her!
 
:(Hello. Some friends of ours brought their chicken for us to fix. At first they thought its leg was broken. Then we thought a dislocation and then finally we found it was a protein and vitamin deficiency. It happens if as a chick they didn't get enought protein as a chick. We isolated the chicken feed it greens (lettuce, turnip, etc), cornmeal mush, and chick feed. We crushed a vitamin c and a calcium (to strenthen the bones) pill, put a small pinch of each in the mush and hand fed it to him. After about a week he slowly started walking and now he's all better. I Hope your Chicken gets better.
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(We did have a hen who had the same problem, but she got a bacterial infection which brought pneumonia and sadly she died).
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The vitamin deficiency thing seems like it is extremely common. I'm glad it worked for you! We have tried that a couple of times, but did not have much success either time.
 
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