If anyone has any idea about what I am describing, advice would be helpful. For prevention of it happening again if nothing else. Thanks in advance. I have a black copper Marans ailing, and I am uncertain she will last the night. She is about 16 or 17 weeks old (has not laid as far as I know). This morning I noticed she was walking slowly, would stumble a bit. I was able to pick her right up (she is normally quite a flighty bird). At first I thought her comb looked pale, but it was the same dusty color as her sister's. Her wattle still appeared to be a normal color of red. Her comb appeared to be flopped over, but it is an extremely little comb--very short--and I am unsure if that is its normal position or not.
Just because I have had so many problems with it this year, I suspected perhaps coccidiosis (sp?) and began a treatment of Corid. However, she wasn't behaving the same way I have seen cocci chickens (none as old as her, I just lost a roo about five weeks younger from it on a different area of the property from it, though). She was not puffed up and she has had hardly any excrement...just a couple tiny puddles of what looked like raw egg white. She did not eat aside from a little bit I saw her peck at before I separated her, and ignored the watermelon I tried giving her. She would stand up and drink on occasion, and when I checked on her periodically, she seemed to be alert as far as responding to noises and looking curiously, but laid there and slept with her breast perched on the water container. I left for a couple hours this evening, and when I came back she seemed to have deteriorated significantly. I had to rap the crate she is in to get her to open her eyes, and she immediately closed them. She had become (and last I checked, still is) quite floppy. I could not get her to drink, but my husband helped get some water from a dropper in her.
Note: it has been quite hot here the last couple days. They have plenty of water and free range in an area that has a significant amount of shade, plenty for everyone. I moved her to beneath our apple trees where it stays shady all day, keeping her in a dog crate with an open bottom. It remained relatively cool around her. She was not panting, but is it possible that the heat has somehow done this? I am not ruling out coccidiosis, but she has already been through a few rounds of treatment with Corid because her little chick flock kept catching it, and I really thought by this point she would be immune.
Also, has anyone else just had a year when they seemed to lose a lot of birds? I have been around chickens almost my entire life and never remember (confirmed with my dad) having lost so many so close together (except on the rare occasion the hen house managed to be raided...and even then, not so many). Since February, I have lost two chicks to an unidentified predator, two ducklings to a bobcat, three chicks to cocci (more have had it but been successfully treated. I don't remember ever losing any chickens to it before), and two the morning after I got them from what was most likely pasty butt (tried to treat the second, the first I completely forgot that was a thing I was supposed to look for
)
Just because I have had so many problems with it this year, I suspected perhaps coccidiosis (sp?) and began a treatment of Corid. However, she wasn't behaving the same way I have seen cocci chickens (none as old as her, I just lost a roo about five weeks younger from it on a different area of the property from it, though). She was not puffed up and she has had hardly any excrement...just a couple tiny puddles of what looked like raw egg white. She did not eat aside from a little bit I saw her peck at before I separated her, and ignored the watermelon I tried giving her. She would stand up and drink on occasion, and when I checked on her periodically, she seemed to be alert as far as responding to noises and looking curiously, but laid there and slept with her breast perched on the water container. I left for a couple hours this evening, and when I came back she seemed to have deteriorated significantly. I had to rap the crate she is in to get her to open her eyes, and she immediately closed them. She had become (and last I checked, still is) quite floppy. I could not get her to drink, but my husband helped get some water from a dropper in her.
Note: it has been quite hot here the last couple days. They have plenty of water and free range in an area that has a significant amount of shade, plenty for everyone. I moved her to beneath our apple trees where it stays shady all day, keeping her in a dog crate with an open bottom. It remained relatively cool around her. She was not panting, but is it possible that the heat has somehow done this? I am not ruling out coccidiosis, but she has already been through a few rounds of treatment with Corid because her little chick flock kept catching it, and I really thought by this point she would be immune.
Also, has anyone else just had a year when they seemed to lose a lot of birds? I have been around chickens almost my entire life and never remember (confirmed with my dad) having lost so many so close together (except on the rare occasion the hen house managed to be raided...and even then, not so many). Since February, I have lost two chicks to an unidentified predator, two ducklings to a bobcat, three chicks to cocci (more have had it but been successfully treated. I don't remember ever losing any chickens to it before), and two the morning after I got them from what was most likely pasty butt (tried to treat the second, the first I completely forgot that was a thing I was supposed to look for
)
