2 very poorly chickens and a novice owner needing help...

[striddy]

Dear BYC people, I am urgently looking for help please. I have 5 chickens in total, on return from holiday i have found my two original chickens , both rhode island girls of about 3 years old, formerly in good health, are now terribly poorly. They are totally lethargic, sleepy, can't walk and are not eating. i am getting them to drink a little bit and have put some drops of chicken tonic in the water along with a little amoxinsol powder given to me by a professional chicken farmer. they look bunged up poo wise, but I dont know if they have been laying as they have been free range and of the 5 I normally get 3 eggs and I sometimes find clutches in the garden.
I found one very poorly last night who is still poorly now the other has worsened over the day. Both are now inside my house next to my aga stove as it is quite chilly here.
One had been attacked by flies and had maggots on her which was horrendous. The other has a black vent.
The 3 other chickens which were ex battery hens acquired about 3 months ago seem to be in great health but I have put a little antibiotic powder in their water just in case.

I'm really sorry to write such a long essay, but if anyone could advise me I would be so greatful. i have kept chickens for a couple of years but they have always been healthy so i'm not an expert. thank you Striddy x

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi and welcome! I'm sorry you are experiencing this.

What you describe (other than the black vent) sounds like what I went through with my first hens. I got them as older birds too, and I don't know the history of them other than they were coming from a family who had divorced.

Mine turned out to be internal layers. They kept deteriorating, one evetually died, so we performed a "necropsy" and discovered she was an internal layer. As the others declined, we culled them as we did not want to see them suffer. At this point only one was still laying.

i can only share my story, I don't know if this is what you are experiencing, but it might give you a place to strat searching

I don't know whether you have seen the button up top that says search, but you can hit that and check in the emergencies forum.

I hope you find out what the problem is and are able to fix it.

And I'm sure others might see this post, although it would get more attention if it were put in the emergencies section.

Good luck!!

 

[striddy]

Thank you for your reply. Sorry your chickens died. I will go to the emergency section, thank you I didnt know.

 

[b.hromada]

Yes, do what miss_thenorth has said. You should get many responses on that thread. Best of luck to you. And of course, Welcome to BYC.

 

[texasgal]

A big Texas size

 

[fldiver97]

from WI.... hope you had a chance to post your question in the section "emergencies....." and are getting some helpful answers!!!!!!