LydiaGP
Hatching
- Apr 6, 2015
- 4
- 0
- 7
So of my approximately 17 week-old chickens, 3 have died (Ameracaunas), 1 is sick (Ameracauna), and the other 6 (2 Ameracaunas, 2 Australorps, 2 Bantam Cochins) seem to be fine.
1 Ameracauna's leg seemed like it was hurting her. She wouldn't stand on it. I separated her, fed her vitamin-rich food and water (a pretty wide variety) plus normal feed, kept her in a cage in my house for a while then put the cage outside. Over the course of about 3 weeks, her leg progressively got worse until she was doing the splits. She would still try to walk sometimes, and sometimes could manage OK. She died a couple weeks ago. Her feces looked normal.
I went on vacation for 2 weeks and had my neighbor checking on my chickens while I was gone. However, he didn't notice the other chickens that were getting sick. I checked on the chickens when I got home at 10 PM last night, and 2 weren't on the highest roost, which is unusual, but I didn't think much of it. But this morning, when I went to clean the coop, I noticed one was sprawled on the ground and panting. It was only about 75 degrees out so it should have been fine. I picked her up, and she was very lethargic and panting. I held her and tried to get her to drink/eat but no success. I used an eyedropper to put a few drops of honey water in her beak in hopes that would help her perk up. I also gave her some B12. But she didn't want to drink it and would only when she absolutely had to. She would just let it run down her beak. She alternated panting with shaking/quivering, and turning her head repeatedly as though she was watching cars go by. She eventually went into convulsions, writhing/contorting her neck all the way around and pushing out with her legs. Every once in a while she would squawk in an alarmed tone for a few seconds. She passed this morning while I was getting the cage ready for her. A half hour or so before she passed, her feces was kind of watery, but the remarkable thing was that the solid matter was a vivid grass green.
Another Ameracauna was panting a whole lot. She had her head up and looked like she was calling out. She didn't want to drink really, but she did eat some food when I put her near the food dish while the others were eating. I tried to tempt her with yogurt, egg yolk, coconut water (electrolytes), and honey water but she didn't really eat much of any of them. She was walking around some and seemed to be doing OK. This afternoon though, my sister said she was panting badly and wouldn't eat at all. She put her inside her house in case the heat was getting to her, but she passed 45 minutes later. This morning her feces looked normal.
Another Ameracauna has bad diarrhea and is lethargic but is not panting and doesn't show any signs of respiratory distress. The diarrhea is to the point that it's literally like yellow water with a small (about the size of a few grains of rice total) piece of solid matter. I've been feeding her yogurt, boiled egg yolk, coconut water, and regular food. She is eating. She also shows interest in shiny things, and pecks around in the grass some. She is lethargic though, and allows me to pick her up without any complaints (she would usually run away). She is in a cage with pine shavings now.
I have been feeding them chick starter, non-medicated. I had been giving them a lot of greens (cabbage, kale, corn on the cob, etc) and allowing them to range when possible, but while I was on vacation they didn't get any greens and were not allowed out of the coop/run area. The coop was dirty but not really bad. The floor has a lot of semi-mulched water oak leaves.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? For now, my plan is just supportive care, and also to try more preventative things for the ones I have left (apple cider vinegar, more vitamins/electrolytes in water, more greens, and clean coop more often). Any advice about what disease could be causing this would be very helpful.
1 Ameracauna's leg seemed like it was hurting her. She wouldn't stand on it. I separated her, fed her vitamin-rich food and water (a pretty wide variety) plus normal feed, kept her in a cage in my house for a while then put the cage outside. Over the course of about 3 weeks, her leg progressively got worse until she was doing the splits. She would still try to walk sometimes, and sometimes could manage OK. She died a couple weeks ago. Her feces looked normal.
I went on vacation for 2 weeks and had my neighbor checking on my chickens while I was gone. However, he didn't notice the other chickens that were getting sick. I checked on the chickens when I got home at 10 PM last night, and 2 weren't on the highest roost, which is unusual, but I didn't think much of it. But this morning, when I went to clean the coop, I noticed one was sprawled on the ground and panting. It was only about 75 degrees out so it should have been fine. I picked her up, and she was very lethargic and panting. I held her and tried to get her to drink/eat but no success. I used an eyedropper to put a few drops of honey water in her beak in hopes that would help her perk up. I also gave her some B12. But she didn't want to drink it and would only when she absolutely had to. She would just let it run down her beak. She alternated panting with shaking/quivering, and turning her head repeatedly as though she was watching cars go by. She eventually went into convulsions, writhing/contorting her neck all the way around and pushing out with her legs. Every once in a while she would squawk in an alarmed tone for a few seconds. She passed this morning while I was getting the cage ready for her. A half hour or so before she passed, her feces was kind of watery, but the remarkable thing was that the solid matter was a vivid grass green.
Another Ameracauna was panting a whole lot. She had her head up and looked like she was calling out. She didn't want to drink really, but she did eat some food when I put her near the food dish while the others were eating. I tried to tempt her with yogurt, egg yolk, coconut water (electrolytes), and honey water but she didn't really eat much of any of them. She was walking around some and seemed to be doing OK. This afternoon though, my sister said she was panting badly and wouldn't eat at all. She put her inside her house in case the heat was getting to her, but she passed 45 minutes later. This morning her feces looked normal.
Another Ameracauna has bad diarrhea and is lethargic but is not panting and doesn't show any signs of respiratory distress. The diarrhea is to the point that it's literally like yellow water with a small (about the size of a few grains of rice total) piece of solid matter. I've been feeding her yogurt, boiled egg yolk, coconut water, and regular food. She is eating. She also shows interest in shiny things, and pecks around in the grass some. She is lethargic though, and allows me to pick her up without any complaints (she would usually run away). She is in a cage with pine shavings now.
I have been feeding them chick starter, non-medicated. I had been giving them a lot of greens (cabbage, kale, corn on the cob, etc) and allowing them to range when possible, but while I was on vacation they didn't get any greens and were not allowed out of the coop/run area. The coop was dirty but not really bad. The floor has a lot of semi-mulched water oak leaves.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? For now, my plan is just supportive care, and also to try more preventative things for the ones I have left (apple cider vinegar, more vitamins/electrolytes in water, more greens, and clean coop more often). Any advice about what disease could be causing this would be very helpful.
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