- Apr 7, 2009
- 10
- 0
- 22
One of our hens (older pullet - she hasn't started laying yet) started going downhill - she used to be quite active and almost aggressive but started sleeping a lot and not moving much and just seemed generally depressed.
We took her to the only vet that would look at chickens (An aside: Years ago, when we first tried raising chickens, we had Len Mercia, the Man Himself, to go to when we had problems. Nowadays, the University of Vermont Extension "Service" doesn't even recognize that poultry exist!). The vet checked her stool and took a blood sample. ($162.00!) The vet couldn't find any problems there but said it seemed like she'd gone into "starvation mode" and gave us some high-protein powdered food to mix up with water and syringe down her throat a couple times a day.
So we've been doing that - it's been about a week now. She's still pretty listless and has trouble standing, acting like she's drunk. I take her outside a couple times a day (she's currently living in a large crate in our bathroom) and she pecks at, and eats, grass as soon as she's set down. She'll walk a few steps at a time but then falls over. Sometimes she'll catch herself with a wing. Eventually she'll fall asleep and I'll take her back inside.
She does show some interest in cracked corn, regular feed, and watermelon but we're still feeding her the special food. She has a waterer with Streseeze but doesn't seem to use it much - I syringe some water into her when we feed her so she doesn't become dehydrated.
No bloody stool or diarrhea, no unusual smells, and I don't think her crop is impacted - the vet felt around quite a bit. She moves her head/neck just fine and will even try to scratch occasionally and does preen. Just listless and inability to walk or stand steadily. We're at our wits end. She doesn't seem to be in any pain so we're not even considering putting her down.
Any thoughts?
We took her to the only vet that would look at chickens (An aside: Years ago, when we first tried raising chickens, we had Len Mercia, the Man Himself, to go to when we had problems. Nowadays, the University of Vermont Extension "Service" doesn't even recognize that poultry exist!). The vet checked her stool and took a blood sample. ($162.00!) The vet couldn't find any problems there but said it seemed like she'd gone into "starvation mode" and gave us some high-protein powdered food to mix up with water and syringe down her throat a couple times a day.
So we've been doing that - it's been about a week now. She's still pretty listless and has trouble standing, acting like she's drunk. I take her outside a couple times a day (she's currently living in a large crate in our bathroom) and she pecks at, and eats, grass as soon as she's set down. She'll walk a few steps at a time but then falls over. Sometimes she'll catch herself with a wing. Eventually she'll fall asleep and I'll take her back inside.
She does show some interest in cracked corn, regular feed, and watermelon but we're still feeding her the special food. She has a waterer with Streseeze but doesn't seem to use it much - I syringe some water into her when we feed her so she doesn't become dehydrated.
No bloody stool or diarrhea, no unusual smells, and I don't think her crop is impacted - the vet felt around quite a bit. She moves her head/neck just fine and will even try to scratch occasionally and does preen. Just listless and inability to walk or stand steadily. We're at our wits end. She doesn't seem to be in any pain so we're not even considering putting her down.
Any thoughts?
