Ok folks....
A quandry. My hubby and I are leaving *tomorrow* for work travel and will be gone until after Labor Day.
We have a chicken sitter, etc already set to go.
I go out this morning around 8:00 am, and my largest Sultan hen is wheezing has mucus coming out her beak, eyes half closed and seems to be in respiratory distress.
I bring her inside to check her out and get her away from the others...isolate her in a kennel in the bathroom with food/water and figure I will come home to a dead hen in the bathroom.
Fast forward until now and she is still alive, no longer wheezing, seems a little more alert, laid an egg in there although her eyes are still a little squinty. No more mucus either.
What the heck do I do? I am afraid to put her outside with the others if she is contagious (although they all have exposed if it's an illness). They all free range and so have some level of interaction with wild birds. Could it be something besides a respiratory illness? A scorpion sting??
Do I put her out anyway and hope for the best for all of them? We can't leave her in the house and don't know if dumping her off at a vet for 12 days is a ridiculous idea or not. Does anyone want a somewhat wheezy Sultan?
I have never culled a chicken.. If she was as bad as she was this morning, I would think that would be the right thing to do. But don't know how, and wouldn't want her to suffer because of my ineptitude. But if she's improving and/or if it's something like a scorpion sting and she is recovering from it, I wouldn't want to just cull her??
And no, I can't take her with me...and we can't leave her in the house as no one will be here....
Argh! What should I do, peoples? I need advice