- Mar 7, 2009
- 13
- 0
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Hello all,
I have four hens, three Buff Orpingtons (about a year and a half old) and one Rhode Island Red (about four months old). The three orps have been laying for the last year but the RIR is too young still. One of my orps went broody back in March and stopped laying. We collected eggs daily and tried to get her to snap out of it by repeatedly moving her off the nest and a few times dunking her in water to cool her down. She finally snapped out of it a few weeks later, but has not returned to laying at all. She has acted kind of "funny" ever since. She tilts her head sometimes and shakes it a bit, and sometimes will just sit in a corner for hours and not move. When we go into the yard, she will "snap out of her trace" and return to grazing normally. This happens about once a week. Sometimes I see her staring at her reflection in the greenhouse glass for hours at a time. She gets along well with the other chickens and continued to eat well until a few days ago. She has gotten skinny over the last few days. She appears to still be eating and pooping normally, but I just noticed a little dribble of poo sticking to her feathers. There seems to be a bit of a smell of poo in the yard, but I can't pinpoint if its actually the poop directly or just the heat causing everything to smell. Last night I checked their coop after bedtime and noticed she was not on the perch with the other hens, but laying on the straw. This was the first night she had done this. I just went outside today and noticed her comb is pale and losing color. My yard is incredibly small and I don't have room to separate her from the others. The others are not showing any symptoms of infection or parasites that I can tell, which made me think it may have been a mild stroke. She's still walking around, but she seems to be a little "off" mentally. Weird, I know. Now with this quick downhill slide, I worry that this will be the end for her. We are okay with just keeping her around even if she didn't lay anymore, but now if she's really sick, I don't want it to spread to the other chickens if it's contagious. None of the vets around here treat chickens. If she's too sick to save, I can't cull her myself, but I don't want her to suffer either. I wanted try one last ditch effort to save her before I look for someone to put her down. Does anyone know what could be wrong with her???
So, I've got Wazine 17, Corid, and Sulfadimethoxine. Which would you recommend in this situation and is it possible to orally treat just her without separating her? Or should we treat the whole flock just in case? Or could this be something else that I'm missing??? Treatment and dosages recommendations???
Thank you!!!
I have four hens, three Buff Orpingtons (about a year and a half old) and one Rhode Island Red (about four months old). The three orps have been laying for the last year but the RIR is too young still. One of my orps went broody back in March and stopped laying. We collected eggs daily and tried to get her to snap out of it by repeatedly moving her off the nest and a few times dunking her in water to cool her down. She finally snapped out of it a few weeks later, but has not returned to laying at all. She has acted kind of "funny" ever since. She tilts her head sometimes and shakes it a bit, and sometimes will just sit in a corner for hours and not move. When we go into the yard, she will "snap out of her trace" and return to grazing normally. This happens about once a week. Sometimes I see her staring at her reflection in the greenhouse glass for hours at a time. She gets along well with the other chickens and continued to eat well until a few days ago. She has gotten skinny over the last few days. She appears to still be eating and pooping normally, but I just noticed a little dribble of poo sticking to her feathers. There seems to be a bit of a smell of poo in the yard, but I can't pinpoint if its actually the poop directly or just the heat causing everything to smell. Last night I checked their coop after bedtime and noticed she was not on the perch with the other hens, but laying on the straw. This was the first night she had done this. I just went outside today and noticed her comb is pale and losing color. My yard is incredibly small and I don't have room to separate her from the others. The others are not showing any symptoms of infection or parasites that I can tell, which made me think it may have been a mild stroke. She's still walking around, but she seems to be a little "off" mentally. Weird, I know. Now with this quick downhill slide, I worry that this will be the end for her. We are okay with just keeping her around even if she didn't lay anymore, but now if she's really sick, I don't want it to spread to the other chickens if it's contagious. None of the vets around here treat chickens. If she's too sick to save, I can't cull her myself, but I don't want her to suffer either. I wanted try one last ditch effort to save her before I look for someone to put her down. Does anyone know what could be wrong with her???
So, I've got Wazine 17, Corid, and Sulfadimethoxine. Which would you recommend in this situation and is it possible to orally treat just her without separating her? Or should we treat the whole flock just in case? Or could this be something else that I'm missing??? Treatment and dosages recommendations???
Thank you!!!
