Barred Rock pullet immobile and not eating or drinking without assistance

[missmarielayne]

About three days ago I went out to my chicken coop and noticed that my Barred Rock pullet was laying on the ground and had been pecked rather severely of her feathers on top of her head. I recently introduced this pullet along with two others to the rest of my hens and they really seemed to be integrating well for about two weeks. After finding the injured pullet, I separated her from the rest of the chickens and put her in a crate inside my home. It has been raining a lot recently so I didn't want her to get wet. Since finding her in the coop, she has not once been able to stand up. Her legs are completely limp and she can barely move. It almost seems like she might be paralyzed but when I pick her up she can kind of hold her neck up. She cannot eat or drink on her own, and when I try to help her I have to force it down her throat. At times she seems alert and will scream a little when I pick her up a certain way, but otherwise she mostly sleeps and she feels pitifully thin and weak when I hold her. I am perplexed as to what could be the issue. It crossed my mind that maybe she was already ill and was attacked while weak. I have a medication to prevent/treat coccidiosis, so I mixed some in with her water and have been trying to feed her mashed banana with a bit of coconut oil but I have not noticed any improvement. None of my other chickens seem ill. This is so sad to watch and I'd like to take her to the vet but cannot afford it at this time. Can anyone provide insight as to what might be the problem? I don't want her to suffer and it seems like she won't improve.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Sorry about your pullet. How old are they? She may have been sick before or dehydrated and weak from being kept from food and water by the older hens. She also may have suffered brain injury or other injuries. I would take a look at "Go team tube feeding," a collection of threads about learning to tube feed. Try to get her to take water with vitamins and electrolytes, some raw or chopped egg, a bit of yogurt for probiotics, and try adding water to her feed. She may start to improve when she has food and water in her. Let us know how she is doing.

 

[missmarielayne]

Thank you so much for your response! The pullet is about 2 months old now. I took your advice and have been feeding her raw egg and water mixed with electrolytes. I also mixed in a probiotic and I mixed some coconut oil in with the eggs because I figured it couldn't hurt. She hasn't gotten any better but she hasn't gotten any worse. She can be alert at times but mostly sleeps. I'm now keeping her in the bathtub because it's cleaner and she has more space even though she isn't moving. Here is a picture of her head. I'm not too sure how to tell if has a brain injury but I've been trying to get her to stand up by putting her into position and I even put her in a roosting position but she just falls over to the side. I just don't get it.




I sprayed some Blu-kote on her head as an anitbiotic.