California - Northern

[lawatt]

so this is new: i got home from work and one of the five chicks, one of the big beefy marans, is suddenly having trouble keeping its balance, if it tries to walk it kind of staggers -- and when i pick it up, its constantly opening and closing its mouth, almost like with each breath -- has anyone ever seen this kind of thing? it's not audibly gasping, but clearly is really struggling for some reason -- it's 5 days old, and before this has been healthy & strong.

any ideas?

 

[ronott1]

Yes, she was living in with my Bresse and I was having issues in that pen and now that she no longer lives in there the problem is solved. I am kinda relieved, I thought one of the Bresse was the culprit.

I moved her to a pen with a Brabanter Rooster and have not gotten any eggs since, but I have found shells and yolk evidence.

I posted a very long post last Fall about why egg eating hens is a myth.

The basic point is that egg eating is caused by a problem with the eggs. It is a natural behavior of the Hens so fixing the egg hardness problem will end the egg eating.

If she is eating her eggs then the shells are too soft. She may be laying soft shelled eggs. If it is a problem that is not correctable then she may need to be culled.

 

[minmin1258]

A friend just posted this on Facebook. Thought you all would get a kick out of it. .

HAHA. She should name that one Knucklehead!

Nah that's "Egghead" lol

 

[chiqita]

so this is new: i got home from work and one of the five chicks, one of the big beefy marans, is suddenly having trouble keeping its balance, if it tries to walk it kind of staggers -- and when i pick it up, its constantly opening and closing its mouth, almost like with each breath -- has anyone ever seen this kind of thing? it's not audibly gasping, but clearly is really struggling for some reason -- it's 5 days old, and before this has been healthy & strong.

any ideas?

sounds like lung issues or something stuck in its crop or mould.

I have a customer who is sure her 4h friend knows how to sex silkies. I bet she is going to come over here and try and wing sex them . i told her it does not work but she is welcome to try. its got a 50/50 chance of being correct. If she tries to vent sex she is getting the boot, not letting anyone bust the guts of my baby chicks.

And in chickens, the sexing chromosome is in the egg. So when a hen is born all her babies are pre determined sex wise.

 

[Audio51]

( I am being good and not posting the GFQ hatcher and incubator set for 500 I found...)
This one might be a hovabator, looking at it from the botton
http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/grd/4319094320.html

Now to get the chicken poop out of my hair!

That one looks just like my old one I still have from 1994, but mine doesn't have the turner anymore. The one I had was like the yellow ones I see often now.

 

[lawatt]

sounds like lung issues or something stuck in its crop or mould.

i've been holding it here at my desk for about 5 min, keeping it warm with my hand, and the beak open/closed has stopped, but when it tries to step it still falls on its side... no *sound* of any lung issues, and they've only had access to chick starter and water, not even pine shavings yet, so not sure of what could be stuck?

 

[Audio51]

Quote:
I bet!

 

[ronott1]

sounds like lung issues or something stuck in its crop or mould.

I have a customer who is sure her 4h friend knows how to sex silkies. I bet she is going to come over here and try and wing sex them . i told her it does not work but she is welcome to try. its got a 50/50 chance of being correct. If she tries to vent sex she is getting the boot, not letting anyone bust the guts of my baby chicks.

And in chickens, the sexing chromosome is in the egg. So when a hen is born all her babies are pre determined sex wise.

The latest news letter from CAHFS said they had three cases of something like what you are describing last month. It is a plug caused by fungus. It can block breathing and lead to Pneumonia. Oxine in a cool mist mister without the catalyst might be the best treatment.

Edited to add: I just re read the post-- I did not see the age. It could be active Mareks, the initial infection. Make sure it eats and drinks. They often survive this.

I hope it is something else though.

 

[Audio51]

Quote: I wonder if these are homemade. Too bad he didn't include a picture. $10 for a nestbox is a great price...but a little too far away for me.



And on a side note....I was a bit amused when I ran the spell check before sending this reply. When it got to Juststruttin's name, the first correction option was "castrating". Not sure how it came up with that one!

Has anyone tried these? http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/roll-out-tray-with-flap-for-chickbox.html

I think they can be used to modify regular wood nest boxes into rollout nests.


Trisha

I saw those yesterday and they look pretty cool. They look like they are to use with the nests on thre same page. Those are pretty pricey though. I couldn't use them because my nests boxes are attached to the elevated coop and have access from outside the coop.
I was thinking of using the rollout inserts to modify wooden nest boxes and then add a trapnesting front. That way the " trapped" hen doesn't trample the egg. I don't have room in my coops for enough of the extra deep style of trapnests.

Trisha

I had never heard that that term and had to look up "trapnests". I hate when some band gives themselves a wierd name and then they are the only thing that comes up in searches. I did find one that actually defined it That would sure come in handy. I have one Marans hen that I think is laying plain old light brown eggs and I'd like to know which one it is. Do you know of a site that might have more info on them?

 

[lawatt]

The latest news letter from CAHFS said they had three cases of something like what you are describing last month. It is a plug caused by fungus. It can block breathing and lead to Pneumonia. Oxine in a cool mist mister without the catalyst might be the best treatment.

Edited to add: I just re read the post-- I did not see the age. It could be active Mareks, the initial infection. Make sure it eats and drinks. They often survive this.

I hope it is something else though.

thanks Ron -- yes, super-young, i can't imagine they've had enough time to develop a fungus -- i've given is some poly-vi-sol, and will encourage it to eat/drink... poor little kid!

edit: it doesn't help that its siblings keep standing on when it falls over -- i might pop it back in the empty incubator for a little while, just to give it some peace?

edit 2 -- it also shakes/twitches its head a lot. hmm.