Can anyone tell me what the problem may be???

[chickenwhisper2]

One small mixed breed chicken died all of a sudden two weeks ago. Now, a white leghorn has been sick for several days. I have isolated her and trying to treat her but don't really know what to do. She stands with very little movement and with feathers slightly puffed out. She eats and drinks little or nothing. Her pooh is runny and chalky white. Her eyes reflect that she is alert. Can any one tell me what may be causing the problem and what treatment I should render. Thanks so very much for your comments.

 

[Judy]

Welcome to BYC, and sorry that nearly your first post had to be about sickness.

There are some questions in a sticky at the beginning of this forum for you to answer. But there are also a lot of possible causes. You can get the most definitive answer by having your state lab do a necropsy, if you lose another. I know my vet knows who to contact to do this, and it is not very expensive, although he does not treat chickens.

Sometimes we get a bad bag of feed, so one thing you can do is smell your feed and get another if it does not smell sweet and fresh. Feed that has gotten wet will get moldy rather quickly and can kill a chicken. I have read of chickens getting sick because someone did not realize that old spoiled feed had built up at the bottom of their feeders. If they have access to a compost pile, sometimes something in there can make them sick, although plenty of chickens routinely forage compost piles. Sometimes they die suddenly of problems with their egg laying system.

Here is some info on common chicken diseases:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[chickenwhisper2]

ddawn...Thank you so very much for the welcome to BYC. I do regret that my first post is about a sick chicken. Although I have had many chickens in the past..I have never had sick and dying chickens. So I am in new territory with this problem. The information and the link has been very helpful. I have spent much of the evening reading and reviewing the charts on the link you provided. I am still not sure which disease may be the culprit. If I lose another..I will surely have the carcass examined.