Chick with paralysis URGENT! *Update-Baby Dead :( * need advice! :(

[carolina chicky]

My one month old baby chick (I think she's a red pyle bantam) has suddenly started acting strangely. I put her and her 3 siblings out in their own coop Wednesday and they have been doing well since. This morning I went out to check on them and I found this little hen laying inside of their coop panting. They are under a tree and it isn't very hot. The others seemed fine. Here are her symptoms:
1. Legs seemed to be paralyzed, she can't stand or walk and falls on one side when she lays down.
2. She is panting and has a rapid heartbeat.
3. Won't drink or eat
4. Just lays on her side with her eyes shut.
5. There are tiny spots of blood on her feet but I can't see any wounds on her body.
6. Diet consists of chick starter, grass, bugs, etc.

I think she is going to die. Please tell me what I can do to help her!!

 

[carolina chicky]

Please help, if anyone has any idea! I don't want to lose any more of my babies if this chick has a contagious disease.

 

[ranchhand]

Have ants gotten to her? Mites?

Is she perhaps having a reaction to the extreme humidity we're having right now? Here on the coast our heat index is 105 today.

Yet another edit. Did the blood spots land on the feet our is the origin of them the feet? I'd get her inside no matter what.

 

[carolina chicky]

My baby just died

The mystery here to me is that she dies in exactly the same way that my year old hen dies last month.
Here's what happened with both.
I suddenly noticed that they can't stand up or walk and they are panting and breathing very hard.
I brought them in the house to check them out and within 30 minutes they begin flopping around, bend their neck back in an awkward angle, the roll over and die.

The hen I lost last month was a year old and the baby I just lost was a month old. The baby has never been around the hen, never been in the same coop, and was in a coop far away from the coop the older hen was in.
Could this be a diease that I need to address or could it be a random disorder with each chicken?
The hen I lost last month I got from TSC and the baby I lost just now was hatched from some chickens I bought at an auction last year.

 

[drumstick diva]

could she has been bitten by some spider??? Do you have poisonous spiders or snakes??? Is the blood coming from her feet or dripping down from somewhere else.

 

[carolina chicky]

There were just a few small spots of blood, it looked dried up. I didn't see any swelling or anything. We don't have any poison spiders or snakes that I know of.
I just can't figure out why I lost 2 in exactly the same way a month apart like that.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
What part of South Carolina are you in? Black widows, brown recluse, copperheads, rattlesnakes..... check the SCDNR website. You will be amazed at all the charming critters in SC.

 

[carolina chicky]

I am in Lynchburg, Lee county.
Could a poisonus bite cause this very rapid onset of symptoms and death? Both the birds were find and in a matter of 2-3 hours were dead. And they died in exactly the same way? First paralysis of the legs, rapid breathing and heartbeat, then convulsing and dying.
I hope it is not a disease that will kill my whole flock.
None of the other birds who were in contact with these birds seem sick or unusual.

 

[Rhodies Rock]

I'm very sorry about your girls.

My chicken had the same thing. I thought it was heatstroke, she was trying to get to the shade. She was hot, had a fast heartbeat, was panting. She could not move anything below her neck, and she could not sit, just lay on her side. No blood on the legs though. I brought her in and cooled her off. She fell asleep and only woke up twice. I could not make her eat or even drink anything. Her legs would twitch and shake a litle, then her comb turned purple/blue and flopped over, then in an hour or so she woke up and stretched her wings and I thought she would be okay . But her breathing got all labored and she bent her neck back and rolled over and died. She was absolutely fine and her normal self just hours before I found her in the goat pen. I wonder if the same thing happened to your girls and if there is anything we can do to prevent it. I asked my vet about heatstroke and she said to slowly cool them down, like by putting rubbing alchohol on them, or dipping them in a bath of lukewarm water, and keeping them inside with the AC on, and blowing a fan on them.
Is there anything else that happened to your chicken, are there any specific details?
I'll post more if I can remember any more details.
Hope this helps.

 

[Rhodies Rock]

One more thing. How hot is it where you are? You could have lost both to heatstroke, it is summer now, and it has been hot where we are for a month now (New Mexico), so the heat could have gotten both birds in a month. I heard chickens do not do so well when it is hot and humid, rather than just hot and dry, like we have here.