Chicken barely able to walk, lethargic, and something in eye

[seminolewind]

I'm sooo jealous at you Haunted. I used Blue Seal for 20 years in New York. They don't sell it down south. My horse was 37 when I had to put him down. Always healthy on Blue Seal.

If she has no worms or mites, is she skinny? Does her breast bone protrude? Is her crop ever full?

Are you saying that out of 6, 4 have died and 1 is sick? If you've lost the others I would think Marek's.

 

[huevo]

Honestly, I've had both my flocks on Dumor and have not had any problems with it thus far, and it is the more expensive brand compared to some TSC sells. We don't have any local feed stores that's not going miles out of my way, so I'm trying to get the best I can but I'll look into what I can get.

I wormed and dusted both my hens yesterday and also put in the Sav-a-chick probiotic in the sick one's water. Her weight hasn't noticeably changed and she's still looking bulkier than my other chicken (no breast bone protruding), as she always has. She's eating and drinking normally and completely on her own and I'm getting an egg every day still. Poop is normal.

The only problem I'm still seeing is the fact that she won't stand.

The other four were lost to an animal attack, so I'm not thinking Marek's has run through my flock at an earlier time.

 

[Haunted55]

I usually only keep single flocks (this is my second batch of 6) at a time as they are mostly pets and not used for much else, so the remaining two out of 6 have been together since I got them as chicks and no others have been introduced. Not much in diet has changed, I feed them DuMor layer crumble and some eggshells for calcium every now and then, but not as much recently as egg production has gone way down with only two chickens left.

She's eating and drinking when offered directly to her on her own. Her poop is back normal looking and she laid an egg for us today, but she still will not stand. I have her settled and isolated from my other hen.

I'm just not sure what to do, and I'm very sorry and I'm trying my best to answer all these questions to help us figure out something, but it's my first time one of my chickens has had a serious illness/problem.

Hey, you're doing fine! Slow down and don't get frustrated. I know we're asking a lot of questions but they really are important for us to get the whole picture. You'd do better with an oyster shell rather than the egg shell. With the egg shell, unless you are really crushing it small, you may be setting yourself up with an egg eater later.

Honestly, I've had both my flocks on Dumor and have not had any problems with it thus far, and it is the more expensive brand compared to some TSC sells. We don't have any local feed stores that's not going miles out of my way, so I'm trying to get the best I can but I'll look into what I can get.

I wormed and dusted both my hens yesterday and also put in the Sav-a-chick probiotic in the sick one's water. Her weight hasn't noticeably changed and she's still looking bulkier than my other chicken (no breast bone protruding), as she always has. She's eating and drinking normally and completely on her own and I'm getting an egg every day still. Poop is normal.

The only problem I'm still seeing is the fact that she won't stand.

The other four were lost to an animal attack, so I'm not thinking Marek's has run through my flock at an earlier time.

As to the Dumor. Purina makes this for TSC and here in the NE, it used to come out of the Penn. plant. Now it is coming out of NY. It is full of clumps of mouldy feed and the birds are not thriving with it at all. I have no clue where you are from but you need to do some research on where your feed is being processed. There are so many recalls of this feed through the years, it really is suspect. If it is all you can get then you need to be heads up with checking it and also providing more nutrition with the added vitamins and probiotics in their water.

Now, you have not said whether this hen could have been injured in the animal attack. Is this a possibility? When did this happen and what was the nature of the attack? Sometimes, if a chicken has been attacked, seen an attack of her flock mates, she or he will give up, and just not thrive. Maybe it's the chicken's way of grieving, who knows. I know of it happening in a friend's flock. His flock was attacked by a fox and it took 1/4 of the meat birds he was raising. The others remaining, were the size of a basket ball when the 8 weeks was up and this one was the size of a softball. You can put whatever kind of a spin you want on it, these are the facts. Could this be what is going on with yours? I'm not there so I really have no clue.

As Seminole said, an antibiotic wouldn't be a bad thing right now. You could use Duramycin-10, Tylan 50, whatever you can get, as the symptoms are not really specific. Me, I would go for the Duramycin-10, readily available from TSC and probably the least 'offensive' of the antibiotics out there. This is what I always use first. Almost always whatever it is going on will respond and I can save the "big guns" like the Tylan for something that is specific in symptoms for that drug.

Your hen could have been having troubles with being egg bound or be suffering from one of the respiratory diseases that poultry can get. Keep up with the vitamins, see if you can find a different feed that you can afford and treat with the antibiotics for 7 - 14 days, if using the Duramycin. Tylan has different treatment timelines. I would also worm her with Safeguard incase it is an internal worm problem. Do the simple things first...worming, vitamins and probiotics and then finally the antibiotics.

 

[huevo]

Thank you for all the feed advice, I'll definitely look into it ^^
I'd say I lost the other girls to the animals about 6 months ago, so would stuff like that be occurring this far after? Neither hens, who were probably in their boxes when it happened while the others were not, seemed harmed afterwards. No cuts or differing behavior from them, until now of course.

I just thought I'd give an update on my hen, she's still alive and still looking about the same. She seems to have dropped a little weight, but it's not substantial.
I got her out in my fenced-in backyard and she has spanned the whole thing by herself (on wobbly feet and falling over a few times). I'm taking this as some improvement as she does have the will to walk on her own.

 

[peacock 05]

Has anyone suggested Marek's yet??.

 

[peacock 05]

One of my sebrights has a hurt leg. The others legs are pinkish but his are kind of blue. I know that my insane cat made the heat lamp fall and I was out about 30 mins. After it happened but when I came out he was limping. Maybe the lamp fell on his leg and bruised it. Could it have bured it? Or am I not observant and he's had it longer and it's a disease or sickness? Is he in pain? Do I have to put him down? Should I take him to the vet? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[casportpony]

Has anyone suggested Marek's yet??.

Yes, see post number 11.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

One of my sebrights has a hurt leg. The others legs are pinkish but his are kind of blue. I know that my insane cat made the heat lamp fall and I was out about 30 mins. After it happened but when I came out he was limping. Maybe the lamp fell on his leg and bruised it. Could it have bured it? Or am I not observant and he's had it longer and it's a disease or sickness? Is he in pain? Do I have to put him down? Should I take him to the vet? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

If you have the resources to take him to a vet, go to the vet.

-Kathy

 

[peacock 05]

Thanks he's a lot better he's walking on the leg more today the other chicks were stepping on him so I took him in for rest. Also I was looking at his legs again and tey are turning pinkish like the other chick's. if it is a disease will it return? Or do you think it got bruised by the lamp?? Do you still recommend the vet?

 

[casportpony]

Thanks he's a lot better he's walking on the leg more today the other chicks were stepping on him so I took him in for rest. Also I was looking at his legs again and tey are turning pinkish like the other chick's. if it is a disease will it return? Or do you think it got bruised by the lamp?? Do you still recommend the vet?

If he's getting better, I wouldn't go to the vet, but that's me.

-Kathy