Chicken cold?

[Hannah Picard]

I have a black cochin bantam pullet (around 6 mo. old) who lives out in my barn. When I went out to check on her this morning, the area around her eyes was very pale and puffy. One of her eyes was also crusted shut. I cleaned off her eye and made sure that there was nothing physically wrong with the eyeball. She naturally has fairly pale combs and waddles, but they looked especially so this morning. I've heard a little bit of sneezing over the past couple of days as well, but at first I thought it just might be dust etc. Are there any possible issues/ ideas as to what she has or needs?

FYI-- it is fairly cold outside here. It is averaging around 30 degrees Fahrenheit in my barn. She has access to warm water and chicken feed. She lives alone.

Thanks!

 

[Hannah Picard]

Just thought I would add-- she just recently began laying eggs. She laid three eggs in a row (about a week ago) and hasn't laid one since.

 

[Wyandottes7]

It could be a respiratory disease. Respiratory diseases are especially prevalent in the wintertime. If she's the only one with any symptoms, you may want to think about isolating her from the other birds. Give electrolytes and probiotics, and keep her warm and well fed. If you don't see improvement, get some antibiotics. Good antibiotics include Duramycin, Terramycin, Tetroxy HCA-280, and Tylan50.

 

[silkiechick1994]

Isolate immediately and start dosing with Tylan 50. I just went through this with my flock and it scared me to death.I really thought I was going to lose my entire flock with this dreadful disease. With tylan 50 (it's an injection but you can give it orally) 1/4 of a cc for a bantam and 1/2 cc for a full sized bird. This stuff does amazing things. You can get it at the co op or a tractor supply. Something that someone needs to mention is that when your birds get this, they will ALWAYS have it. For the rest of their lives they will be the carriers of this disease. If you trade a bird or sell one, you will be infecting another persons flock with that disease and no one wants that. I really hope your chickies get better and fight it off. It's so hard to lose one.Best of luck!

 

[Hannah Picard]

Thanks for your help! I have made sure that she had plenty to eat and lots of warm water. I also turned on a heat lamp. She showed almost immediate improvement. Within 2 days she had stopped sneezing. However, her eye area is still pale a swollen (several weeks later), and the rest of her face is pale. She's still molting, could this be part of it? I also recall that with my free range birds, they had very pale faces, combs, and wattles until they started laying eggs regularly (she still molting, and hasn't laid any more)

I haven't given her any medicine yet, but if you still think it would be a good idea, I can pick some up. Will giving her Tylan 50 or Sulfa hurt if she doesn't actually have anything? Are they a "might not help, but won't hurt" sort of thing?

I can post pictures if you think it would help.

Thanks!

 

[Hannah Picard]

Okay, so I went out to check on her late last night, and I noticed a huge amount of mites crawling all over the poor thing :-( That must be why her comb and wattles are so pale. I'm going to bathe her vigorously today and keep her in the garage while I clean and dust her cage. I'm pretty positive that this is the source of the problem-- I'm glad I went out and was able to catch it.

 

[enola]

You will have to make sure you kill the bugs in the chicken house. The bugs you saw crawling all over her crawled off in the morning and hid on the roost. They are waiting for her to come back to the roost to feast again. ........

 

[Hannah Picard]

Yes, I will be sure to be very thurough I'm hoping to be able to keep her in the garage for a week. If I dust/spray her pen every day and there's nothing for them to eat, I'm hoping to have eliminated the problem. Only time will tell, I guess.
They only live to be a week old, right? If I were to keep her out of the pen for 2 weeks, wouldn't that be the end of all the mites/eggs?

Thanks!

 

[enola]

Is she the only chicken you have?

 

[Hannah Picard]

No, she's not. However, she's a 4-H show chicken and has a pen all to herself. There is a rooster in a separate pen from her who is in her general vicinity-- I'll be sure to keep tabs on him, too. I checked his pen and person last night, and didn't see any signs of mites.