Chicken Down

[tonygibbs]

Its been 3 days now and one of our chickens just sits on the ground and won't move. This is night and day. We are feeding water and food by hand but I don't want to do this forever. The temperature is mild in the cage and the other 2 chooks are fine. She seems alert but just wont get up Can any one help???

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you checked her over good for injuries? feet for bumble foot? also try to give her baby vitamins without iron in her water. Also check her for lice and mites. She might eat some plain yogurt. How old is she and is she laying yet? Also welcome to BYC

 

[HyLinda]

My rooster is down also. I put him in a crate in the barn and carry him to the front yard for sunshine a few hours a day. I had checked under his feathers pretty thoroughly (I thought) for creepy crawly things and didn't see any.

Then today I was getting ready for work, put him back in the crate and picked up his water dish - and then I saw them

CRAWLING UP MY ARM!!

I ran into the house, threw my clothes in the washer and jumped into the shower. Still made it to work on time. DH went to TSC to get some dusting powder for mites. I hope that will be the cure for my rooster and maybe for your chicken too.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Don't forget to clean out the coop and spray or dust it down real good then repeat both chickens and coop in 7-10 days.

 

[jjthink]

3 days is a very long time to be down. As mentioned above, have you checked really closely for any injuries? When you say 'cage' what do you mean? Also as mentioned above, do completely clean out their living quarters and provide all fresh material. Do give vitamins - you can use a dropper to gentle dribble 3 drops Polyvisol liquid children's vitamins along her beak line daily (so she swallows on her own and doesn't choke - follow with good tasting treat like cut up blueberries as the taste to the vitamins seems pretty gross). What is her poop like - see if it's normal or not.
JJ

 

[tonygibbs]

Thanks to every one for the advise I will try the baby vitamins.
They have been in a chicken cage for 6 months and I built a new one last week and put the chickens in and the next day one went down
Seems the new cage might have some thing to do with the problem
Could a rat have bitten her Is this possible?
I've now isolated her

 

[easttxchick]

Is she of laying age yet?

 

[jjthink]

I still don't know what you mean by cage. What size? Please describe as best you can their living arrangement, diet, - - literally everything you can think of to help people help you help her. This is urgent.
JJ