chicken dying, no appetite, sleeps all the time, HELP!

[Chicken Dreams]

Hi

My poor chicken has been isolated for about ten days and not much improvement if any

She is such a sad sight super skinny, ruffled and missing feathers. i have searched for mites

and maybe, maybe, there are tiny black specks. are those mites?

she is really weak though and winter break only lasts four more days (four days for me to

baby her along) so what should i do

thanks for helping

 

[Lesa]

Is she eating, drinking, pooping? Have you tried giving her some added vitamins? I assume she has not laid an egg during this time? You will have to decide if she is really suffering, and if so, you will have to put her down. Unfortunately, this is a responsibility of a chicken owner. Good luck!

 

[tammye]

So sorry, not to sure what to say but you can look up mites in the search engine, may give you some info. I have read that they can make the hen weak, since they draw blood. You can try to give her some electrolyte solution in her water, may help her. How old is she? any respiratory symptoms? sneezing, coughing, runny eyes, ect...? keep her warm if you live in a cold climate and keep her from the others, they seem to know when someone is sick and tend to pick on them. Hope someone here can help you. I had a hen last summer that was sleepy, weak, stood with eyes closed, did not keep up with the flock while out. i took her in feed her freash corn, since she loves it and gave her small amounts of water right in her mouth with electrolyte solution in it, she did get better in a few days, try to give her some vitamins for chickens also, hope it helps. Good luck

 

[Judy]

The tiny black specks are probably your problem. You need to treat, aggressively, for lice and mites. You need to check for them at night with a flashlight around the ven and under the wings; some are only on the birds at night. They will kill a chicken if it is infested enough. Simplest treatment is probably Sevin; you can probably also get poultry dust at the feed store. You will have to clean and treat the coop as well. And the birds will need more than one treatment, as it won't kill the eggs, so you need to get the ones that hatch later. Here are some good links:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=425486

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

If you are convinced that lice/mites are not the problem, next guess would be worms, depending how old your birds are and whether you worm them with a chemical wormer.

There are, of course, other things that could be wrong. But chickens need to be treated for lice/mites (they are almost unavoidable) periodically, and they need worming periodically, anyway.

 

[Chicken Dreams]

Oh thank you thank you!

i did a head to toe to vent search and the poor babe has bugs all over her bottom

i am heading to D and B tomorrow and hopefully she will be on her way to wellness

i looked up chicken mites and lice (gross) and it seems like she may have a couple

different kinds. there are ones that look like sesame seeds and little black ones too.

i cleaned the coop and dusted with some sevin powder and i will dust the other birds too.

now i learned to check regularly! thanks so much it saved her life

 

[Judy]

You're quite welcome.

Hang around here and you will learn bunches that will make your life and your chickens' life much better. Worked for me. Like worming. If you do it with ivermectin once in a while, for example, it will kill the lice/mites, too.