Chicken not eating, not moving a lot. Can walk.

[Keg]

Hey all,

I know this is a little lazy - I will be searching around to see if anyone else has come across this too, but I'm fairly worried.

One of my Isa Brown hens, about 2 or 3 years old, has become really quiet and forlorn looking. She hasn't eaten for a couple days, and wouldn't even take any of her favourite treats offered to her.

Her crop doesn't feel impacted - it just feels empty. I'm not sure if I can feel an egg/mass in her abdomen, but not quite sure what that should feel like.

Gave her a warm bath for about 15 minutes, and she pooped a little bit afterwards. Drying her off with a hair dryer at the moment, keeping her indoors tonight.

I did put some olive oil around her vent, hoping that if she's egg bound, she'll work it out.

Also - possibly of no consequence - she cranes her neck on the odd occasion, and sometimes tilts her head sideways a little - but don't read too far into that, it's pretty occasional.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks!
Chris

 

[tammye]

sorry not sure, but do you live in a cold climate? I have found two of my smaller hens taking this extreme cold a little harder than the rest. Just standing around, not moving much not eating much. I took them into a warmer area, say 45 degrees at night when it went below zero, gave them warm fresh corn at night to keep them warmer and some electrolyte solution in their water, seemed to work they act a lot better these days, may help.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Has she been wormed? sometimes craning the neck even if just on occasion could be gape worm, worms can bring a chicken down fast even kill if left untreated.
http://healthybirds.umd.edu/Disease/Deworming Birds.pdf

 

[Keg]

Thanks for the replies

It's warm here in Australia at this time of the year - tonight's low will be 19c/66f, tomorrow's high 31c/88f.

She's doing better today - eating and drinking a bit, which is a good sign! She was kept indoors last night, and did a pretty normal looking poop. Her abdomen doesn't feel swollen and she's not sore anywhere - she spent some of the afternoon grazing and nibbling grass seeds today, back to her usual ways. I gave her a cooked mashed egg with some vegetable oil mixed in, and a teaspoon of sugar for some energy. She ate about half of that.

I looked up gape worm - thanks for the link. Not sure that's what she's got, but I'll worm her and her two companions anyway just in case.

A hen breeder gave me some Levamisole powder in a ziplock bag a little while ago, and told me to add it to their water. Only problem is, I'm not sure how much - does anyone have experience with Levamisole, to give me a rough idea? E.g half a teaspoon in two litres of water?

Thanks again
Chris

 

[spish]

is it possible she's moulting? does she look 'rough' in the feather department? i know my chickens go off food and keep themselves to themselves during a moult....

 

[Miss Lydia]

you can also buy valbazen and use it solely for worming, it kills all forms of worms. but heres another post by 3 horses that might help also. f you see roundworms, then there's a strong infestation. You will rarely ever see worms in the droppings otherwise. Not even if they have a medium infestation.

For Wazine 17 (piperazine 17%) you use one ounce wazine per one gallon of water. Or two measuring spoon Tablespoons of wazine per one gallon. Give as their sole source of water for 24 hours. Then remove from the coop. Retreat in 14 days with wazine, or consider treating them with a more broad spectrum wormer like fenbendazole, levamisole, or ivermectin.

My personal feeling on worms differs slightly from that of Damerow. I feel that it's best to worm twice annually and decrease the possibility of illness in the flock. My first worming I use wazine and then during the necessary re-dose (you must always repeat piperazine worming) use the stronger wormer. Then I use the stronger wormer twice annually for those birds thereafter.

New birds in the flock go through the wazine then stronger regimine unless they're chicks. I worm chicks at four months with ivermectin and put them in rotation with the adults for twice yearly.

Parasites literally scar the digestive tract as they burrow into it. Each scar in the digestive tract is one more place where nutrients can't absorb. I highly disagree that this is the way to go. I also disagree with constant worming (unless there are constant infestations, and then there's a problem with the caretaking.)

Additionally, worms decrease the immune system of birds, steal the nutrients, irritate the digestive tract, make the bird more susceptible to other digestive tract illnesses by stressing the good bacteria of the gut, increase incidences of coccidiosis (even in adults), and spread to healthy birds.

I totally believe in ecological balance, but in moderation. If you wait til you see worms, you're waiting too long.

The ideal way of doing things would be to test three or four random birds in a flock using a "fecal egg count" from a vet to see if you need to worm two or three times a year. That way it's less invasive and lets you know when to treat. For someone trained in that, it would be the best way. Or if you have a good vet who will let you just bring in a few fecal samples and charge you for that, not the visit.

p.s. (added shortly after) I was trained in doing fecals when i worked as a vet tech for a while. Honestly, I'm thinking that the equipment to do that again is going to be my "Christmas present" this year.

Alternatively, there are places online to which you can send fecal samples if you're interested. Foy's offers the service. (Call ahead to make sure they do fecals for poultry): http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/8000.html I believe there are other places online, too.
Last edited by threehorses (07/11/2009 9:02 pm)
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#3 07/11/2009 10:11 pm
GardenerGal
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Re: To Worm or Not? And, Piperazine dosage for bantams?
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