Chicken sitting a sick bird. What do I do??

[thechicksitter]

I have NO idea what I am doing.

I am currently looking after my duplex neighbor's 4 chickens. We share a yard and they asked me to look after things while they're out of state. The owners are young, and obviously very inexperienced, and I've had to ask them to improve the conditions for the chickens several times until they finally started making sure they had clean water and food and a (relatively) clean coop.

One of the chickens became sick several weeks ago and they isolated her, but she hasn't improved and they put her back in with the other chickens. I thought that was a terrible idea (I've had far too many microbiology classes) but the other chickens appear to be completely unaffected. They are all about 5-6 months old at the moment.

The sick chicken used to be the largest and healthiest and was clearly the one in charge. I noticed a couple of days ago that she wasn't getting enough food because the other chickens wouldn't let her. So I started feeding her separately but as of today, the other chickens have started violently pecking her.

Symptoms: very lethargic, barely moves. She clearly seems to be very uncomfortable. She just lays next to her droppings with flies around. She'll only move if she's prodded and will lay backdown immediately. She looks like she weighs less, but I never held her before she was sick so I'm not sure if that's the case. She's still eating and drinking and from what I can tell, her poop looks normal (I never thought I'd google photos of chicken poop). I haven't noticed any coughing, wheezing, discharge, or diarrhea. No shedding, no pecking at herself.

I have not examined her very closely because I have recently had chemo and don't want to risk being exposed to anything dangerous, but I haven't noticed any bugs either. It didn't feel like she had an egg stuck.

I'm not sure of the breed. She's black and white and from photos on google, I think she looks the most like an Anconda. But she doesn't have a comb. I feel like I've searched the entire internet, and I still just don't know what to do. The neighbors weren't able to find a local vet who worked with chickens when she first got sick.

Does anyone have ANY advice on what to do? I've had a couple of people tell me it would be kinder to put her down but that seems extreme.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. At this age she could be showing symptoms of possible Mareks disease, but other things may cause her symptoms. Since she is lying down a lot, any droppings stuck to her bottom could attract flies which can infest her vent with maggots. I would isolate her inside a garage or basement in a dog crate with food and water. Put some poultry vitamins with electrolytes(SaveAChick is good,) or place a vitamin BComplex tablet in her water with some Gatorade.

 

[thechicksitter]

Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate the input!

I'm am now 99% sure that she is a Mottled Java.

I went ahead and brought her inside my house inside a dog crate since it was very hot and humid outside. She was very weak and wobbly/shaky when standing. I examined her vent and there wasn't any sign of bugs or infection. I've been feeding her fresh veggies, liquid vitamin complex like you suggested, and non flavored pedialyte and water.

Today she was standing up a lot more and seemed to be a bit more steady on her feet. She still sleeping most of the time though. But she seems a bit better. At one point it almost sounded like she purred. I wonder if she really just needed to be separated and properly fed? I'm not sure if she's ever been fed anything other than pellets. And there's no telling how long the others had been keeping her from eating.

We tried to see if she was up to going outside, but she never left the crate when we put it out there. So she's back inside. She's eating voraciously. Poop still seems normal. But still just laying around. She poops where she's laying and just sits on top of it.

On the other hand, the other three chickens are currently at least 50 feet up in the air in a tree. Their wing clipping appears to have been unsuccessful.... I'm not sure what to do about that. When I tried to put them in their coop for the night, they got really vocal and agitated and flew up in the trees. We just had a short, but intense storm and they never came down.

The sick one is the only tame one. I'm worried that even if she gets stronger, the others will keep attacking her if she's put back outside with them.