Hello, I am a newbie and we need some advise with our sick chicken. We have had Millie (our sick cochin hen) and our other 2 bantams since April (4 months or so). They have been healthy since we got them, and we are very good about keeping the coop, drinking dish, and food dish clean. None of the other chickens are showing signs of illness and we removed Millie from the rest of the chickens this morning and placed her in dog crate in our kitchen.
About 4 days ago we noticed Millie wasn't as social as she usually is (she is the top hen and not afraid of anything, not even our dog). The past two days she has gone down hill and just lays in the grass and doesn't move. The chickens sleep in a locked coop during the night and while we are at work, but they free range in our fenced city backyard when we are home. She has been moving in and out of the coop to sleep at night, but doesn't want to move during the day.
We don't know what is wrong, as she doesn't have any wounds, her comb seems to be a normal color, she is not laying and is not brody, no signs of bad mites, and no worms in her stool.
Here is some additional information:
1) What type of bird , age and weight:
Bantam cochin, 1 yr 4 months, weight unknown (maybe 4-5 lbs - we don't have a scale)
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lethargic, eyes closed unless we call for her loudly, her head is tucked in and leaning to one side, and her tongue is strangely sticking out the left side of her beak - kind of like she is either really parched or her tongue is broken (can that happen?!). She will not eat, will not drink, and her stool was yoke-like (runny clear, white, and yellow) this afternoon and stringy white/dark green this evening.
She has never refused scratch before and we have tried hand feeding her olive oil with ground scratch without any luck. She will not drink water from an eye dropper or syringe. It kind of seems like she wants to eat the food, but can't peck at it because her tongue is in the way or something?.
I checked her crop if it was hard and it seemed soft. She has always been big breasted and it doesn't look like it has grew at all. Her weight appears to be a little less that normal, probably because she is not eating like a pig as usual.
3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma?
No.
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
We are thinking either she has gotten into some moldy leaves that we pulled from our garden, eaten a toxic plant that we don't know about, or has a parasite. I have been looking on the internet and this forum all day and I have not found anything that matches her symptoms exactly.
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all?
No food or water (that we can tell) for the past 2 days. I think I got a little water in her with the dropper today, but not much.
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Her stool was yoke-like (runny clear, white, and yellow) this afternoon and stringy white/dark green this evening.
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Brought her inside our kitchen in a dog crate with fresh water and three different types of food (scratch, ground scratch with olive oil, and her normal food of organic feed layered with oyster shells and grit. We have not given her any antibiotics or electrolytes. I want to figure out what is wrong first.
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
We would like to treat her ourselves, but plan to call a vet and our local university for some advise tomorrow (when it is not the weekend).
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I will try to post a picture of her tongue sticking out.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use.
Normally it is pine shavings inside the coop with cedar chips on the bottom of the run of the coop. Right now she is on a towel in the dog crate.
I hate to say that we have a favorite out of our three chickens, but Millie is the favorite and we are worried we might loose her. Please let me know if you have any advise in treating our sick hen.
Thank you in advance!
About 4 days ago we noticed Millie wasn't as social as she usually is (she is the top hen and not afraid of anything, not even our dog). The past two days she has gone down hill and just lays in the grass and doesn't move. The chickens sleep in a locked coop during the night and while we are at work, but they free range in our fenced city backyard when we are home. She has been moving in and out of the coop to sleep at night, but doesn't want to move during the day.
We don't know what is wrong, as she doesn't have any wounds, her comb seems to be a normal color, she is not laying and is not brody, no signs of bad mites, and no worms in her stool.
Here is some additional information:
1) What type of bird , age and weight:
Bantam cochin, 1 yr 4 months, weight unknown (maybe 4-5 lbs - we don't have a scale)
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lethargic, eyes closed unless we call for her loudly, her head is tucked in and leaning to one side, and her tongue is strangely sticking out the left side of her beak - kind of like she is either really parched or her tongue is broken (can that happen?!). She will not eat, will not drink, and her stool was yoke-like (runny clear, white, and yellow) this afternoon and stringy white/dark green this evening.
She has never refused scratch before and we have tried hand feeding her olive oil with ground scratch without any luck. She will not drink water from an eye dropper or syringe. It kind of seems like she wants to eat the food, but can't peck at it because her tongue is in the way or something?.
I checked her crop if it was hard and it seemed soft. She has always been big breasted and it doesn't look like it has grew at all. Her weight appears to be a little less that normal, probably because she is not eating like a pig as usual.
3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma?
No.
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
We are thinking either she has gotten into some moldy leaves that we pulled from our garden, eaten a toxic plant that we don't know about, or has a parasite. I have been looking on the internet and this forum all day and I have not found anything that matches her symptoms exactly.
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all?
No food or water (that we can tell) for the past 2 days. I think I got a little water in her with the dropper today, but not much.
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Her stool was yoke-like (runny clear, white, and yellow) this afternoon and stringy white/dark green this evening.
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Brought her inside our kitchen in a dog crate with fresh water and three different types of food (scratch, ground scratch with olive oil, and her normal food of organic feed layered with oyster shells and grit. We have not given her any antibiotics or electrolytes. I want to figure out what is wrong first.
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
We would like to treat her ourselves, but plan to call a vet and our local university for some advise tomorrow (when it is not the weekend).
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I will try to post a picture of her tongue sticking out.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use.
Normally it is pine shavings inside the coop with cedar chips on the bottom of the run of the coop. Right now she is on a towel in the dog crate.
I hate to say that we have a favorite out of our three chickens, but Millie is the favorite and we are worried we might loose her. Please let me know if you have any advise in treating our sick hen.
Thank you in advance!
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