First sick chicken? Video of this morning's strange behavior.

[becklinn77]

Found a chicken acting strange this morning. She (or he) is a 2 1/2 month old Black Copper Marans. When I opened the door and all the other chickens rushed out to the yard as usual, she stayed behind on the roost. I puttered around filling water and such - she just sat there. When I was done I came to check on her - she was quiet but seemed to be making a strange small noise with every breath. I picked her up (she didn't shy away as she normally would) and set her outside by the food. She didn't eat, and when a bigger hen came up to eat, she crawled back in a corner under a ladder (all the littler chickens' favorite hiding place when the big girls are being mean) and sat there making the same sound - but once in a while she makes a louder noise and shakes her head. I'm attaching a video so you can see what I mean. I've never had a sick chicken before - Do you recognize the behavior? What is it? Do I try to treat it? (I am not somebody who will bring her in the house and baby her - if I can give her something that will help I will, but she needs to get well outside or be culled.)

 

[MorningStarTX]

First, is she always so pale?

I recently had one doing similar type things. At first yours seems to be having difficulty breathing, judged just by watching her breathing patterns, so I thought maybe she had an obstruction, but then the sneezing, that's exactly what my girl was doing, which is why I ended up coming back to the forums to research.

The majority of the old responses when I began researching my strange behavior was cull, cull, cull cull. I kept reading, because by that point my roo has started the sneezing and I'd rather loose my whole flock than kill him without really knowing what was going on or at least trying what I could. I've had my roo for 10 years my girls for only 6 months, I was willing to do anything.

In among all the "you have to get rid of them" type post I found one that suggested mites and to dust them. Especially if there was no other symptoms other than the weirdness and sneezing. I mentioned it to my dad about a week later when he was out and he agreed and even flipped my roo over and found a mite that I'd not seen before, that night they got dusted with a stocking full of 5% Seven dust on their backs and have been sneeze free for 2 weeks and are back to their normal selves.

Don't know if it helps any, in 10 years I've never had a chicken behave like this one did, I'm glad who ever it was that posted in it in the prev post I read had posted it, and dad confirmed it. I hope it helps or that you find your solution.

Dawn

 

[becklinn77]

None of these have ever had much color - except a couple I think could be roosters.

Thank you for the advice. I will try it.