- Nov 7, 2012
- 2
- 0
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Hi there,
We have a total of 10 chickens, all females. We have 6 older (8 months-3 years) red sex link hens, 2 seven week old Americaunas and 2 seven week old Barred Rocks. We do keep the older ones in a seperate pen and coop. Just the other day we noticed that one of the Barred Rocks would not leave the coop during the day. She just hung out at the door. When she did come down the ramp, she fell asleep standing on the ramp several times. She seems to have some dried food stuck around her beak and appears to be "puffed up" at all times. She does look quite scraggly compared to the other 3 chicks her age. So we brought her in to keep a closer eye on her.
She falls asleep doing EVERYTHING, including eating and trying to groom herself! She doesn't seem to want to drink any water, but tries to eat her medicated feed. I have pulled several pine shavings out of her mouth, along with some dried up food, but there still seems to be a ton of dried food in her beak. It looks like she can't swallow and maybe even some sporadic head movements to the side, like a jerking of her neck a few times. She is chirping just fine, as if she is extremely lonely, and seems to be getting around fine, other than falling asleep non-stop. Also, when I pick her up, I can feel her breast bone, very sharply.
Our local feed store is closed today, due to the holiday, but I'm afraid she is getting worse and won't last too much longer if she isn't able to swallow any food. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Our three daughters come home from a trip tomorrow and we are hoping not to have to give them such sad news about one of their chicks.
We have a total of 10 chickens, all females. We have 6 older (8 months-3 years) red sex link hens, 2 seven week old Americaunas and 2 seven week old Barred Rocks. We do keep the older ones in a seperate pen and coop. Just the other day we noticed that one of the Barred Rocks would not leave the coop during the day. She just hung out at the door. When she did come down the ramp, she fell asleep standing on the ramp several times. She seems to have some dried food stuck around her beak and appears to be "puffed up" at all times. She does look quite scraggly compared to the other 3 chicks her age. So we brought her in to keep a closer eye on her.
She falls asleep doing EVERYTHING, including eating and trying to groom herself! She doesn't seem to want to drink any water, but tries to eat her medicated feed. I have pulled several pine shavings out of her mouth, along with some dried up food, but there still seems to be a ton of dried food in her beak. It looks like she can't swallow and maybe even some sporadic head movements to the side, like a jerking of her neck a few times. She is chirping just fine, as if she is extremely lonely, and seems to be getting around fine, other than falling asleep non-stop. Also, when I pick her up, I can feel her breast bone, very sharply.
Our local feed store is closed today, due to the holiday, but I'm afraid she is getting worse and won't last too much longer if she isn't able to swallow any food. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Our three daughters come home from a trip tomorrow and we are hoping not to have to give them such sad news about one of their chicks.
