HELP!!! Chicken lost tons of weight and is shivering.

[Gabrielle]

Alright so I have a Americana Chicken. She just finished molting and she is normaly the top chicken, but she was getting picked on. She has lost tons of weight and is shivering. She has tons of food to eat crumble/corn but she is skinny as heck. I have never felt a chicken this light, and for a americana this is crazy. Does she have a problem or do I just need to find a way for her to eat some food?

PLEASE HELP!

 

[sourland]

Try to warm her up and make sure that the others are letting her eat. Add some protein to her diet. "Deposed" flock leaders are frequently treated brutally by those they have dominated in the past.

 

[casportpony]

She needs to be inside where it's warm for starters.

 

[Gabrielle]

I currently have her in the house, eating some corn. I am wondering if its a parasite or she just isn't eating enough. Should I consider sending her to the vet?

 

[Eggcessive]

Corn is not high enough in protein. She needs to be just on chicken feed at least 16-20 % protein. Scrambled eggs would be great to give her. Sound like she is just having a hard molt. I would try to move her back outside quickly to be with her group (maybe in a dog crate,) so that she doesn't lose her place in the flock.

 

[casportpony]

I currently have her in the house, eating some corn. I am wondering if its a parasite or she just isn't eating enough. Should I consider sending her to the vet?

If you have the $$$, yes. They can also show you how to tube feed and do subcutaneous fluids.

 

[Gabrielle]

This whole thing might blow away after she is done molting. I am pretty sure it's almost over because her tail feathers are half size. But she has a lot of chicken dandruf and ruff feathers. Do you think she will have a chance of dying before its over?

 

[casportpony]

This whole thing might blow away after she is done molting. I am pretty sure it's almost over because her tail feathers are half size. But she has a lot of chicken dandruf and ruff feathers. Do you think she will have a chance of dying before its over?

If she doesn't have a disease, you keep her in a warm place and give her plenty of high protein food (I use 27% turkey starter and scrambled eggs for my sick ones), she should recover. Keeping her warm is the most important thing right now. If you put her back outside, she probably won't make it.

 

[chkn]

Bad time of year to be in full molt. What she needs is protein. Will she eat or are the others preventing her from eating (you know they are)? Make sure to feed all a little more protein but make sure she gets her own extra. Go out to the farm supply and get a big flock block too because I noticed the picking stopped as soon as I got that last week. A have one who is bottom of the pecking order anyway getting over molt and now she's not so nervous. I always pick at the block a little thru the packaging because some are so hard and stale you'd need a jack hammer for your hens to eat them. For protein, I scramble eggs, get a couple large cans of cheaper cat food, or mix chic starter and yogurt. Do this a couple times a week.

 

[chkn]

Also, yes, if she's shivering, bring her in before she catches her death of cold.