Help! Ginger is breathing hard and won't stand! NEW: Ginger died

DesertChickLover

In the Brooder
10 Years
Jun 7, 2009
35
0
22
Mesa, AZ
I'm freaking out. One of my chickens is breathing hard and is laying down. She won't move her legs. She doesn't seem to want to eat or drink anything. We're in Arizona and it's hot here, but the other four hens are acting perfectly normal.

I have her in a large bin on a towel inside. I don't remember any weird symptoms before today. Please help me help her.

1) What type of bird , age and weight. --She is a year old barred rock of average size.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. --described above
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. --I added apple cider vinegar to their water this morning (5 tbsp to 5 gallons).
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. --stock chicken feed and laying pellets, some table scraps (watermelon scraps, apple cores, carrot ends, etc.)
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. --no noticeable difference
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? --brought her inside to cool off
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? --can't afford a vet
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use --outside in a dog run (5'highx5'widex20 long) with three nesting boxes about 2 feet high with a roost above. Bedding has been wood shavings (like for a hamster) and shredded paper.
 
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Pictures of Ginger.

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That ^ is what her bed looks like with the lid on, and I keep the light off.
 
If she got overheated.. force fluids .. like some pedialite ..and dont wrap her up in a towel. She needs to have some cooler air around her and not beeing kept warm like that.
Not sure what else it could be really.. could be a huge number of things.

Do a search for heatstroke or heat exaustion on here.. They have more info on that.
 
I"m very sorry to hear that you lost your girl. I love barred hens.
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Please let us know immediately if any of your other girls appear at all different; perhaps we can help. If your thread disappears, please bookmark this and feel free to email me.
 
I am sorry to hear she passed away... sudden death (heart/pulmonary problems) are quite common in chickens.
I do have some tips for you:
do not dilute the laying ration feed with non layer feed... when your girls are laying age they need the layer ration.
Dont use shredded paper ... they can eat it and it can cause impaction issues.
Offer your girls (free choice > so not mixed in with the feed) live culture yogurt (if it is relaly hot you can freeze it and put it out during the day as a cool treat for them to peck out... mine luv it!)
If you see your birds panting put electrolytes in the waterer ( you can get this at your feed store > make sure you have the proper dosage to dilute with water )
The simple action of panting continuously will cause acidosis and you need to get the electrolytes in the water quick when that happens .
 

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