This is my first (wonderful) experience with chickens and now one of them is sick.
She's a 15 week old EE and over the past couple of days has just gone downhill.
Day 1 - Didn't make a bee-line for breakfast. Didn't eat or drink much when she got there.
Day 2 - Operating in slow motion. Ambled over to breakfast and hardly ate or drank at all. Didn't stay close to the other three throughout the day. At some point began dropping way more feathers than normal. Her eyes seemed heavy-lidded, a bit.
Day 3 (today) - Didn't leave the coop with the other three for breakfast this morning. I had to pick her up and carry her over to the feed, which is unusual in itself as she never lets me get near her normally. (Too skittish) Today her balance is way off and she almost looks drunk when she walks.
I haven't been able to tell what her poops are like, but haven't noticed that anything around the yard looks diarrhea-ish. Her vent doesn't look dirty. Her eyes aren't dull. She has absolutely no respiratory distress.
I haven't been able to find any website where you can type in symptoms to find a disease and haven't had the time to click on every disease out there.
I don't even know of any good vets around here (Stafford, Va), much less one that knows about chickens.
Do these symptoms sound familiar to any of you? I'm so worried about her but don't know what to do and now I have to go to work. I can't even think about what I might find when I come home tonight. (gulp)
I don't know anyone with chickens so you guys are my only hope. Any help or advice would be HUGELY appreciated.
By the way, she's been solidly white with a couple of black spots but in the last two weeks or so her feathers have slowly been turning a dull brownish. Could that possibly be related?
Thanks,
Anne
Day 1 - Didn't make a bee-line for breakfast. Didn't eat or drink much when she got there.
Day 2 - Operating in slow motion. Ambled over to breakfast and hardly ate or drank at all. Didn't stay close to the other three throughout the day. At some point began dropping way more feathers than normal. Her eyes seemed heavy-lidded, a bit.
Day 3 (today) - Didn't leave the coop with the other three for breakfast this morning. I had to pick her up and carry her over to the feed, which is unusual in itself as she never lets me get near her normally. (Too skittish) Today her balance is way off and she almost looks drunk when she walks.
I haven't been able to tell what her poops are like, but haven't noticed that anything around the yard looks diarrhea-ish. Her vent doesn't look dirty. Her eyes aren't dull. She has absolutely no respiratory distress.
I haven't been able to find any website where you can type in symptoms to find a disease and haven't had the time to click on every disease out there.
I don't even know of any good vets around here (Stafford, Va), much less one that knows about chickens.
Do these symptoms sound familiar to any of you? I'm so worried about her but don't know what to do and now I have to go to work. I can't even think about what I might find when I come home tonight. (gulp)
I don't know anyone with chickens so you guys are my only hope. Any help or advice would be HUGELY appreciated.
By the way, she's been solidly white with a couple of black spots but in the last two weeks or so her feathers have slowly been turning a dull brownish. Could that possibly be related?
Thanks,
Anne