help - over heated pullet

[saddina]

Today the temp rose quite fast, and our RIR pullet (18 weeks) is overheated and quite limp, I bought her in, misted her with water, and syringe fed her 1/4th C of water, what else can i do for her?

 

[M@M@2four]

Just try to keep her nice and cool. I know sometimes our reaction is to hydrate them, but I have had that backfire and the chicken actually died. You want to get her cool and then offer her drink(pedialyte works well). I know a friend of mine had this happen and she cooled her over-heated chicken by taking ice packs and placeing them under her wings...hope this helps!!

 

[saddina]

The ice packs seem to be helping, the kids are freezing plastic soda bottle "air conditiong" for the girls now. She's secretly my favorite, and the alpha hen, so i'm glad she;s pulling thru.

Summers here are 100 degrees easy, so I'm hoping to avoid a repeat.

 

[MoodyChicken]

This happened to one of my birds. I tried everything I could. He died in my hands 5 hours later. On a happier note, it happened again and I saved the bird with little effort.

Offer water with electrolytes and cool the core body temp. Dipping them in cold water works fairly well. Be sure to cool under the wings best, that's where most of the heat radiates. The abdomen is pretty hot too. Try not to shock the system though, a gradual cooling is best, a sudden temp change can do more harm than good. Rescue Remedy is good too.

 

[saddina]

She's now giving me vaugly dirty looks, I think for all the indignaties she just had. I think she'll spend the night in the house and rejoin the flock tomorrow.

 

[M@M@2four]

How did she do through the night?

 

[LynneP]

One of my friends in Australia digs a 'swamp cooler' for her hens. It's a hole, smoothed and lined with damp sand and over it she hangs wet towels to evaporate the water and keep the air moving. She also provides frozen pop bottles as you are doing and places a chunk of ice in their water in the shade. It's a huge issue- chickens fare better in cold than heat. Oh and NO CORN- it makes their body temp far too high. Good luck with your baby.

 

[saddina]

She didn't make the night. The 3 remaining girls are sorting out the new pecking order today. There is corn in the feed they have and I'm going to see if I can find a corn free "summer" feed in case.

 

[Paws2u]

I am so sorry she didn't make it. Good luck with the other three.