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Help overheated chicken???!

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BaileyMChicks

BaileyMChicks

Songster
May 8, 2015
585
41
111
Wisconsin
Hi I just got back from my local fair, and it was 84-87 degrees the whole time, and I had my cochin banty rooster there. The poultry barn was very hot and he just got home. He isn't doing too well. His face is pale, the tips of his comb are very dark, and he is lathargic. He just lays in the one corner if the room. I brought him inside near the air conditioner and gave him some cold water to drink. He only drank a little and I'm not sure what to do. I have a cold towel next to him. I dont know what to do. Is he going to be ok? Am I doing the right things? Is there something else I can do to help him?
 
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BaileyMChicks said:
Hi I just got back from my local fair, and it was 84-87 degrees the whole time, and I had my cochin banty rooster there. The poultry barn was very hot and he just got home. He isn't doing too well. His face is pale, the tips of his comb are very dark, and he is lathargic. He just lays in the one corner if the room. I brought him inside near the air conditioner and gave him some cold water to drink. He only drank a little and I'm not sure what to do. I have a cold towel next to him. I dont know what to do. Is he going to be ok? Am I doing the right things? Is there something else I can do to help him?
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You do need to cool him down, so it seems you are doing the right thing. I would carefully put him in some cool water, just to soak his feathers and skin. Make sure you hold on and that his head doesn't get in the water. Then take him out, dry him off a bit and keep him in the cool room, but not with the a/c blowing directly on him.

Do you have some poultry electrolytes? You can add them to very cool water and give him a little bit, then wait, then give him some more. This would be very helpful to him. Don't give him something like Gatorade - way too much sugar and other junk.

Good luck. Chickens are pretty sensitive to heat. I hope he pulls through!
 
SilkieNation said:
You do need to cool him down, so it seems you are doing the right thing.  I would carefully put him in some cool water, just to soak his feathers and skin. Make sure you hold on and that his head doesn't get in the water.  Then take him out, dry him off a bit and keep him in the cool room, but not with the a/c blowing directly on him.

Do you have some poultry electrolytes? You can add them to very cool water and give him a little bit, then wait, then give him some more. This would be very helpful to him.  Don't give him something like Gatorade - way too much sugar and other junk.

Good luck.  Chickens are pretty sensitive to heat. I hope he pulls through!
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Thanks. Yeah he's in the room with the A/C on, and the ceiling fan is on too. He is sleeping in the corner next to a curtain right now. I don't think I will completely drench him in water tonight, but I do still have him laying on a cold wet towel and I periodically put a few drops of water under his feathers on his skin to try and cool him down. I put electrolytes I his water;he hasn't drank any since i put the electrolytes in it cuz he was sleeping, but hopefully he will drink more in the morning.
 
BaileyMChicks said:
Thanks. Yeah he's in the room with the A/C on, and the ceiling fan is on too. He is sleeping in the corner next to a curtain right now. I don't think I will completely drench him in water tonight, but I do still have him laying on a cold wet towel and I periodically put a few drops of water under his feathers on his skin to try and cool him down. I put electrolytes I his water;he hasn't drank any since i put the electrolytes in it cuz he was sleeping, but hopefully he will drink more in the morning.
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Sounds like you're taking good care of him. You might want to try to get some water with the electrolytes into him though. He'll do better and feel better. I'll send some good vibes his way.
 
Do you have watermelon? That might temp him to eat a bit and also get some fluids inside him. You may also post at "emergencies, diseases, injuries, cures," thread for more advice.
 
Ok , so when I got up I went and checked on him and he was still sleeping. I kinda woke him up and then I gave him some crackers, and tried to get him to drink water. He ate his crackers and took a few gulps if water and started walking around a bit. So I brought him back out to the coop. He was walking around and eating a bit. So I hope when I check on him later he will b back to his good old self.

And by the way, he is pigion-toed(sorry if I spelled that wrong) and has always had bad balance, but when we brought him home from the fair he was so unbalanced he couldn't really walk. He was in a wire cage all weekend(since Thursday to Sunday) and I hope he is just not used to balancing on ground right now. Or do you think the heat had something to do with it? Because when I went to warped tour a few weekends ago I got over heated and I had a hard time making my way to the medical tent cuz I was soo dizzy and kinda our if balance. I hope he will get better...

And no I do not have watermelon right now, but I will try to buy some this week as later in the week it's going to get hot where i live, and that might help my other chickens to get hydrated and cool down(that's what happens when you give chickens watermelon right? Sorry I'm still a newbie lol. Iv never given my chickens watermelon before, so I'm just inferring).
 
I had an overheated hen before and the same thing happened to her. Except that she was overheated cause she was broody and wouldn't come out of her loft until I locked her out of it. It took her a few days to get back to normal and she was like complete jelly. But she did get better.
I have never given watermellon before either (Excluding the rinds, they get thsoe all the time) but I'll give it a try if it might help all my fluffy hot Silkies!
 
Well, I found out that he also got lice. I believe he picked it up from the fair. He died lady night/early today, most likely from the lice, but I'm not sure. His comb, face, and wattles have been getting paler for a while, and, I think he was just dying... My mom didnt even expect him to live this long(hes about a year abd a half old). When he was a chick, he would have sezures all the time, and his growth was stunted, so he's half the size he should b, and he's a banty, so he's tiny. He also was pigion-toed and can't balance to save his life, and he could never really preen. But he was the sweetest thing. He never pecked at me, never attacked me, nothing. He would let me hold him for sometimes up to 20 minutes. When we first tried integrating him in with the big chicks( we got like 25 chicks that were about a month or 2 older and already in the coop) he would hide behind my legs from the others and just sit on my lap and let me play with his wattles. He will be missed. RIP GG
 

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