Help please! 12 week old pullet barely eating and acting lethargic

[MaryTN]

Hi all. We have 11, 12 weeks old hens. Our coop and run are kept meticulously clean, and they've never been exposed to other birds as we ordered them from cackle hatchery and are first time chicken people. I am with the chickens a lot in their covered run (pine pellets on floor over concrete). I noticed yesterday that one of them was hanging back and stood on one leg a bit. Seemed tired. When I tried to give her fresh arugula, it was like she was pretending to pick at it, but ate none. I decided to quarantine her immediately and brought her in the house in a screen tent (which is working well). I decided to clean out and replace all pellets on floor or run and coop and disinfect all waterers and food containers. When doing so, I realized that the Dumor food had mold in it!!!! I'd been giving my birds moldy food for about a week or so and had no idea. I now will be opening new bags of food and placing them in sealed containers. But in the meantime, I'm most worried about my girls. So I've given them all probiotics/ electrolytes in their water. And in order to entice my quarantined girl, I've soaked some bread pieces in the water and she's eaten a little. She has drank a little as well. Stool looks ok right now. Now parasites I can see. She's just lethargic and hardly eating. Is there anything else I should be doing? I am debating taking her to the vet, as most of what I've read is supportive care for mold toxicity combined with the fact that I"m not sure if most vets here Knoxville know what they are doing with chickens. She acts like she can barely pick at the food. I've felt her crop and can't really feel anything. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

[LaFleche]

You might want to give her milk thistle tea and let her have some scrambled egg with oatmeal and millets with some milk thistle extract on top or mixed in.

Poor thing, let us know how she is holding up.

Edit: When did you last de-worm your chickens? And do they have grit?

 

[MaryTN]

They have grit (both chick and adult size). I've only given them medicated crumble. Should I deworm as well? What with? Thank you so much!

 

[LaFleche]

I use Flubendazole 5% 1,2 grams per kg feed for 7 consecutive days.

As I do not know where you are situated you might have to use some other kind of de-wormer available in your country, for instance albendazole or else.

 

[LaFleche]

How is she doing by now?

 

[MaryTN]

How is she doing by now?

We actually realized she had part of her beak missing! She couldn’t peck and eat. So we have her I still and are adding a bit of water to her crumble and she’s been doing extremely well! I’m not sure when we will put her back with our other girls. I’m hoping it will grow back. Thank you for checking in and asking.

 

[LaFleche]

Ouch - poor thing! That surely hurts a lot and it might take some time to grow back you. In the meantime you can provide some scrambled eggs and millet which should be easy to eat even with a hurting beak.

I hope she will recover soon.