Help Please! Sick Chick? or Injured Chick? (w/Pictures)

itsren

Songster
7 Years
Apr 19, 2012
2,997
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Pacific Northwest
If someone could please help! I'm not sure if our Light Brahma is sick or injured. Was she sick and then get injured by the other two? Poop picture below.

We have three pullets (5 weeks, 4 days old). This morning I noticed that my Light Brahma was very lethargic. She wasn't moving much. When I went to clean the brooder she climbed into the sand container and just sat there. Our Rhode Island Red (RIR) and Easter Egger (EE) were just as spunky as normal. They even both took a dust bath with the Light Brahma in the sand pit. The Light Brahma didn't even move as the other two flopped around on top of her.



Our RIR and EE were as busy as usual flying up and down from the perch. That said, we have never seen our Light Brahma fly up to the perch, so the fact that she stayed below should not have been too alarming.



This is the RIR and the EE hanging out on the perch. At this point, they seem to be perfectly fine.



This is our brooder. Because we have been away, and it has been raining so much, the girls have been cooped up in the brooder. We set the brooder up to take care of the girls while we moved my mom. Our babysitter did not want to touch the birds. They haven't been out of the brooder for 3 days. The brooder is 2.5 feet wide x 4 feet long. They access their water through a nipple system.



This is the spot in the sand bin that our Light Brahma spent the morning. She has had her feathers ruffled all day. The ruffled feathers were my first indicator that something might be wrong.



I brought our Light Brahma into the house and set her on a towel with a bowl of water. She didn't even try to get up or fly. She just sat there.



We decided to setup a "hospital" brooder - a 2nd dog crate that we have. She finally stood up to eat, but we noticed she's favoring her right leg and hopping on it. She's hardly moving her left leg.



Again, we left her, without the top of the dog kennel on. No attempts to get out at all.



We finally put the top on and she just sits there. She tries to stand up and she ends up hopping and lays back down.



Here is a picture of her poop. The first poop was mostly sand (she eats a lot of sand from the sand container). The 2nd and third poops had these long wormish looking things in them. Is this normal?



Can anyone help us figure out what's wrong with our beautiful little girl? Any advice on what to do? Thanks so much!
 
Feel her crop, and see if it feels hard.
The only thing I see wrong, is maybe she has eaten the wood chips...
Everything seems to be OK in my eyes, the "worm things" in the poop just may be sand.
Or- maybe, she hurt her leg, the perch is a little high up, and she probably is the heaviest bird in there.
I hope someone else can see something I'm not.
Good luck with her!
 
So is the light colored stuff wood chips? It's long and roundish.

If she hurt her leg, what can I do? I asked my husband if he could see an injury because I couldn't - his response was "um, no... it's covered in feathers."
 
So is the light colored stuff wood chips? It's long and roundish.

If she hurt her leg, what can I do? I asked my husband if he could see an injury because I couldn't - his response was "um, no... it's covered in feathers."
Yes. I would keep an eye on her. Would it be possible to build a little stilt type thing??? Does her crop feel different than the other pullets?
 
Her crop feels a lot different. It feels thick and impacted. What can I do for her if she has eaten too many wood chips? She's my "sand eater", too. She eats sand all day long.

Right now we have her on a thick bed of shredded paper, covered by a towel. And... she's trying to eat the paper! Goodness, that bird!
 
No - her leg doesn't feel warmer than the other. But, she won't stand on it any more. I hope our handling her to check her out didn't injure her any more.
 

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