Hello, it just got down to 33 degrees last night - and the last time it did that, one of our Silver Laced Polish died due to an overnight disability of walking or having the appetite to eat or drink. Now, it is one of our last four New Hampshire reds. She's a pullet, exactly 5 months old now, and normally lives in a large shed filled with white pine shavings, but she sleeps in a box-like structure that has hay for a bedding. During her day, she spends most of her time with the other reds, loose in a 5 acre yard of clearcut, lawn, dirt roads, whatever she finds.
This morning, I had to tend to all the chickens, break their icy water, check the temperature in the shed (surprisingly about 40 degrees) and then found her, laying in her personal coop of hay, not moving at all. When I picked her up, she felt stiff like a dead bird in rigor mortis - But she was alive. Her head moved, her eyes moved, her tail adjusted to balance, and her wings were rather limp. When I put her inside for warmth and examination, she got a little more lively (tried flying) but she still cannot move her legs. They are stiff and hardly moveable manually, and she is constantly trying to fall asleep, as if to her death. She won't eat or drink unless I pour water down her mouth, and then once that went - She willingly ate whatever there was in her face.
What is wrong with her? I have a feeling she has whatever the polish had, which in that case - The polish died within, maximum, about two hours after I found her in this state. The polish did indeed have the same symptoms - both are/were also puffy as if cold, and found laying in the hay, not on a perch.
This morning, I had to tend to all the chickens, break their icy water, check the temperature in the shed (surprisingly about 40 degrees) and then found her, laying in her personal coop of hay, not moving at all. When I picked her up, she felt stiff like a dead bird in rigor mortis - But she was alive. Her head moved, her eyes moved, her tail adjusted to balance, and her wings were rather limp. When I put her inside for warmth and examination, she got a little more lively (tried flying) but she still cannot move her legs. They are stiff and hardly moveable manually, and she is constantly trying to fall asleep, as if to her death. She won't eat or drink unless I pour water down her mouth, and then once that went - She willingly ate whatever there was in her face.
What is wrong with her? I have a feeling she has whatever the polish had, which in that case - The polish died within, maximum, about two hours after I found her in this state. The polish did indeed have the same symptoms - both are/were also puffy as if cold, and found laying in the hay, not on a perch.