Help! She may be dying!

[Siler]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
1yr old Black Austrolorp hen.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Starting yesterday morning she refused to come down from her roost. I let her be. Later on I found her in the coop on the floor drinking water. She was lethargic. I felt something was wrong so I brought her inside, gave her fresh water with electrolytes, and offered her some cat food just to get her to eat something. She was more alert yesterday. Today she is sitting on her chest and breathing heavy. Also she wont open her eyes. Her comb has fallen over. The comb is a normal color. It *may* be a bit blue in a spot.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
24hrs
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
A bare patch on her back where our massive Cornish rooster has jumped her. The skin is yellow and dry there. I don't know where to feel or how to determine an issue.
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
the only thing I can think of is if the Cornish rooster smashed her and damaged something. She's been avoiding him like the plague. The other hens fight back, but she is scared to death of him.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She stopped drinking and eating today. Yesterday she would only eat a piece of cat food here and there.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Watery.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? I brought her inside and offered her food and water. She has no interest in it.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I have to be able to do this myself. I can use a syringe to feed, but have only seen it done a time or two. I don't have any liquid formula, but will do whatever I need.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I can't get the pics to come out. Visibly she's not showing any obvious signs. She's lying on her chest and sleeping.
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
8x8x12 coop. Everyone else is fine. Nasty worthless rooster traumatized all my girls. He may have hurt her.

 

[dawg53]

Keep her seperated. Provide her with plain yogurt, scrambled egg mixed in some of her feed to make a mash and try and get her to eat it. Provide freshwater of course and all you can do is keep an eye on her. I agree that your rooster couldve hurt her. Just in case, visually inspect her for lice/mites.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

I would agree with what Dawg suggested and would follow his suggestions, but also curious, what has the weather been like in your area? A lot of folks have been dealing with heat exhaustion and stroke, with the watery poop you mentioned, heat might of been a cause....

Also curious, has she laid an egg recently? Have you checked to see if she's eggbound?

 

[Siler]

I thought I'd pop in here really quick to say that sadly she died within an hour of making that post. Her comb and wattles were dark blue and she was keeled over. With the heavy breathing and blue comb I had guessed that possibly she may have had a broken rib?

I would still like to know what possibly may have happened so I'll try to fill in more. She did in fact lay an egg yesterday in my laundry room. She just dropped it on the floor. It was cracked and very thin. Seeing the fractures in the egg I thought of an egg just days earlier looking exactly like that one. It was fractured as well and in the nest with the others. Could it possibly be the same egg? What would cause the fractures?

Also yesterday when I brought her in I listened to her. She sounded different. She sounded congested. She even sneezed. Now about 2 months ago I had what I do believe was Infectious Bronchitis sweep through. Only my sex-links got sick and started forming misshapen eggs. Everyone came out ok. Is it possible to have lingered until she was weakened by stress? If so is there a vaccine to prevent this from happening again? Will it work in them now that they've been exposed to it?

Please ask me more questions if you think I'm leaving out something. This has taken me pretty hard. I don't like losing a loved pet. Her name was Penny and she was my gardening buddy. I would dig and she would eat the worms within my flowerbeds. We loved her very much.

 

[Siler]

Oh and it's been very hot and humid here. They're free-range and leave the coop every day so they wander all over the place. What are signs of heat exhaustion? They spend most of the day with their wings out to the side and panting. I make sure they have fresh water all the time. I also feed them more since they're less likely to forage when it's too hot. I feed them a basic layer pellet and also feed them basic premium dog food....Diamond Maintenance right now. Is the dog food too much for them to handle? Should I stop feeding them that? It may not have been the cause, but it doesn't hurt to know these things.

 

[dawg53]

The combination of IB (infectious bronchitis) and heat stress couldve been too much and caused her death. It takes time for a chicken to lay normal eggs after it's infected with IB and becomes a carrier...and is contageous. Most likely the rest of your chickens have IB as well and you must have a "closed flock," meaning you shouldnt sell or give any chickens away, take any chickens in and you must practice biosecurity. I recommend you read up on IB by typing it in the 'search' box. The good news is that the eggs are safe to eat and IB is not contageous to humans. I recommend you switch from pellets to crumbles....easier for them to eat and digest to get proper nutrition. Do not feed them dog food. The only time I might give my chickens extra protein is after worming them. I'll give them canned beef catfood, IF and ONLY IF, I dont have eggs to give them with plain yogurt and/or buttermilk with their crumbles to rebuild their immune system and build their strength up. I'm very sorry for your loss, it always seems it's our favorite hens that that we lose...I can relate.

 

[justbugged]

 

[Siler]

Thanks dawg. I'm going to spend a while on here looking up stuff so I can find out what's going on and treat before something happens again. I planned to get rid of a rooster, but will have to suffer his presence a while longer. I *think* they may have mites as well so I'm going to examine everyone and have a look. It's been horribly hot here and I do try to give them lots of water. I will stop giving them dog and cat food all together and stick with the layer pellets and scratch grains. We just got the premium pellets the other night with all the extra vitamins and we're adding that as recommended which is 1 tsp per bird to their normal feed along with calcium in a dish.

 

[birdsNbeesNseeds]

I know I'm a little late but I thought I would pop on over and say I'm very sorry for the loss of your hen

 

[Siler]

Quote:
Thank you. I'm really stressed out this morning about it. I want to figure out what happened and what I can do to prevent it from ever happening again.