Help with Lethargic Pullet

[viragovirgo]

Hi, This is my first time with chickens and I've been perusing this board for a several months now. I need some help with one of my pullets (I have 5, 3 different breeds). Here is the info on her:

1) What type of bird , age and weight. She's a buckeye, approx. 15 weeks, and I don't have a weight for her. But she feels lighter than any of my others.

2) What is the behavior, exactly. She is just very slow. She seems to eat well, and seems alert enough, but she walks much slower than the others and sits more. Her tail is generally down. No other signs, poo seems to be normal.

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. None

4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. This behavior seemed to become more apparent when we started letting them free range in the yard about a month ago. But, at that time, we also were around them more instead of just visits out to the pen several times a day. It has also been very hot the last month, high 90s, low 100s.

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I've been giving them a local "pullet developer" feed and vitamins/electrolytes in their water every few days. I've also made the mash for her (honey, boiled egg, oats, etc) which seems to perk her up a bit but then she's back to this same behavior.

6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? Poop seems to be normal. At times it is on the runny side, but not always.

7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Just the mash twice and vitamins/electrolytes in water.

8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? I would prefer to treat myself as my husband is laid off and I'm recovering from medical stuff and we have little money for a vet. (I don't even know if we have one here that treats chickens)

9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. I have pictures but none readily available. I will try to get one of her walking.

10) Describe the housing/bedding in use The pen consists of just dirt floor, the coop is built out of old cedar fencing. Their bedding is cut grass from lawn mower.

Just some side info, I also heard from the lady I got her from that hers, and some others from this same hatch as mine, have been demonstrating the same behaviors, and about the same time frame. (when the heat really kicked up) Is it possible that it is simply heat stress? I have not wormed any of them, although they were on medicated chick starter until about a month ago also. Any advice would be wonderful. I really love her, she's so sweet and docile and we hold her alot. (is that a bad thing?) Maybe we've just made her lazy!! LOL Thank you!

 

[robin416]

It could be the heat, it could be genetic. I would think you have the heat thing covered by putting them on the electrolytes and the birds being able to seek cool places by free ranging.

One other thing I do with mine in extreme heat is set out shallow pans of water that they can stand in. I have several that once they figured it out would just stand there in the water for quite a while.

Sometimes they decline and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Many times its a birth defect that there is no fix for.

 

[viragovirgo]

Thank you. I will keep watching her. I've been going back and forth about whether I should be getting medications like worming, or corid, but I hate to give her something if she doesn't really need it. The others are all fine and since this seems to kind of come and go, I haven't quarantined her because I haven't fully convinced myself that she's sick. Part of me thinks maybe it is just her disposition. Besides being pokey, the only concern I really have is that she doesn't seem to be growing like the others, but she eats well. This is the first time I've had chickens and I'm really enjoying them. My husband is laughing at me and calling me the "chicken whisperer" because I'm always out with them, holding, petting, checking poo, etc. He thinks its funny! Thank you again for your insight. I really appreciate it.

 

[robin416]

You could always spoil her a tad more by feeding her some cooked oatmeal, put a little sugar in it. See if all those carbs perk her up.

When its something like this with no obvious indicators you are very correct not to administer drugs that may do more harm than good.

I do not want to say she doesn't have a heavy load of worms or that it isn't cocci. You could worm them all fairly safely with Wazine and see what happens.

 

[robin416]

I came back because if forgot to ask this, have you checked for mites? Wait until its dark and check her feathers close to her skin for bugs crawling away from the light.

 

[viragovirgo]

I have not yet, although I did buy some of the stuff to treat mites. I thought I could use it as a dust but then found that I have to dip them so I've been hesitant about that. I will check that tonight. Thank you for the great information!!! I did give her some oatmeal and she seemed to like that.

 

[viragovirgo]

I checked her tonight and there was no sign of mites. I'm going tomorrow to buy the wazine and get started on that. When checking her tonight, I noticed that she weighs noticeably less than another one close to her size and she feels awfully thin under all those feathers. But she eats well, just slowly. Her crop was full and felt normal. I'm hoping worming will help because I just don't know what to think. There are no other signs of anything wrong, and like I said, she seems alert and healthy in all other respects. Thanks for the advice!

 

[kathyinmo]

Could the cedar be causing a problem? I know the aroma from cedar is not good for chickens. And the grass from the lawn clippings as bedding? This would not be absorbent for bedding, and might cause mold and so forth.

 

[viragovirgo]

Thank you, I wasn't aware of that. I will change out the bedding and see if I can find something to line the nest with. I went for the wazine and they didn't have it. I did get Ivermectin 1.87% paste (apple flavored) because that is all they had. My question now is, is that too strong to use on them the first time and how much would I give them? Thank you all for the help.....like I said, I'm new to this and your advice has been priceless!

 

[robin416]

Take the paste back, it is formulated for something that ways 100's of pounds so it is a very concentrated dose.

Have you checked her crop? With all that grass as bedding its also possible its wadded up in the crop. One of the reasons not to feed mown grass to our birds.