Help....

[Sunshine77]

I am new at keeping chickens, and when I went out to the coop today one of my buff laced polish chickens (maybe 4 or 5 months old) was standing there with it's head hanging down. Then it sort of rubbed it's face in the shavings and then did like a backwards somersault. Then it flails around. My husband picked it up...but it was very difficult to see anything. Any ideas? We sectioned off a place in the pen for him/her....but not sure what to do. Please help....

 

[purpletree23]

What are you feeding them? A balanced chicken food or something else?

 

[purpletree23]

Are her eyes clear without discharge?

Is she normal weight?

There are a lot of threads on this site that talk about the same problem. Search for somersault and walking crooked. It sounds to me that it is a vitamin deficiency but with out more information it's hard to tell. I would go to the drug store and purchase poly vi sol baby vitamins WITHOUT iron. Give each of your chickens two drops per day for 4 days. Don't force the drops down their throats just use the dropper to drop the vitamins on the side of the beak above the mouth. One at a time. The chickens will open their mouths and swallow them.

Until you get a firm diagnosis it will help without causing any harm or treating her with the wrong medicine. The baby drops are cheaper is you use the store brand. If you can't find them ask the pharmacist.

If you don't get any responses from Back Yard Chicken members you can contact Peter Brown at FirstStateVetsupply.com .

It's not that they don't care it's just a bad time of day. Everyone is at work etc and right now I have to leave for a dentist appt.

 

[Sunshine77]

They were eating organic chicken feed for young chickens...but have started the organic laying mix that my hen gets. They get a piece of fresh vegetable each day (cucumbers today) with pumpkin and sunflower seeds....a bit of yogurt some days and some applecider vinegar in their water every day. Sometimes cooked oatmeal.

 

[realsis]

It does sound like the beginning of a possible vitiman defiency. I have silkies and I've had this happen in several times in my flock. But in my flock this lead to wry neck. The first signs or the beginning of wry neck can appear as summer saults circle walking falling over and all my birds did flips. I was able to sucessfully treat all but one who I lost when the wry neck came around a second time. It wouldn't hurt to try your bird on the wry neck vitamin treatment which consists of giving vitamin E capsules a small amount of selenium to help with absorption of the vitamim E
careful because larger amounts can be toxic but the selenium is very important to help absorb the E vitamin just in very small amounts. Then vitamin B then polyvisol liquid childrens vitamin without iron. If it is the beginning of wry neck it can take up to a month or longer to cure so patience is important. I would start with the vitamins and see how she does.
There are other possibilities it can be also. check her ears making sure she is alright in her ears. I would start with the vitamins and see if she improves. Best of luck and hope this is helpful.

 

[purpletree23]

Organic food from the farm store is usually old, stale and the vitamins tend to go away. The organic is more expensive and doesn't move well.

Unless your household is organic as far as food consumed etc you might want to consider the regular feed. If you want to stay organic, ask for a new bag of feed that is in the back or warehouse. Don't take the older stuff on the shelf. Just be ready for a fight with the salespeople/manager because they never want to get the fresh stuff. Just want to sell the old crap.

 

[Sunshine77]

Thank you all for your responses!
We have her (?) on electolytes, aspirin, Vit e and selinium (sp?), and Poly vi sol. She is starting to get better!!! Slowly............
Thank you all. It is so hard to see her like this!