Hen losing balance!! sick!! help!

[ILoveBabyChicks00994]

My 17 months old hen woke up today extremely lethargic, losing balance, and keeps falling on her side. She walks for a couple of steps then falls, her eyes are extremely tired! I gave her some vitamins and electrolytes, fed her fruits, but nothing changed! She was fine and quite active yesterday but this morning she suddenly started getting awful! Please help!

 

[azygous]

Things that cause such symptoms are heat sickness and dehydration, toxin poisoning, coccidiosis, and Marek's. All are life threatening.

With a bit more information,we might be able to help you narrow it down and maybe to one that is treatable.

Location. Please tell us where you live. Add it to your profile so people don't need to keep asking. This tells us if you have been having weather conducive to heat sickness and coccidiosis or if you have an avian disease in your area.

Tell us your hen's habits and what she is fed. Have you checked to see if her feed has gotten wet and has gone moldy. Has she been vaccinated for Marek's?

Does your flock free-range? Access to a compost pile where spoiled food is tossed?

Any recent use of rodent poison or insecticides? Any yard machines in the chicken's yard that leak fluids onto the soil? Has anyone tossed out solvants onto the soil lately such as thinner, or coolants?

Have you imported any topsoil? Used any garden tools that are borrowed?

 

[LaFleche]

My 17 months old hen woke up today extremely lethargic, losing balance, and keeps falling on her side. She walks for a couple of steps then falls, her eyes are extremely tired! I gave her some vitamins and electrolytes, fed her fruits, but nothing changed! She was fine and quite active yesterday but this morning she suddenly started getting awful! Please help!

I would check her and the coop thoroughly for poultry lice and mites. It's the time of the year and they easily can suck the life out of a chicken in one single night.
If they free range, check for any injury she might have sustained by a predator attack.

Feel her crop, is it bloated, squishy, full of gas or liquid? Or rather hard like a golf ball?
What does her poop look like?
When did she last lay an egg?
When did you last deworm?

 

[ILoveBabyChicks00994]

Things that cause such symptoms are heat sickness and dehydration, toxin poisoning, coccidiosis, and Marek's. All are life threatening.

With a bit more information,we might be able to help you narrow it down and maybe to one that is treatable.

Location. Please tell us where you live. Add it to your profile so people don't need to keep asking. This tells us if you have been having weather conducive to heat sickness and coccidiosis or if you have an avian disease in your area.

Tell us your hen's habits and what she is fed. Have you checked to see if her feed has gotten wet and has gone moldy. Has she been vaccinated for Marek's?

Does your flock free-range? Access to a compost pile where spoiled food is tossed?

Any recent use of rodent poison or insecticides? Any yard machines in the chicken's yard that leak fluids onto the soil? Has anyone tossed out solvants onto the soil lately such as thinner, or coolants?

Have you imported any topsoil? Used any garden tools that are borrowed?

I live in Egypt, vaccination isn't available here for pet chickens, only available for certified farms, so she isn't, but I don't think her symptoms matxhes with merek's. Not sure though, is there anything I need to watch out for?

Nope, no poision was placed next to them, no machines in the yard, nope no solvents were thrown near them. They have pigeons living next to them though, can they affect each other? The pigeons are healthy though ):


no, didn't borrow any tools, no changes were made in the yard.



My chicken has a broken beak (I posted about her a lot of times, you can check my thread history to learn more about her and stuff) I hand feed her, sometimes she eats mashed food, her diet is based on fruits and vegetables, since the local feed isn't really a viable around so we home make it.


She was completely normal yesterday, no signs of sickness. I think she had some deficiency ): I can't put my hands on what is causing it though and it's confusing even though her diet is pretty diverse. I feed her three times a day.


She was dizzy this morning, losing coordination, couldn't walk straight, she's just laying down now. Still breathing, but weak heart break, really weak. Body contracting (looks like a sign of death )): ) her neck also keeps moving around in a circle? Then rests back, then forward. She keeps closing her eyes but I try to keep her awake. I'm giving her right now some electrolytes, I don't want to give vitamins again so I don't overwhelm her. I gave her garlic as an antioxidant. Didn't know what commercial one is suitable for chickens so I went with garlic as a safer option, since it's more natural, but it's slow ): I know that. Do I mix eggs with water and give her? Or is it going to be too much with the vitamins I gave her? I also gave her a vitamin mix and another dose of vitamin E. It looks like that's what she's lacking?


): Any advice is appreciated, she's really one of my lovable chickens and she has been a fighter all her life despite her disability.

 

[ILoveBabyChicks00994]

I would check her and the coop thoroughly for poultry lice and mites. It's the time of the year and they easily can suck the life out of a chicken in one single night.
If they free range, check for any injury she might have sustained by a predator attack.

Feel her crop, is it bloated, squishy, full of gas or liquid? Or rather hard like a golf ball?
What does her poop look like?
When did she last lay an egg?
When did you last deworm?

She has another chicken with her in her coop, wouldn't she also be affected by the mites if this one is? She's perfectly healthy. Also I heard that I can see the lice or mites if I spread her feathers, I didn't see anything moving between them. They're ruffled but other than that normal (I know ruffled is just a sign of the hen not feeling well).


Yes! I think it's like a golf ball? Not hard though, I don't want to try to press so I don't hurt her. Her poop is normal, no worms or blood. Two days ago was the last time she layed an egg, it was normal sized, looked healthy when cracked.

 

[LaFleche]

She has another chicken with her in her coop, wouldn't she also be affected by the mites if this one is? She's perfectly healthy. Also I heard that I can see the lice or mites if I spread her feathers, I didn't see anything moving between them. They're ruffled but other than that normal (I know ruffled is just a sign of the hen not feeling well).


Yes! I think it's like a golf ball? Not hard though, I don't want to try to press so I don't hurt her. Her poop is normal, no worms or blood. Two days ago was the last time she layed an egg, it was normal sized, looked healthy when cracked.

Sometimes the mites focus on the sickly chicken only, or at least the one they can reach the easiest.
Poultry mites, the bloodsuckling kind, hide in the crevices of the coop during the day and come out to attack the roosting chickens at night. So go and check carefully at night using a torch or headlight.

You can also use some double sided adhesive tape to determine, if there are poultry mites in your coop: Just wrap it closely to the ends of the roosts where the meet the coop walls, and any mites trying to get to your chickens will stick to the tape. The mites leqaving the chicks after their blood meal will also stick to the tape, when trying to get back into their hideouts.

What exactly are you feeding her? Too much fruit can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

If you are unable to get fresh chick starter or similar, I would feed her some scrambled eggs with millet, grated carrots, vegetable oil, sesame seeds, fine oat meal and natural yoghurt at least 5 times a day.
Crushed wheat, barley and corn always available, as well as grit/rough sand and calcium in form of dried and crushed egg shells etc.

What about the deworming?

 

[ILoveBabyChicks00994]

Sometimes the mites focus on the sickly chicken only, or at least the one they can reach the easiest.
Poultry mites, the bloodsuckling kind, hide in the crevices of the coop during the day and come out to attack the roosting chickens at night. So go and check carefully at night using a torch or headlight.

You can also use some double sided adhesive tape to determine, if there are poultry mites in your coop: Just wrap it closely to the ends of the roosts where the meet the coop walls, and any mites trying to get to your chickens will stick to the tape. The mites leqaving the chicks after their blood meal will also stick to the tape, when trying to get back into their hideouts.

What exactly are you feeding her? Too much fruit can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

If you are unable to get fresh chick starter or similar, I would feed her some scrambled eggs with millet, grated carrots, vegetable oil, sesame seeds, fine oat meal and natural yoghurt at least 5 times a day.
Crushed wheat, barley and corn always available, as well as grit/rough sand and calcium in form of dried and crushed egg shells etc.

What about the deworming?

I give her corn and barley next to the fruits. I do feed her eggs and carrots as well. I only feed yoghurt occasionally because I know they can't digest diary but it's a good antibiotic so I give it to them with limits.


I tried roosting crushing eggs once but I failed so I just give her a calcium supplement, but I give it to her twice a week. To all my hens in general. Most stuff isn't really available here since raising chickens for anything that isn't food isn't common at all, so I always try to work with what I have ): I know it's not enough sometimes, but other things like medicated feed and so aren't sold here and if I ordered online it will be approximately triple the price ):

I don't give dewormers unless I see a sign of worms in their poop or have their eymptoms match it, her poop is watery but no sign of worms in it.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Intestinal parasites can be at play too, and it's not likely you'll see them in her excrement. Some volume of internal parasites are normal, but an overabundance can be fatal as they rob the bird of the nutrients its taking in for it to live. We've had chickens that appeared perfectly healthy an hour before, and die the next due to worms :-( Lesson learned!

Do you de-worm your flock? If not, NOW is the time and put them on a regular de-worming schedule rotating among products that treat different parasites. Diatomaceous Earth (DE) sifted into their bedding, around feed areas, mixed into their feed, and in areas where they dust bathe will also help keep worms at bay. You can even fluff the DE into their feathers by hand to control external parasites - just try to cover their heads while you do it so they don't breathe much of the DE.

Good luck with your girl!

 

[ILoveBabyChicks00994]

Intestinal parasites can be at play too, and it's not likely you'll see them in her excrement. Some volume of internal parasites are normal, but an overabundance can be fatal as they rob the bird of the nutrients its taking in for it to live. We've had chickens that appeared perfectly healthy an hour before, and die the next due to worms :-( Lesson learned!

Do you de-worm your flock? If not, NOW is the time and put them on a regular de-worming schedule rotating among products that treat different parasites. Diatomaceous Earth (DE) sifted into their bedding, around feed areas, mixed into their feed, and in areas where they dust bathe will also help keep worms at bay. You can even fluff the DE into their feathers by hand to control external parasites - just try to cover their heads while you do it so they don't breathe much of the DE.

Good luck with your girl! I hope

I never knew about that, I usually only deworm when I see signs of worms I'll do a regular routine for them for now on though ):


Thank you! She is still doing really bad, it's so sad how she was just fine some hours ago! I just gave her an antibiotic, hope it works, will give her a dewormer after a while ): hope it works, she's so weak and can't even walk at this point. Not looking good at all ):

 

[LaFleche]

I don't give dewormers unless I see a sign of worms in their poop or have their eymptoms match it, her poop is watery but no sign of worms in it.

Watery poop is one of the many symptoms caused by worms.
Overall weakness, neurological disorders, crop dysfunctions, you name it.

Worms will rarely be seen in the poop, as they often stick to the intestines or even form a tangled mass that can obstruct the intestinal passage.