Hen sleepy

[cherylcohen]

All of a sudden our gold laced wyandotte started sleeping a lot. She perches and then falls fast asleep even burying her head in her wings in the afternoon and early evening. She's the smallest of all her girls but is eating and drinking well. She is 18 weeks and we had a litter mate of hers died of Merak's a few weeks ago. Could she be coming down with it too

 

[cherylcohen]

here's her laying on my arm,she still pecked at the scratch i put out and the tuna tonight, but she's smaller than the others and just sleepy. She's not being pecked by anyone.

 

[hinkjc]

Was the one that died of Mareks confirmed with a necropsy? The reason I ask is if it wasn't, then you could have something else going on. Sleepiness is not a sign of mareks, so maybe sharing some of your other girl's symptoms will help with this one too.

Please look at the Sticky at the top of this forum and answer as many questions as you can.

How are her stools? Has she ever been wormed? Any sign of bugs? Is she in moult? Has she lost weight - can you feel her keel bone? Does her crop have food or seem full/empty? Can she hold her weight/walk?

 

[cherylcohen]

I'm not sure what you mean by a sticky at the top of the forum, but here are some answers

Also I just went out and let them out and Dottie was sleeping under the nesting boxes - very unusual. Also she was the last out of the hen house and while everyone else is eating, drinking and running around she was just walking around a bit, very slowly, a bit wobbly. Her head seems to be cocked to one side most of the time. She flew up a few feet to her favorite perch and almost fell off

How are her stools? I don't know
Has she ever been wormed? we have DE in their food and had recently had amprol in their water
Any sign of bugs? No
Is she in moult? No only 18 weeks
Has she lost weight - can you feel her keel bone? She may have lost weight, she's the smallest out of 9
Does her crop have food or seem full/empty? Last night it didn't have much in the crop
Can she hold her weight/walk? She a bit unsteady, she walks very deliberately.

I might also add that the local ranch that we got her and 3 other (one that died of what we think was meraks), we were told that her ranch has Meraks

should I separate her? At this point I'm not sure if that really will do anything since they have been living together for the last 6 weeks. None of the chickens are pecking her

 

[cherylcohen]

Can anyone help?

 

[hinkjc]

The only thing that keeps coming to mind is cocci. But if you just treated, it wouldn't make sense. Maybe a resistent strain? No one else is showing any symptoms at all? If you could see her stools, it may help identify what's going on with her. I would probably isolate her to get a stool sample. You could take it to any vet and have it analyzed for parasites and coccidiosis.

If she has Mareks, it should take her off her legs. So far, this does not sound like Mareks.

Have you inspected her thoroughly? No signs of injury, bites, wounds, etc?

 

[cherylcohen]

Yes I was holding for a long time last night, very unusual as she wasn't squirming as usual just very content snuggling in my arms

 

[cherylcohen]

Do you think I should treat again using amprol 128. She doesn't seem to be eating I'm going to isolate her now

 

[hinkjc]

I would not retreat with the same med. I would try Sulmet and isolate her to monitor. I hope she pulls through and others see this and have other ideas for you.

 

[cherylcohen]

going down now to check on her and isolate her, sulmet better than amprol 128?