How best to put a sick chicken to bed for the night?

[Petrichoryl]

It can be a problem. Most of my hens don't, but I have seen many stories from other people where they have attacked a sick flock member. If you could put her in a crate, or put up some kind of partition that would be safest, but if thats not possible just check on her often.
Do you have nesting boxes in your coop yet? When I have a sick hen they often like to sleep in those, and at least they are not right next to the others at night then.

She's a bit separated from them in there, but not in a full nesting box yet, that's a good idea though, thank you!

 

[Petrichoryl]

A (sad) update for those who'd like to know:

It did end up being Marek's, unfortunately. We took her to the local bird vet and she said she'd gotten several other cases of Marek's from the same farm we got them from as chicks. The farm that supposedly vaccinates all their chickens. They ended up putting her down in the same visit, which was really rough as she was my mother's favorite, but it was what was recommended and it seemed the kinder path to take.

Hopefully the rest of our flock dodges the symptoms and can stay healthy, but they are all certainly exposed to it now. (With this and a past tragic chick incident our life-to-death ratio with chickens is 3 to 12). I know its a number's game with chickens, but our numbers are especially bad, and if we end up loosing even more of them we'll probably call it quits. Hopefully the remaining three stay strong and healthy.

Would it be worth checking back with the farm we bought them from? When we first got this batch from them one 6-week old ended up dying not long after arrival at our house, we reached out to the farm and they called it just failure to thrive and gave us a refund. Could it have been Marek's back then? It wasn't exactly the same but she was flailing and falling a lot and tossing her head before she went. I know another refund probably isn't possible but we have put a lot of care and money into these birds, and just getting something back would be appreciated. (Just today the total vet bill here was $330 good god.)

My mother's out as I type this to put the rest of them in for the night, though they seem to be hesitant without their missing friend.

Regardless of how this ended, thank you all so much for your suggestions and well-wishes.

Wishing luck, and health, and long happy lives for all of y'all's chickens!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

 

[Sussex19]

I'm so sorry it ended like this. You made the right choice to put her to rest, although I know how hard it is.

I would definitely try contacting the farm you got them from, although there is a fair chance they won't want to do anything about it.
If they know they have Mareks, and sell them anyway that is not good at all, and other people should be made aware of it. If they don't know, I'm sure they would want to.