i think my chicken is sick

George Mitchell

In the Brooder
Aug 10, 2016
28
0
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hello ! i think i have a sick chicken ! i have 2 wyandotte bantams hens and one cockerel ( rooster ) and i think he is sick. hes hunched over, has no energy, pale face,comb and wattle, and is away from the 2 hens. i've researched sick chickens and diseases and hes not showing any keys signs of illness. no breathing problems or blood in poo ( i think ) he just looks sick and depressed, what do i do ?
 
hello ! i think i have a sick chicken ! i have 2 wyandotte bantams hens and one cockerel ( rooster ) and i think he is sick. hes hunched over, has no energy, pale face,comb and wattle, and is away from the 2 hens. i've researched sick chickens and diseases and hes not showing any keys signs of illness. no breathing problems or blood in poo ( i think ) he just looks sick and depressed, what do i do ?
How old is he?
What type of food/treats do you feed?
How does his crop feel?

It's possible that he may have Coccidiosis. Some signs are weakness/lethargy, not eating, diarrhea with mucus or blood, loss of balance, and puffing up.

Corid dosage for Cocci is 1 1/2 teaspoons Corid powder per gallon or 2 teaspoons of 9.6% Corid liquid per gallon
Give for 5-7 days - make sure this is the ONLY water available during that time period. Mix a fresh batch at least once a day.
After they finish treatment offer some poultry vitamins and probiotics/plain yogurt.
 
we're not sure how old he is, we bought him from a farm.
we feed him seeds, feed, bread, scraps, corn, pasta and they scrat around the garden and find bugs and other things.
his crop doesn't feel hard, its soft and not oversize.

now i think about it, he has been a bit of balanced, he stumbles around a bit when he moves. i think he might have diarrhea, but i don't think i see any mucus or blood.

 
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we're not sure how old he is, we bought him from a farm.
we feed him seeds, feed, bread, scraps, corn, pasta and they scrat around the garden and find bugs and other things.
his crop doesn't feel hard, its soft and not oversize.

now i think about it, he has been a bit of balanced, he stumbles around a bit when he moves. i think he might have diarrhea, but i don't think i see any mucus or blood.

How long have you had him?.
Can you post a photo of what he looks like?
If he is new to your property then, it could be Cocci

You may want to make sure it's not a nutritional problem and limit the seeds, pasta, scraps to no more that 10% of his daily intake to see if there is any improvement.

It could also be worms, so you may want to consider worming your flock.
 






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we've had him 2 years and he's not new to the property.
 
Poor guy.

You may want to worm him. If you have a vet that can perform a fecal float test on a poop sample they can confirm worms or not.
It could also be a bacterial infection of some sort.
Any signs of lice/mites-an infestation can cause weakness and in bad cases anemia, but his feathers are pretty so, not sure about that.

Are you in the US or UK?

In the US for worming you can use Valbazen 1/2 ml orally and then repeated in 10 days for each chicken or Fenbendazole (Safeguard, Panacur) at 1/4 ml per pound for 5 days in a row.

If you are in the UK I'm not sure what you is available to you, but look for those same main ingredients in your de-wormers.

Also you may want to give him some poultry vitamins like Poultry Nutri-Drench or Poultry Cell (US). If you can't find poultry vitamins you can use infants/childrens vitamins like Poly Vi Sol (no iron).

Will he eat or drink? Offer extra protein like scrambled/hard boiled egg, tuna, mackerel or meat and make sure he is drinking well.

Last resort would be giving antibiotics, but without knowing what is ailing him, it's hard to know which one to give.
 
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he hasn't eaten or drank the whole of today ! i live in the UK, and im not sure if any place near me will do a fecal float test, and especially for chickens. if he had worms wouldn't he be skinny and lost alot of weight ? he's been sick for a week or more and i he hasn't dramatically lost weight. how do i make him eat or drink ? it's worrying me that he hasn't eaten or drank.
 
He would have most likely lost weight if he had worms.

If he is not eating/drinking then you might want to consider tube feeding him.

Here is a link to tube feeding - this is an active thread and Kathy (@casportpony ) monitors it so if you have trouble with feeding him she will usually help out.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding Post#15 & 17 show where to put tubing, first page Kathy has a video of tube feeding one of her chickens - Post#2
 
i don't think he has worms. when animals get worms they lose weight rapidly and also get very hungry.
the tube feeding looks a bit extreme. if he gets to the point that he's starved himself then i might tube feed him, or get someone else to. if there was a nutritional problem, then wouldn't the other chickens be sick as well ? tomorrow i'm going to try to feed him plain yogurt and try to give him some nutritional and vitamin food.
 

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