IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!!

[Terrence MacArthur]

I can only hope someone sees this in the next hour or so. The raccons changed their habits after 4 years, came at around 10AM, and the chickens had alreeady been let out of the coop. We just caught them by accident by happening to go out there at that time. Unfortunately, the German Shepherd wasn't able to catch one. Locking them in from dusk to dawn obviously isn't going to work anymore. The coons had gotten all but one hen and the rooster. Next morning the hen was dead in the coop. Must have had a not apparent injury.

Went today to get 4 leghorns to start. When I got there he only had 2. The jerk had left them in a small cardboard box in an SUV right in the sun in a parking lot in 87 degree temps with windows closed while he worked at Panda Express. 2 dead, 2 in really bad shape. If I wasn't in such a hurry to get them home and treat them, I'd have called the cops. A couple years back they finally passed a law against leaving animals in conditions like that. Brought the 2 live ones home, inside in the A/C, put them in a basin of cool water about 3 inches deep, then rehydrated with pedialite with an eyedropper (they wouldn't drink on their own, even with beak in the liquid, but did swallow what I gave them).

Both still alive 8 hours later, but essentially sleeping but responsive to touch. One seems to have lost muscle control, legs splayed to side, neck drooped. At one time I actually had the equipment to rehydrate an animal with an IV, but don't have it anymore, and am not sure where to insert it in a chicken anyway. What else can I do?

PS: Poop still white, not green, livers must still be OK.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully you have your coop and run fixed.

It's a shame they were left in a hot car, some people just don't think, some just don't care. You may want to calmly contact the seller and tell him what you found, some people just really don't have a clue - if this is the case, educating him should do the trick.

Heat exhaustion/heat stroke can take several days to recover from. It sounds like you are doing all you can at the moment. They may be in shock as well. How cool are you keeping them?

The pedialyte is good, keep trying to get fluids into them. If you have poultry vitamins like Poultry Nutri-Drench, give them a direct dose - these are quick uptake. Don't worry too much about food, but if they act like they will eat, give wet feed or offer some chopped egg for protein, but hydration is the most critical.

You can keep syringing or try tube feeding. Some people have good results offering liquids with a large spoon - chickens will sip from it.


Here's more info on tubing fluids:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding
SUBCUTANEOUS FLUIDS
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1...ntains-pictures-of-a-deceased-plucked-chicken

 

[Terrence MacArthur]

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully you have your coop and run fixed.

It's a shame they were left in a hot car, some people just don't think, some just don't care. You may want to calmly contact the seller and tell him what you found, some people just really don't have a clue - if this is the case, educating him should do the trick.

Heat exhaustion/heat stroke can take several days to recover from. It sounds like you are doing all you can at the moment. They may be in shock as well. How cool are you keeping them?

The pedialyte is good, keep trying to get fluids into them. If you have poultry vitamins like Poultry Nutri-Drench, give them a direct dose - these are quick uptake. Don't worry too much about food, but if they act like they will eat, give wet feed or offer some chopped egg for protein, but hydration is the most critical.

You can keep syringing or try tube feeding. Some people have good results offering liquids with a large spoon - chickens will sip from it.


Here's more info on tubing fluids:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding
SUBCUTANEOUS FLUIDS
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1...ntains-pictures-of-a-deceased-plucked-chicken

The A-Hole was there, working in Panda Express. And he speaks almost no English & I speak even less Spanish. Nothing wrong with the coop, we just locked them up and let them out based on what times the coons had always visited over the last few years. Now it seems they're coming inn broad daylight. No run, free range birds, they have nearly 3/4 of the whole property.

Right now I still have them inside, in the A/C. If I could, I'd keep them in here until they either recover or don't. But the wife won't put up with it, so they have to go out in the coop somwtime tonight. She was pissed enough once when I spent about $275 for surgery for a hen that'd been mauled by a dog.

The coop is cool enough now, and tomorrow will be cooler than today, even though we aren't letting the birds out anymore until at least 10:30. And the coop is intentionally in shade 24/7. Both sides of the back are lined with trees & bushes., the coop is in the shade of a tree in the morning then of bushes later. I guess I'll have to keep eye droppering pediatite every once in a while though, until thet start drinking on their own. Hopefully.

 

[Terrence MacArthur]

By the way, I used to have the stuff to sub-q fluids, had to do it for our cat once, but don't have it anymore. Didn't know it would work with a chicken.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I have nothing to add to Wyorp's information, it's good info. I don't have experience in that regards. I hope your chickens pull through.

I was going to ask if you have any box traps, the catch and release kind? Maybe you trap already. If not, raccoons are fairly easy to trap with a bait like marshmallows. Keeps the cats and meat eating animals from being caught and setting off the trap. There is likely a family of raccoons. The sooner you get rid of them, the sooner you can breathe easier with your chickens free ranging. I'll set a 2-4 traps together and they'll usually fill the traps. They don't seem to be scared off when one trap goes off.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How are they doing?

If you can, late evening, close to sunset would be a good time to put them in the coop. Cooler evening/night since you have them inside in the A/C. Hopefully they will acclimate to the climate overnight.

You can also give a little sugar water since it's been a while that you've had them. Electrolytes are good, but sometimes sugar water will give a boost.

As @Wickedchicken6 mentioned trapping is a good idea. Raccoons will keep coming back. It's hard to do (I'm soft hearted), but I do live trap (this way if I get a squirrel, etc., I can release). Then dispatch unwanted critters.

Hopefully they will rally. Chickens are resilient, with heat it just takes some time. It sounds like you are doing everything you can.

 

[Terrence MacArthur]

I have nothing to add to Wyorp's information, it's good info. I don't have experience in that regards. I hope your chickens pull through.

I was going to ask if you have any box traps, the catch and release kind? Maybe you trap already. If not, raccoons are fairly easy to trap with a bait like marshmallows. Keeps the cats and meat eating animals from being caught and setting off the trap. There is likely a family of raccoons. The sooner you get rid of them, the sooner you can breathe easier with your chickens free ranging. I'll set a 2-4 traps together and they'll usually fill the traps. They don't seem to be scared off when one trap goes off.

Unfortunately, I'll never get rid of them completely. I live in a city where chickens are illegal (so are any other farm or non-domestic animals,



I'll never get rid of them completely. I live in a city where all farm and non-domestic animals are illegal. But they'd left an ordinance on the city website that has the rules for having chickens long after they'd zoned the whole city against them, and also not posted anything about the zoning until months after I'd bought the place. When they threatened a citation ($425 per day if I dudn't get rid of them, I pointed it out. The next city council meeting removed it from their site. So I got grandfathered in through the back door. Ironically, most of the eastern and northern parts of the city used to be farmland. The area I'm in used to be cherry orchards. Halfway between my street and the next one to the south, there is a 4 foot wide irrigation ditch with 2 to 3 foot banks, which is my southern boundary. It has trees and lots of bushes and undergrowth, and is part of an irrihgation system that runs east past the city border up into the mountains all the way to Pineview reservoir. Perfect raccoon highway. Plus most on either side of the ditch have a backyard of at least a 1/2 acre, and some leave all or most of it more or less wild. From Spring through Fall it's infested, Even i haven't turned mine into an actual yard. Trees and bushes along the east and west and south sides and except for the chicken coop, a bee hive, and a blueberry patch I let it grow wild except for the 2 plum trees I planted, just keeping out any real bushes that'd get more than a foot high, and mowing it twice a year. I leave it like that for the chickens, who seem to love it, although I did have to fence the blueberry bushes in to keep them out.

But this area has gotten worse over the past couple years. i'm going to try to thin the coons here out some, using dog proof traps. Hopefully, none of the feral or semi-feral cats will stick their paws into them. But I don't think they injure the animals, I know people have caught unwanted animals, like foxes, in them and released them. Don't know what I'll do with any coons I catch, I really don't want to kill them, but so far I haven't found any organization that'll take them and release them far away.

 

[Terrence MacArthur]

By the way, I used to have the stuff to sub-q fluids, had to do it for our cat once, but don't have it anymore. Didn't know it would work with a chicken.

One died overnight, the one who'd seemed to have lost muscle control The other lived, but still lethagic, not moving or drinking on her own. Took her inside again, continued the pedialite, by tonight she was still lethargic, but had hopped up onto the edge of the open cardboard box I had her in, so she seems to be recovering. Gave her some more pediatite, put her up on a roost in the coop. Hope she's improved more by tomorrow.

 

[Terrence MacArthur]

How are they doing?

If you can, late evening, close to sunset would be a good time to put them in the coop. Cooler evening/night since you have them inside in the A/C. Hopefully they will acclimate to the climate overnight.

You can also give a little sugar water since it's been a while that you've had them. Electrolytes are good, but sometimes sugar water will give a boost.

As @Wickedchicken6 mentioned trapping is a good idea. Raccoons will keep coming back. It's hard to do (I'm soft hearted), but I do live trap (this way if I get a squirrel, etc., I can release). Then dispatch unwanted critters.

Hopefully they will rally. Chickens are resilient, with heat it just takes some time. It sounds like you are doing everything you can.

We were already locking them in at dark and letting them out in the morning during the Spring and Fall, the biggest problem periods for raccoons. That used to work. But the other day they came around far into daylight hours; we saw them at 10AM. They have apparently changed their habits.

Haven't worried about food yet, concentrating on the dehydration. If the surviving one still isn't drinking or eating on her own tomorrow, I was already planning on sugar water in addition to the pedialite to get some calories into her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear you lost one.

Just a thought here...how old is the remaining one?

Since it sounds like they were not being well taken care of before they arrived to you, I'm wandering if something else like Cocci could be a play. Somehow I missed that one of them lost motor control. Cocci can cause loss of balance, lethargy, going off feed and diarrhea with mucous or blood.

There can be other causes besides heat exhaustion that can cause motor control issues. Also depending on the age something like Marek's would be a concern as well. Stress, like being left in a hot car could trigger symptoms.

I do hope that you find she is much improved today.

The predators, you never can get rid of them all - just trying to keep them under control seems to be the struggle. I'll be up front here...if you trap any, then you need to dispatch them. I'm not trying to be harsh, but usually there are no rescues or sanctuary that will take them. Relocation is usually illegal and you would be essentially dumping a trap savvy predator on someone else to deal with. A critter that is relocated a lot of times will die as well, they are out of their territory, may encounter other critters that will fight/kill them and will have a hard time establishing a new food source. I don't relish doing away with critters that I catch, but that's part of it.