Is it just a matter of time?

[TXmom]

I'm glad to hear she's doing better.

Being weak, dehydrated, or malnourished can be a vicious cycle. If the other chicks bullied her and wouldn't let her eat, then she got weak and less able to fend for herself....the more she NEEDED the food, the less she could get to it.

Now she has you to give her TLC and a possible chance of recovery.

 

[tulie13]

Is it just me being paranoid about crop problems or does her crop look REALLY big in that first picture? She may have an impacted and overly full crop, or just sour crop - either way, it causes balance problems big time, and they do often want to lay there.

If her crop is full, you may want to read up on the boards about "impacted crop" and "sour crop". I think my poor little Speckled Sussex is having a relapse of sour crop right now.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
In the first picture, her throat is bowed because she was very very ill. Definitely not her crop.

 

[threehorses]

I’m glad to hear that your girl is doing better today! Since she’s going to make it through that, it’s time to start the real fight and not only get her back on track, but see what’s caused this and help you help your entire flock.

First, It’s important that this girl and the rest of your flock get what I call a “Chicken Check Up”. This is a necessary part of flock keeping that will go miles to prevent ‘surprise’ illnesses and help you monitor just exactly how your chickens are doing.
First, the keel bone. I noticed in the picture that the keel bone (the bone running through the center of the chest and down underneath the belly, like the keel of a boat) is quite “sharp”. In a normally nourished bird, you should be able to feel the keel bone’s ridge slightly. But, like the keel of a boat, both sides of the keel bone should be filled out in a pleasant rounded fashion. Too much, creating cleavage, is overweight. Too little and a sharp, protruding keel, is underweight. You’ll want to check all your other hens as well. If you find one with a sharp keel, mark the top of her head with a tiny dot from a sharpy marker. That way you can continue to monitor her weight. The mark will disappear and is hardly noticeable anyway. Treat any birds you find with a sharp keel just as you will this one to avoid them getting to the state this bird has.

Second, parasites are very common in poultry. They can take an otherwise healthy bird and cause them to be anemic, weak, and then emaciated in short order. Pick up your hen and check all of her feathers thoroughly. Be particularly vigilant at the vent where the warmth and moisture draw many parasites. Check there for eggs at the bases of the feathers, and indeed everywhere. Also look for lice and other parasites that crawl along the spine of the feathers. Checking a bird on a white sheet also can help you find mites. If you find any such creatures, they must be treated and then retreated once or twice after their eggs would hatch.

Third, as a poultry owner you will become quite versed in droppings. Droppings are probably the most important indication of what is going on internally with our poultry. Here is a wonderful posting of various droppings and what they can indicate:
http://happyhenhouse.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=poop&action=display&thread=7588
**Can you please tell us what your bird’s droppings look like? Also, you’ll always want to keep an eye of the droppings of your entire flock. The droppings should be mostly normal (the greenish tannish with white ‘urates’ on top) with occasional cecal droppings (more like chocolate pudding).

Fourth, monitoring feeding. Chickens are natural bullies (thus the term “pecking order”). In any flock, large or small, there are going to be bird that just get less feed. In larger flocks, these birds have to wait til all the other birds have eaten. Sometimes that never happens – so the birds slowly starve. I highly suspect this is what has happened to your hen. You will want to take a half hour or so every month and just get a lawn chair, maybe a book, and sit out with your birds. They’ll act differently when you first come out than they will if you sit and relax. That’s when their true behavior is clear. Watch to see who gets bullied, who gets to eat first and who eats last, etc. Make sure if there is a great deal of bullying that there are multiple feeding stations placed far apart. The same with watering stations. Then monitor to see that all birds are eating before the food is gone. We don’t want to leave out food overnight, but we also don’t want the food to disappear before the lower girls on the pecking order get fed.

Normally, worms would be a consideration. In this case, until I hear otherwise about droppings, I’m going to say it would be one of my last choices of the cause. This is because you have a new flock on new ground and they’re quite young. I usually like to worm my birds for the first time around three to six months, depending on whether or not I’m using natural methods of worm prevention (I use that word lightly – they don’t really prevent worms, but more so hamper them a bit). So we’ll put this on the back burner.

NOW: fixing this. Your bird, being ill, has probably depleted most of her good bacteria and nutrition and fat. The good bacteria are literally what allow your bird to digest any of their food – they feed your bird. Without them, your bird will waste away and die. During illness, stress, and medicating, they die off. Without a good source of food, they die off. Your bird has both. So let’s replace the beneficial bacteria using live bacteria in a “probiotic”. The most common and easily found inexpensive choice is plain yogurt, live culture. Read the label and make sure, but most store brands are live cultlure. Another option, and a darn good one, are acidophilus capsules or tablets from the grocer, health food store, pharmacy. If you try the health food store, look for ones for yeast infections. They contain a special bacteria called B. bifidum that are particularly helpful. Most probiotics contain various lactobacillus, however, and that’s fine.

In addition to new bacteria, your bird will need something to encourage those bacteria to thrive and “colonize” the gut, living there and keeping your bird healthy. I use plain unsweetened applesauce. You can even put apple meat in a blender and make a ‘sauce’ out of it. The pectin in apples is the ideal “prebiotic” or substance that bacteria eat which makes them thrive. It will also clean out any gunk in your bird’s system and allow for better absorbtion. The slight acidity of the apple (you don’t want too much) will also adjust the pH of the gut to where it’s supposed to be, very important.

We need super nutrients put back into your bird because she’s anemic. Add fat to the mix for her neurological system and, of course, weight. The best choice for this that birds can rarely resist is boiled egg yolk. Boil one, use what you can for just one small treat, and slice and freeze the rest for later use. Yolks are also a beautiful source of protein, great in cases except for true coccidiosis. In the case of your bird, she’s so emaciated that I wouldn’t even care if she had coccidiosis as far as the egg goes – I’d give it to her. She needs fuel.

If you’re not feeding crumbles, put her pellets in the blender and make a ziplock baggy of crumbles. You can mix the yolk, applesauce, some water (laced with karo, pedialyte, Gatorade, or honey), a bit of milk, and make a mash. Save a little aside to mix the yogurt into. Refrigerate the rest for the rest of the week. Mix the yogurt into it and feed this to her as a treat. If she won’t eat it, you can put some yogurt into her mouth, and offer just the egg yolk if you have to. The apple sauce isn’t necessary – but it does help (and chickens like the taste so it encourages them to gobble down their healthy treat.)

Make sure she’s drinking a good deal. Adding one ounce of organic apple cider vinegar to a gallon of her drinking water will not only add yet MORE good bacteria, but also act as a healthy electrolyte, increase calcium absorbtion for laying chickens, and act as a prebiotic much as apples did. Organic still has living bacteria in it, the “mother” of the ACV.

Do this for a day – please tell us her dropping consistency, what she reveals about herself once she has some energy to, and then let’s see if we can figure out if something other than bullying caused this issue.

I’m available for PM’s most days throughout the day and late into the night. Feel free to contact me if you have ANY questions. I specialize in loving what others call ‘stupid questions’ because those are usually the ones from which we learn the most.  I sure did!

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

to add to Nathalie's "threehorses" advise on looking and studying the health of all the birds DAILY is good advise

the thought that we are our chickens keepers means to keep watch for the chickens that are not 100% healthy
that is very important to notice them all daily

there is a saying
"a chicken with out food or water for a day takes three to 5 days to get better"

so since the poor chicken laid there unhelped for three or 4 days it will take at least 15 to 20 days to get its body healthy again

also I am a firm believer in this

wet mash probiotics
for this individual chick do this
3 tsp of dry crumble feed
4 tsp of milk any kind
1 tsp of yoguart
and then the most important facor Vit's
add to the mix each time
1-1000 mg of vit E cut tip of capsule off and put liquid in the mix
1- Vit B complex pill crushed and put in the mix

now mix good and add
1 tsp of apple sauce on top of the mix so the chicken will eat it
they like the taste and smell of applesauce

do this twice a day for two weeks
then give the wet mash probiotic with out vitamins once a week for life of chickens

you can multiply this by the amt of birds you feed it to

any questions email me

 

[threehorses]

Here here to Glenda's advise!

 

[howipinchapenny]

oh my goodness! Thank you all for all the WONDERFUL information. This morning she is actually on her feet! taking teeny steps in her box. I gave her pedialyte and she has her medicated chick starter for food. her poop look like normal poop. The only thing they are missing is the white tip part. She is becoming more talkative and alert.
I will be doing the egg yolk and the yogurt to get her back up to speed. I think this is a case of bullying. Once she is better I hope she won't stand for the bullying. Once again thanks for helping a new chicken family!

 

[threehorses]

She might still be a little dehydrated, thus no urates on her droppings. But she'll get hydrated with today.

Hurray for good poop!

Sounds like a great deal, and I hope she gets perfectly back on track with your good loving care. Let us know, will you, please?

Thanks!

 

[howipinchapenny]

i currently have the chicken out of her box and free in the powder room. She is up and walking a few steps at a time. After a few steps she sits back down. But the big news is there is white in her poop!! She had an entire cooked egg yolk today, medicated chick starter crumbles and pedialyte. She is so much more alert and wanting to move around. She even tries to roost on the little bowls I have her food and water in. I am going to be keeping a close watch on her. She definitely will be inside for a few more days.

My girls (ages 4 &2) are loving having a chicken in the house. Too bad it is because she is sick!!

 

[TXmom]

That's wonderful that she's showing improvement...it will just take a while to get up to full speed. You're doing a great job nursing her.