laying head on floor?

[temperawhuskey]

This is out first time ever raising chickens. I have a road Island Red that is raising her head very slowly from the ground and then laying it back down on the ground with her rear in the air. She is doing this over and over again. I'm not sure if she is eating and drinking and she doesn't seem as energenic as the rest of them. She is only about 2-3 months old. Does this sound like a symptoms of a disease or just weird behavior? We are considering getting rid of her in case anything spreads...PLEASE HELP!

 

[Brahma Mamma]

Check out the disease link on the top of this forum. It sounds like a disease. If you don't cull her, quarantine her immediately. A lot of these chicken diseases are not curable. We have a batch of Rhode Islands that Cocci almost killed them. When they were very sick, they would just lay there and barely move (then they would die). Check all your chicks poo for a red or brown red color for Cocci. That 's the only symptom of that disease. The info. on the disease link will be a LOT more helpful on other possibilities. This is our first year too!

Don't get discouraged. We have been raising about 400 layers from the egg and there is a certain percentage that just seem to drop dead and not have any communicable disease. Nature's way of culling them. It's really cool that you are just starting out! Chickens are really fun and wonderful. The hard part is when they die or get eaten by some dastardly predator.

We are still hunting a weasel that got into one of our chicken tractors and killed 74 birds.

If you find out what this is, please post! I'm trying to learn too!

 

[temperawhuskey]

Thank you! We have decided to quarantine her. I will let you know what I find out regarding her symptoms when I figure that out. We also have decided to sterlize the water and feeding containers and clean the coop out real well. Hopefully is isn't something that spreads. My future goal is to get better educated. Thanks again.

 

[MotherJean]

A chicken so depressed she's got her head on the floor is probably not going to get better on her own, in fact, she's probably close to checking out. She needs your immediate support to have much chance of survival. Things you can do tonight: purchase Pedialyte at the grocery store and give her that instead of water. Give it by eyedropper if she won't drink on her own. Also purchase a small carton of plain yogurt. Mix 1/3 cup of her feed with enough Pedialyte to make a stiff mush. Add 2 Tsp. of plain yogurt. Again, if she won't eat on her own, you'll need to hand feed her. If you have her quarantined where you can observe her for other symptoms, all the better. Just a stab in the dark...it's probably Coccidiosis and just because this bird is the only one showing gross symptoms doesn't mean the rest of your birds aren't infected. This is just about the right age for cocci even if your birds have been on medicated feed. If you'd rather wait and watch and hope that you can come up with a firm diagnosis, that's fine. But a bird in this condition won't survive long without food and water.