Lethargic 11 week old EE

[Kevin t]

I came home from work and noticed that my 11 week old EE (Hawk)wasn't herself. She was just standing there with her head down. Normally runs toward me when I come in the coop. I tried feeding her and she to one bite of cracked corn tried to get her to drink and her head just went limp into the water. So I placed her by the food and water and went into the house. Once my birds went to roost I went and shut their door and went to see if she was ok. I found her underneath her sisters dead. Can any one give me an idea of what happened

 

[Eggcessive]

At this age coccidiosis, an intestinal infection, or heat stroke if your weather is very hot would be the first things I would suspect. Was she able to free range where she might have eaten something bad for her? Could she move her extremeties and neck at all when her neck was limp? A limp neck can be from weakness, dehydration, but may be seen in other diseases as well. In those cases the legs and wings may not work, such as in botulism, or the neck can be stuck downward in wry neck. Corid in the water is the best way to treat coccidiosis. A necropsy done by your state vet or college poultry lab on a refrigerated corpse is the best way to get a diagnosis. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Kevin t]

She could walk and stand but only moved if she absolutely had to. She was standing in the food and my silkie pecked her and she didn't move. But she was able to make it to her box to roost with the other chicks. I found her on the bottom of the roosting pile of chicks , dead. I was going to separate her from the other

 

[Kevin t]

Should I treat my flock for that just in case

 

[Quailiesss]

Hmm... What does their poo look like?

 

[Kevin t]

I really don't know the chicks always stay huddles together in the coop. It died before I could separate it. They aren't free ranging yet they do have access to an outside run but my stingy rooster doesn't like them out there lol

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos of your chicks and your set-up?
What type of food/treats are you feeding?
Photos of the poop can be useful.
How long have you had them.

 

[Quailiesss]

You should try to read as much as you can about poultry health, check for mites/lice on the vent and front chest feathers. If you see some medicate them (just do a search on this site and read what other recommendations are, some people use dust others do a solution on the skin)........if no mites/lice then you may want to worm the flock with Wazine solution. Mix it in water and make sure they drink it. For weak chicks buy a syringe without needle and put in their beak. That's all the information I've gathered so far, but check out this website about lethargic chickens and diseases associated:
http://www.raising-chickens.org/chicken-lethargic.html

Good luck and hope your flock gets over this!!
​

 

[Kevin t]

I just got them about 5 days ago. They were eating layer feed. But I switched the whole flock to grower/ finisher and offer oyster shells on the sidei don't have any photos of the coop but it's 8x8 inside a shed with nesting boxes on the floor they have two five quart water stations with a five gallon feeder there is a 4x8 run outside where I throw scratch feed. I'm new to this this is my second week of having them. I have one silkie hen one austrolorpe one old english splash seven 11 week old EE one leghorn rooster and one RIR rooster

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do they all stay in the coop/run? No free range (being let out)?

4X8 Run=32sq.ft. Ideally run space should have 10sq.ft per bird, so if I am reading correctly you have 12birds all together(?) so you really need around 120sq.ft of run space (12'x10').

This may be one reason why they are staying huddled in the coop all the time.