I'm a first time chicken owner. I have 1 Delaware, 2 Golden Comets, and 1 Black Australorp that are all around 1 year old. They've all been very healthy, easily made it through a cold/snowy winter here in Virginia. They have a big coop, they free range on a couple of wooded acres. I feed them high quality layer feed, clean out the coop regularly, fresh water every day. They've laid consistently. No issues whatsoever.
About 6 days ago, I went to check on them once it was dark to make sure everyone was in the coop tucked in. I noticed the Australorp was laying on the coop floor instead of roosting which I had NEVER seen her do before. They always roost together at night. And when I went to grab her to check on her, she kind of spun in a couple of fast circles strangely like she was off balance or something. The next morning she was VERY lethargic. Just sat in the run all day while the other chickens roamed around. She was hanging her head to one side strangely, but nothing crazy like the pictures of wry neck I've seen. If I picked her up for a bit and then put her down, she'd do the weird flopping around in circles a couple of times, and then settle. She also seems to pant a lot with her mouth open breathing heavily. We're going on 6 days of this, and she doesn't seem to be getting much better, but also doesn't seem to be getting any worse. Just totally lethargic and out of sorts.
She hasn't laid since this started, but I don't feel an egg and she isn't doing any squatting or penguin walking or anything like that, so I don't think she's egg bound. No coughing or sneezing. No signs of external parasites anywhere. Ears look good from what I can tell. Comb looks normal color - maybe ever so slightly paler red than usual, but not bad. Feet, feathers, eyes, everything external looks OK. No sign of a predator attack. I don't feel much in her crop because I don't think she's eating much, but it's definitely not bloated. I started giving her nutri-drench daily and monitored her eating and drinking. She drinks fairly regularly, but barely eats. She poops, but not much. I've tried hand feeding her scrambled eggs and soldier fly larvae, but she's not interested in neither. She usually loves the soldier fly larvae.
I'm stumped. Any ideas or tips on what to try? I love the chickens, but I'm unfortunately not in a financial position to spend a ton on a vet.
About 6 days ago, I went to check on them once it was dark to make sure everyone was in the coop tucked in. I noticed the Australorp was laying on the coop floor instead of roosting which I had NEVER seen her do before. They always roost together at night. And when I went to grab her to check on her, she kind of spun in a couple of fast circles strangely like she was off balance or something. The next morning she was VERY lethargic. Just sat in the run all day while the other chickens roamed around. She was hanging her head to one side strangely, but nothing crazy like the pictures of wry neck I've seen. If I picked her up for a bit and then put her down, she'd do the weird flopping around in circles a couple of times, and then settle. She also seems to pant a lot with her mouth open breathing heavily. We're going on 6 days of this, and she doesn't seem to be getting much better, but also doesn't seem to be getting any worse. Just totally lethargic and out of sorts.
She hasn't laid since this started, but I don't feel an egg and she isn't doing any squatting or penguin walking or anything like that, so I don't think she's egg bound. No coughing or sneezing. No signs of external parasites anywhere. Ears look good from what I can tell. Comb looks normal color - maybe ever so slightly paler red than usual, but not bad. Feet, feathers, eyes, everything external looks OK. No sign of a predator attack. I don't feel much in her crop because I don't think she's eating much, but it's definitely not bloated. I started giving her nutri-drench daily and monitored her eating and drinking. She drinks fairly regularly, but barely eats. She poops, but not much. I've tried hand feeding her scrambled eggs and soldier fly larvae, but she's not interested in neither. She usually loves the soldier fly larvae.
I'm stumped. Any ideas or tips on what to try? I love the chickens, but I'm unfortunately not in a financial position to spend a ton on a vet.
