Lethargic, eyes sometimes closed, color looks fine

[Daolin]

Hi,

I've read through a lot of the lethargic chicken threads and am just not convinced our chicken has some of the issues previously posted.

Anyways, our hen is a year old, always has been healthy never a problem. No other hickeys in our 8 chicken flock has any problems.

2 days ago she got lethargic but was still walking around and eating and drinking. Yesterday she didn't eat much at all. Today she didn't get out of the roost, we fed her a chicken mash with water in a eye dropper.

We are about to go to the store to get a de wormer and some poultry dust as well as some vitamin booster?

We have never dusted our chickens or de wormed them. Since we've had our first flock which is up on 2 years total now.

We did lose a chicken about 2 months ago mysteriously, we think she may have eaten a roach that could have eaten fertilizer in another shed. If this hen did the same, is there anything we can do for her?

Thanks for any help, we don't want to lose her, she is super sweet.

 

[7 Biddies]

Hi,

I've read through a lot of the lethargic chicken threads and am just not convinced our chicken has some of the issues previously posted.

Anyways, our hen is a year old, always has been healthy never a problem. No other hickeys in our 8 chicken flock has any problems.

2 days ago she got lethargic but was still walking around and eating and drinking. Yesterday she didn't eat much at all. Today she didn't get out of the roost, we fed her a chicken mash with water in a eye dropper.

We are about to go to the store to get a de wormer and some poultry dust as well as some vitamin booster?

We have never dusted our chickens or de wormed them. Since we've had our first flock which is up on 2 years total now.

We did lose a chicken about 2 months ago mysteriously, we think she may have eaten a roach that could have eaten fertilizer in another shed. If this hen did the same, is there anything we can do for her?



Thanks for any help, we don't want to lose her, she is super sweet.

Sounds a lot like my Aretha. She was fine Sunday night, was lethargic when I got home Monday after work and died sometime later that night. I have no idea what it was. Coccidiosis? Mericks? (not sure about those spellings)

 

[Daolin]

We've now fed her some electrolytes and still no signs of improvement.

I put her on the ground to walk and she bobbled around a bit. It also sounds as though she may be weezing a tiny bit.

I tried to isolate her into a box, but she stands up and does not want to be in it. I put her back on her perch and she sits there and closes her eyes. Her eyelids now have a little red color to them.

Any ideas?

 

[7 Biddies]

We've now fed her some electrolytes and still no signs of improvement.

I put her on the ground to walk and she bobbled around a bit. It also sounds as though she may be weezing a tiny bit.

I tried to isolate her into a box, but she stands up and does not want to be in it. I put her back on her perch and she sits there and closes her eyes. Her eyelids now have a little red color to them.

Any ideas?

Since I've only had chickens for a year and this was my first real problem, I had the vet autopsy Aretha to make sure the rest of the flock wasn't at risk. Turns out she had an impacted crop. She'd eaten a wood chip from her run, and it stopped her crop from emptying. She must've had it for awhile because the vet said her crop was very full, and some of the food was fermented. Plus, she'd lost a lot of weight;

Lesson #1 in spotting chicken problems. Check to see if she's lost weight (the breast bone will be very prominent), and if her crop (in her neck) is very full. If so, try to flush it out.

 

[SilkiesnFrizzle]

It could be coccidosis.

 

[Daolin]

Well she's still not eating or drinking or getting up on her own.

There are no vets around that do chickens. We've been giving her water and small amounts of food and she takes both. We checked her for egg bound, she's not. Her crop is empty. Her feathers look fine and she shows no real sign of coccidiosis that I can tell. She stays on the roost all day with her eyes closed like she's just resting, when I hold her she sits there fine, I don't even know if she's suffering or what. She actually has the demeanor of someone who has the flu.

 

[dawg53]

Your soil is the same as mine. Get some Safeguard liquid goat wormer or Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer and worm all your birds. Dosage for whichever wormer that you choose is 1/2cc given orally undiluted. Use a syringe without a needle to administer the liquid wormer. Redose again in 10 days. There's a 14 day withdrawal after last dosing.
Visually inspect them for lice/mites, especially around the vent area.

 

[Daolin]

She does have some bugs crawling on her I dunno what they are, we've never dusted any of them before.

We read a chicken book that sound to burn some firewood and throw some ash in there for them to dust in..has anyone done this? I'm Leary about dusting them, I just dont trust throwing things on them that isn't natural.

I also was Leary about worming them because I don't want to do something to them that I'm not sure they have, but will it really hurt them in the long run?

 

[casportpony]

I agree with dawg, but I dose mine with Safeguard at a much higher dose - 50mg/kg (that's .5ml/cc per 2.2 pounds) and I would dust them with a poultry dust even if I could not see any lice/mites. Do an experiment, dust your bird, place it in a box on paper towels, come back in an hour and see just how many bugs have fallen off, I think you'll be surprised.

 

[casportpony]

She does have some bugs crawling on her I dunno what they are, we've never dusted any of them before.

We read a chicken book that sound to burn some firewood and throw some ash in there for them to dust in..has anyone done this? I'm Leary about dusting them, I just dont trust throwing things on them that isn't natural.

I also was Leary about worming them because I don't want to do something to them that I'm not sure they have, but will it really hurt them in the long run?

I don't mean to sound rude, but seriously? Your chicken is very sick. Does it have worms? Probably, so worm it! Safeguard is used on very young kittens, puppies, foals, chicks, etc.

Your chicken does not have time for you to experiment with what "natural" treatments might or might not work.