Lethargic hen- help!

[dappertophatter]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Bantam Partridge Cochin, 2 years old, I don't know, kinda light.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
I'm not sure. She just seems.........off. She's lethargic, and has her head sort of tucked in a bit, dosen't move around too much, is slow, and mostly just stands there.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Four days.

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I thought maybe she was just hungry beacuse I let the feeder get totally empty for most of one day (I think) but she hasn't been perking up. I'm away all day, 7:30 to 3, and it's so cold out the water bowl freezes at lunch, but I give them water as soon as I get home, threeish. It's also been really cold out, and I haven't been paying attention to them much because my friend that I visit, her chickens have small weird bugs and I did'nt want mine to get them- I've been trying really hard to practice biosecurity. We've also had lots of friends come over around Christmas, and she's our friendliest one, so everybody was petting her. Could that have something to do with it?

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Purina Layena and plain water with occasional Purina Scratch.

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
It's either small and OK looking or medium and cecalish.

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
None yet.

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
She needs to get better- I'll do anything.

10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
None.

11) Describe the housing/bedding in use.
Pine shavings, sometimes I throw leaves in there for them to scratch around in. I'm pretty sure our coop is pretty warm.


Today I'm going to dust her with DE, treat her feet for scaly leg mites, and feed her a scrambled egg and some scratch. Does that sound good?

 

[phalenbeck]

Got the exact same thing in a Silkey Hen---same age, same visitors, same frozen water at times. I have her in the house for now, D.E., yogurt tomato, egg, water from a dropper. In the past the Chicken house hospital---dark and warm special diet, had cured all but one. She goes out when she escapes the box and runs around the living room. It has been 3 days +- in the past.

 

[dappertophatter]

Oh shoot.

So, do you think she'll get better.

 

[purpletree23]

Are there other chickens with her in the outside coop?

Put a thermoneter out there...what is the temp?

Does she have a heat lamp in her coop?

How long did she spend inside for the holidays before she went back outside?

Have you checked her THOUROUGHLY for mites or lice. Remember that the mites look like sprinkles of black pepper. Usually around the vent area.

 

[dappertophatter]

Are there other chickens with her in the outside coop?
Yes.

Put a thermoneter out there...what is the temp?
I know it freezes out there, because the water bowl outside is frozen solid when I go out in the morning. None of the other chickens (AFAIK) have been acting like this.

Does she have a heat lamp in her coop?
No.

How long did she spend inside for the holidays before she went back outside?
A few minutes two or three times- we had friends over who have never petted chickens.

Have you checked her THOUROUGHLY for mites or lice. Remember that the mites look like sprinkles of black pepper. Usually around the vent area.
Hmm, checked everywhere BUT the vent. I'll look tomorrow- just put her to bed.

I just checked her THROUGHLY for mites & lice, and didn't find any. I checked her feet out too and they look OK. I noticed she just finished molting - she has feathers mostly-in, but she still has sheaths on, say, the lower parts of her tail feathers. She looks a little anemic, and just sat on my garage table all puffed up. We brought her into the garage lots during the summer to eat crickets that got in- could this have anything to do with it? I noticed while she was eating that she didn't want to stretch out her neck very far- just a little bit. I also noticed that she seemed to have a bit of trouble making the scratch go down.

She ate a bit of scratch, and ate a good part of a scrambled egg. She DID NOT WANT to drink.
Please help me figure out what's wrong with my favorite Cochin!!!!

 

[dappertophatter]

Forgot to say I'll dust her with D.E. tomorrow.