Lethargic pullet

[sbtgal]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) seven week old Barred Rock Pullet, weight unknown
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Didn't come out of the coop Saturday morning. She was VERY lethargic. I brought her out of the coop and she just laid down sort of on her side in the run.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? She was fine Friday and seemed better yesterday (details to follow)
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. None
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Unknown
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Plain clean water, organic wolf creek pullet developer. She was on medicated chick starter until two weeks ago.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Unknown prior to Saturday. After I started liquids by dropper, first couple of poos were clear water
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? forced water and yogurt initially
10 ) 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? Treat on my own, can't afford vet.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. N/A
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. 4'x4' coop with deep litter pine shavings that is a bit dusty. Increased ventilation on Saturday since I was concerned about using DL method in such a small coop.

At first I thought her croup was blocked up, but I think I was feeling the wrong spot.

I put her in a kennel inside because ants were starting to crawl on her. I gave her water with vitamins and electrolytes with a dropper and she had a couple poos that were nothing but clear liquid. Like the water went straight through. Then DH helped me force feed some yogurt and that seemed to perk her up. If we hadn't force fed her I'm pretty sure she would have died. She's still not bright eyed and back to normal, but she's eating and drinking on her own and following the rest of the flock around. She does not seem to have much of an appetite. I think she's really only eating cause she sees the other girls doing it. In addition to the organic feed that she's picking at, I am giving her some yogurt mixed with cooked egg yolks and the regular feed. She only digs in after a couple of the other girls do. All the other girls are 100% normal. I would think she's too young for a bad case of worms. Plus I haven't seen any in her poo. Or in any of the other girls poo. No lice or mites that I can find either. Vent is clear and looks normal. No runny nose or eyes. I'll check on her on my lunch break and give an update. I kind of wonder if she has a sensitive respiratory system (at least more so than the other girls) and the dust and smell from the DL method was too much for her. The coop usually doesn't smell, but we have had a few cool humid nights and the litter seems to soak up the humidity. I did add two 6"x20" windows to the coop Saturday after she got sick. I had been meaning to do it anyway. Can bad air cause sensitive birds to go off their feed? Any ideas?

 

[chicmom]

Hello! How is she doing today? I'm wondering if she seems weaker on one side? Sometimes, chickens can have a stroke, just like humans......In which case I would continue to feed and water her....She could recover with time, food and rest......

(I'm just shootin' at the hip here......)

Sharon

 

[dawg53]

I recommend that you thoroughly clean out the coop and change the litter. She couldve been overwhelmed with ammonia fumes. Additionally if the ants that were on her, couldve been fire ants and she got stung, which couldve affected her.

 

[sbtgal]

Checked on her at lunch. She is still eating, drinking, and following the flock. Although she does everything half heartedly. Eyes partially closed and sits down to rest a LOT. She looks like she's taking slow deep breaths, but no wheezing/gasping sounds.

The coop she's in is pretty much a 4'x4'x4' cube as seen here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=106072-our-coop
I did add the two windows as shown drawn in on my coop page, except they are located at towards the front so they are not right next to the roost bars, which I also added Saturday. (All this was after she started acting "off") The Purina plans CLAIMED it was big enough for eight full size chickens. We have seven in there now. If I follow the 4' per bird assumption, we are pretty overcrowded. Only 2.3' per bird. Purina must base their math on government regulations and not happy healthy birds. So I'm thinking chicken coops are probably like fish tanks. You can overload them, but you better be prepared for a lot more work or your going to have health issues. Maybe I should scrap the DL method and go ahead and switch to rice hulls and scooping under the roosts daily. I'm thinking DL in that small of space, with that many birds is no bueno.

What are the effects of overexposure to ammonia anyways?

 

[dawg53]

Ammonia concentration is affected by your litter conditions and ventilation as you know. High concentrations are irritating to mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, increasing suseptability to bacterial respiratory infections. High concentrations have negative impact on overall livability, weight gain, feed conversion and their immune system. It can also cause eye damage.

 

[sbtgal]

Well, I was unable to change the pine shavings out yesterday. However, the humidity level outside has gone way down, and as a result so has the humidity inside the coop. So it was back to smelling fresh and piney again this morning. (YEAH COLD FRONT!) and as I suspected, my little barred rock's eyes aren't squinty any more and she seems more energetic. So that adds weight to the theory that she's more sensitive to air quality than the others. Although it COULD be she ate something bad and just took a few days to recover. I guess only time will tell.

but all this has me wondering... when the humidity is high outside, it's going to go up inside your coop too unless it's air conditioned, and well, THAT isn't going to happen in my case. So do you just kind of suffer through the humid days? Maybe just be extra diligent about cleaning the coop when you know the humidity is going to go up? When I added the extra ventilation to my coop, I didn't think about it letting the moist air IN.

any thoughts?