Hi there!
Fairly new to the forum, wishing this wasn’t the topic of my first post but here we are.
Hillary, one of my lovely Australorp x Rhode Island Reds (18mo-ish) collapsed this morning when she was let out of the coop - I was unable to get a photo as she got up shortly after (and then collapsed again and then got up and started walking around) but she kind of just dropped down on her chest with her head stretched out forward along the ground. Upon approaching her to check her out she did get up and follow the rest of the girls (and seems to be scratching and pecking mostly like usual) but she’s exhibiting signs of lethargy.
She also has some white stains around her vent feathers (as does one of the other ladies) and I witnessed her have very watery/almost mucus-y white diarrhoea.
Upon closer inspection, one of her eyes has also changed slightly in appearance (pictured) - there’s a black ring around the outside of her eye that seems to be encroaching on her iris, I don’t recall if it always looked like that but I feel like I would have noticed if so.
Her comb and wattle are still bright in colour and perky, and her feathers are mostly still looking good - she’s loosing some downy fluff from her legs but otherwise fine. She’s also looking a tad on the thinner side but while holding her she feels quite heavy (almost unusually so).
Our girlies are kept in a large coop on soil and coarse sand, with regular old hay for their nesting boxes. They’re on a diet of Barastoc Golden Yolk (with a little diatomaceous earth sprinkled in) supplemented with scratch mix and dried mealworms as treats. They have water readily available at all times which we occasionally mix in some ACV. They also spend some time most days (and pretty much all day on the weekends) roaming the yard.
On a possibly related note, we’ve lost three chooks from the same breeder over the last couple of years (one to a suspected neurological issue that caused paralysis a fair while back and then two in the last 6 months, one who just dropped off the perch and the other who was in respiratory distress and kept seizing/collapsing, also started showing signs of paralysis and had to be dispatched) - it’s been a while so I’m not sure if it could be a disease taking its time to get around or just completely unrelated.
If anyone has any advice, please let me know - for now she’s just roaming with the rest of our girls (although she’s trailing behind and not keeping up with them as well as I’d like) and enjoying some warmer sunny weather.
Thank you in advance!
(Also for reference I am based in NSW Australia, in case that’s important!)
Fairly new to the forum, wishing this wasn’t the topic of my first post but here we are.
Hillary, one of my lovely Australorp x Rhode Island Reds (18mo-ish) collapsed this morning when she was let out of the coop - I was unable to get a photo as she got up shortly after (and then collapsed again and then got up and started walking around) but she kind of just dropped down on her chest with her head stretched out forward along the ground. Upon approaching her to check her out she did get up and follow the rest of the girls (and seems to be scratching and pecking mostly like usual) but she’s exhibiting signs of lethargy.
She also has some white stains around her vent feathers (as does one of the other ladies) and I witnessed her have very watery/almost mucus-y white diarrhoea.
Upon closer inspection, one of her eyes has also changed slightly in appearance (pictured) - there’s a black ring around the outside of her eye that seems to be encroaching on her iris, I don’t recall if it always looked like that but I feel like I would have noticed if so.
Her comb and wattle are still bright in colour and perky, and her feathers are mostly still looking good - she’s loosing some downy fluff from her legs but otherwise fine. She’s also looking a tad on the thinner side but while holding her she feels quite heavy (almost unusually so).
Our girlies are kept in a large coop on soil and coarse sand, with regular old hay for their nesting boxes. They’re on a diet of Barastoc Golden Yolk (with a little diatomaceous earth sprinkled in) supplemented with scratch mix and dried mealworms as treats. They have water readily available at all times which we occasionally mix in some ACV. They also spend some time most days (and pretty much all day on the weekends) roaming the yard.
On a possibly related note, we’ve lost three chooks from the same breeder over the last couple of years (one to a suspected neurological issue that caused paralysis a fair while back and then two in the last 6 months, one who just dropped off the perch and the other who was in respiratory distress and kept seizing/collapsing, also started showing signs of paralysis and had to be dispatched) - it’s been a while so I’m not sure if it could be a disease taking its time to get around or just completely unrelated.
If anyone has any advice, please let me know - for now she’s just roaming with the rest of our girls (although she’s trailing behind and not keeping up with them as well as I’d like) and enjoying some warmer sunny weather.
Thank you in advance!
(Also for reference I am based in NSW Australia, in case that’s important!)
