- Apr 8, 2011
- 103
- 3
- 224
Not quite sure what to think of this, but could sure use some experienced thoughts about how to handle this girl.
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Astrolorp, 2+ years (this is her third summer). I haven't weighed her, but she seems about the same size as the others. Right now maybe slightly lighter.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. She's not eating well, sleeping in the nesting box, walking around seems to really tire her out. She walks very slowly. Her tail is up and she's interested in her surroundings, just really listless and lethargic.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? About 3-4 days
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No, but we did have another chicken die about a month ago. Not sure why, but looking back, I suspect that she might have been egg bound and I just didn't recognize the symptoms. She'd been walking around for a couple of days with her tail down and had been in and out of the box. Then we went out one morning and she was dead beside the fence. For sure not predators as they're in a protected, but really large, pen.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Nothing that I know of
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I usually only check them thoroughly in the early evening. The first day, she was sitting by herself by the fence and seemed to not have any energy. She didn't respond to scratch, which is unusual for her. So I picked her up and put her in the coop by the waterer and she did drink and then seemed to feel better. So I thought I'd watch her for a day or two. Next morning, she was out of the coop on her own, mingling with the other birds, but just slooooowwww. Again, she didn't respond to scratch, so I cooked up some oatmeal, pounded up a couple of Tums, dissolved them in warm water and added them to the oatmeal. And she loved it. Ate a bunch. That evening, she seemed really run down again, so I decided to check for a stuck egg (see #9). Next morning I tried the oatmeal thing again -- again she ate it. Same thing in the evening. Yesterday I just had some vegetable and fruit scraps and she didn't want any part of it. But a couple pieces of whole-grain bread and she ate some. Again, run down in the evening. Today she responded to some leftover granola.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. What started this was that she had a huge ball of dried up poop stuck to her fuzzy butt feathers. So I brought her in and cleaned her off with warm water. Dried her off and put her back in the pen. She seemed okay, not real perky, but then that next day the stuff in question #7 started. Now that I think of it, she's been a bit off for probably a week or so. Last night she had some white poops starting to get caked up on her again. I haven't cleaned bathed her again though.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Not being much of a chicken expert, I did the mineral oil, rubber glove, check for stuck egg. Her tummy seems full and her vent seems swollen -- but it did on the day I checked her for an egg. She doesn't seemed to have passed an egg of any sort and I didn't feel anything that really struck me as an egg. Just a swollen feeling.
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? We're not going to any extremes here, and would really like to just self treat her, but could really use some ideas.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. She's in the general coop with the others. They tend to sleep in the rafters of a 8x8 coop. The floor of the coop is sand. The pen is about 50' square or so and is dirt.
So ... here's the rest of the question: We also have 7 additional chicks that are now about 15 weeks old. They've been housed separately, but spend their days in a pen side by side with the big girls. We wanted to start combining them last weekend, but I've been concerned about this girl, so we backed off. Last night I let everyone out in the backyard, as we do a couple times a week or so to start to commingle, but we're still keeping them largely separated.
What do you think? Should we go ahead and combine the two flocks? Segregate them? Quarantine our sick bird? Any treatment ideas?
Thank you for reading this lengthy post. We look forward to the experts telling us what to do ............
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Astrolorp, 2+ years (this is her third summer). I haven't weighed her, but she seems about the same size as the others. Right now maybe slightly lighter.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. She's not eating well, sleeping in the nesting box, walking around seems to really tire her out. She walks very slowly. Her tail is up and she's interested in her surroundings, just really listless and lethargic.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? About 3-4 days
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No, but we did have another chicken die about a month ago. Not sure why, but looking back, I suspect that she might have been egg bound and I just didn't recognize the symptoms. She'd been walking around for a couple of days with her tail down and had been in and out of the box. Then we went out one morning and she was dead beside the fence. For sure not predators as they're in a protected, but really large, pen.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Nothing that I know of
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I usually only check them thoroughly in the early evening. The first day, she was sitting by herself by the fence and seemed to not have any energy. She didn't respond to scratch, which is unusual for her. So I picked her up and put her in the coop by the waterer and she did drink and then seemed to feel better. So I thought I'd watch her for a day or two. Next morning, she was out of the coop on her own, mingling with the other birds, but just slooooowwww. Again, she didn't respond to scratch, so I cooked up some oatmeal, pounded up a couple of Tums, dissolved them in warm water and added them to the oatmeal. And she loved it. Ate a bunch. That evening, she seemed really run down again, so I decided to check for a stuck egg (see #9). Next morning I tried the oatmeal thing again -- again she ate it. Same thing in the evening. Yesterday I just had some vegetable and fruit scraps and she didn't want any part of it. But a couple pieces of whole-grain bread and she ate some. Again, run down in the evening. Today she responded to some leftover granola.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. What started this was that she had a huge ball of dried up poop stuck to her fuzzy butt feathers. So I brought her in and cleaned her off with warm water. Dried her off and put her back in the pen. She seemed okay, not real perky, but then that next day the stuff in question #7 started. Now that I think of it, she's been a bit off for probably a week or so. Last night she had some white poops starting to get caked up on her again. I haven't cleaned bathed her again though.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Not being much of a chicken expert, I did the mineral oil, rubber glove, check for stuck egg. Her tummy seems full and her vent seems swollen -- but it did on the day I checked her for an egg. She doesn't seemed to have passed an egg of any sort and I didn't feel anything that really struck me as an egg. Just a swollen feeling.
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? We're not going to any extremes here, and would really like to just self treat her, but could really use some ideas.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. She's in the general coop with the others. They tend to sleep in the rafters of a 8x8 coop. The floor of the coop is sand. The pen is about 50' square or so and is dirt.
So ... here's the rest of the question: We also have 7 additional chicks that are now about 15 weeks old. They've been housed separately, but spend their days in a pen side by side with the big girls. We wanted to start combining them last weekend, but I've been concerned about this girl, so we backed off. Last night I let everyone out in the backyard, as we do a couple times a week or so to start to commingle, but we're still keeping them largely separated.
What do you think? Should we go ahead and combine the two flocks? Segregate them? Quarantine our sick bird? Any treatment ideas?
Thank you for reading this lengthy post. We look forward to the experts telling us what to do ............
the poly-vi-sol is made by enfamil. You can get it at any local drugstore. I hope she starts feeling better soon!
