- Jun 2, 2011
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I am new to owning chickens...we got them for our 5 year old daughter last year. She has learned a lot about responsibility and she loves every one of her chickens!
We acquired 2 new girls a couple months ago..one black orpington and one lavender. Both have been very sweet and docile. When we got them they were four months old. They integrated fairly well with our other chickens and have seemed to be doing well. They are almost 7 months old now. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the lavender one seemed weak. She was laying down in the corner of the run and was letting the other chickens walk on her. I immediately took her out and put her in my basement in a run. She ate and drank normally but had really runny/watery poo that was stuck all over her rear. After a few days I could see whole seeds in her poo also. She had three days of antibiotics and I wormed her to make sure she didn't have worms. She didn't get better. She eventually got weaker and weaker and died in her sleep.
This was heartbreaking to my daughter and now it seems the black orpington is sick also. I noticed today that she is weak..can't walk steadily and seems to stagger when she walks. Her poo is watery too. So she is now in our basement too. I gave her some econolyte which has vitamins and electrolytes in it, but other than isolation I don't know what else to do for her.
I live in mid-Georgia and its been really hot here...almost 100 yesterday. Our coop and run are in the woods with the coop fully shaded and the run is mostly shaded. Our other chickens and roo seem to be doing ok. They pant in the afternoons, but are doing great otherwise. We let them out in the afternoons so they can run around and eat bugs and go where they want. I just don't know what could be going on with these two babies.
One thing that has happened in the last few weeks is we have caught and killed two HUGE chicken snakes in the coop. Can chicken snakes bite or injure chickens? I thought they just ate the eggs... These two girls were the two smallest chickens in the coop so I guess they'd be the easiest prey...
One other thought that I've had is this: our roo is a RIR...is it possible he's been mounting these two and hurting them?
There seems to be so many reasons for their sickness. Any ideas anyone?
We acquired 2 new girls a couple months ago..one black orpington and one lavender. Both have been very sweet and docile. When we got them they were four months old. They integrated fairly well with our other chickens and have seemed to be doing well. They are almost 7 months old now. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the lavender one seemed weak. She was laying down in the corner of the run and was letting the other chickens walk on her. I immediately took her out and put her in my basement in a run. She ate and drank normally but had really runny/watery poo that was stuck all over her rear. After a few days I could see whole seeds in her poo also. She had three days of antibiotics and I wormed her to make sure she didn't have worms. She didn't get better. She eventually got weaker and weaker and died in her sleep.
This was heartbreaking to my daughter and now it seems the black orpington is sick also. I noticed today that she is weak..can't walk steadily and seems to stagger when she walks. Her poo is watery too. So she is now in our basement too. I gave her some econolyte which has vitamins and electrolytes in it, but other than isolation I don't know what else to do for her.
I live in mid-Georgia and its been really hot here...almost 100 yesterday. Our coop and run are in the woods with the coop fully shaded and the run is mostly shaded. Our other chickens and roo seem to be doing ok. They pant in the afternoons, but are doing great otherwise. We let them out in the afternoons so they can run around and eat bugs and go where they want. I just don't know what could be going on with these two babies.
One thing that has happened in the last few weeks is we have caught and killed two HUGE chicken snakes in the coop. Can chicken snakes bite or injure chickens? I thought they just ate the eggs... These two girls were the two smallest chickens in the coop so I guess they'd be the easiest prey...
One other thought that I've had is this: our roo is a RIR...is it possible he's been mounting these two and hurting them?
There seems to be so many reasons for their sickness. Any ideas anyone?
