I recently joined this forum as I got chickens a couple months back, but this is my first post (I like to just read), so apologies that my first one is filled with drama.
I have 3 hens and NO CLUE what I'm doing. Sooo, bear that in mind that I'm a big noob with chickens.
I live in CA and the heat the last couple of days has been dreadful. Naturally, my husband and I make sure our hens have plenty of water and we do let them out of the coop to run around the backyard a few times during that day. (we hesitate to just leave them unattended because I'm not sure if some hawk will come down and take them).
Now, for the drama. Yesterday afternoon, about 2, my husband ran into the house to tell me one of the chickens, my favorite, Lucy, appeared to be dying. I ran out and found her laying on her side panting heavily. She was unable to stand up and seemed very lethargic or drunk, if you will. Being a noob, I had no clue what was wrong. For all I knew it was either the heat or she was sick with something. Bottom line, this was an emergency.
I googled her symptons and was completely overwhelmed by all the possibilities of what could be wrong with her. So, that was no help. I did see one recurring issue and that was that she could be having a heat stroke. Made sense, considering it was 1000 degrees, but the other two hens seemed to be fine.
I grabbed Lucy out of her coop/run and placed her in a shady spot, filled a garden bucket with a spout with water and started to water her down. Everywhere. On her neck, under her wings, on her little butt, etc. About 15 minutes after my doing that, the heavy panting stopped and turned into what I would call "labored breathing". Sometimes, she would droop her head down and close her eyes, which naturally made me think that she was dying. After about 5 minutes she would suddenly lift her head, eyes wide open and seemed more alert, but would then go back to drooping her head and closing her eyes. This behavior went on for about 5 hours. The entire time, I kept pouring water on her about every 5-10 minutes. She would not eat or drink anything.
After about 4 hours, she suddenly stood up and pooped. Half of the poop seemed normal and the rest was runny. To me, not a good sign. then she layed back down again, and I continued with our watering process. All this time she would not eat or drink. At this point, I was able to get her to drink water from my hand! Thank goodness!
An hour after she pooped, she tried to get up, but was unsteady, so I had her lie down again. Eventually, she did stand up and seemed pretty steady. We let her move around the yard with me hovering over her.
When we put the hens back into their coop, since it was starting to get dark, she was drinking water on her own and even eating some of the watermelon we gave them.
When she tried to roost in the hen house, she fell of 3 times. Eventually, she got back up there and was able to stay there throughout the night. I checked on her throughout the night and she seemed to be ok.
This morning...she is BACK! As soon as I opened the door to her coop, she ran out and was acting normal! YAY!!
We are expecting another hot day today, so my husband (who works from home) will be watering all of the hens down today to make sure they all stay cool. Before I left for work, I put some icecubes in their water dispenser and gave them some fresh watermelon, which they LOVE!
Sorry for such a longwinded post, but maybe this will help out some other folks who have no clue what they're doing, like me!
Here is a picture of Lucy:
and here is their home:
I have 3 hens and NO CLUE what I'm doing. Sooo, bear that in mind that I'm a big noob with chickens.
I live in CA and the heat the last couple of days has been dreadful. Naturally, my husband and I make sure our hens have plenty of water and we do let them out of the coop to run around the backyard a few times during that day. (we hesitate to just leave them unattended because I'm not sure if some hawk will come down and take them).
Now, for the drama. Yesterday afternoon, about 2, my husband ran into the house to tell me one of the chickens, my favorite, Lucy, appeared to be dying. I ran out and found her laying on her side panting heavily. She was unable to stand up and seemed very lethargic or drunk, if you will. Being a noob, I had no clue what was wrong. For all I knew it was either the heat or she was sick with something. Bottom line, this was an emergency.
I googled her symptons and was completely overwhelmed by all the possibilities of what could be wrong with her. So, that was no help. I did see one recurring issue and that was that she could be having a heat stroke. Made sense, considering it was 1000 degrees, but the other two hens seemed to be fine.
I grabbed Lucy out of her coop/run and placed her in a shady spot, filled a garden bucket with a spout with water and started to water her down. Everywhere. On her neck, under her wings, on her little butt, etc. About 15 minutes after my doing that, the heavy panting stopped and turned into what I would call "labored breathing". Sometimes, she would droop her head down and close her eyes, which naturally made me think that she was dying. After about 5 minutes she would suddenly lift her head, eyes wide open and seemed more alert, but would then go back to drooping her head and closing her eyes. This behavior went on for about 5 hours. The entire time, I kept pouring water on her about every 5-10 minutes. She would not eat or drink anything.
After about 4 hours, she suddenly stood up and pooped. Half of the poop seemed normal and the rest was runny. To me, not a good sign. then she layed back down again, and I continued with our watering process. All this time she would not eat or drink. At this point, I was able to get her to drink water from my hand! Thank goodness!
An hour after she pooped, she tried to get up, but was unsteady, so I had her lie down again. Eventually, she did stand up and seemed pretty steady. We let her move around the yard with me hovering over her.
When we put the hens back into their coop, since it was starting to get dark, she was drinking water on her own and even eating some of the watermelon we gave them.
When she tried to roost in the hen house, she fell of 3 times. Eventually, she got back up there and was able to stay there throughout the night. I checked on her throughout the night and she seemed to be ok.
This morning...she is BACK! As soon as I opened the door to her coop, she ran out and was acting normal! YAY!!
We are expecting another hot day today, so my husband (who works from home) will be watering all of the hens down today to make sure they all stay cool. Before I left for work, I put some icecubes in their water dispenser and gave them some fresh watermelon, which they LOVE!
Sorry for such a longwinded post, but maybe this will help out some other folks who have no clue what they're doing, like me!
Here is a picture of Lucy:
and here is their home:
