Making weird "clicking" noise and comb sagging

[nhchickmom]

One of my chickens has started making a funny "clicking noise" Her mouth stays closed when she does this. Is this normal? Also another girls comb seems to be changing to a purpilish color on top. It is cold here.......could this be poor circulation or something else?

 

[beautifulbirds]

Purplish comb usually means they are sick. Suggest you isolate, ensure they are warm. Offer bread and milk, dose with garlic juice (steep abt 10 cloves garlic in boiling hot water) take an eye dropper and squirt into their mouth, watch for them to swallow. Check frequently.

 

[dlhunicorn]

what breed are your birds? A purple comb indicates poor circulation and often heart insufficiency ... it often occurs with cold weather.
Please do NOT go "squirting" things in their beak as birds do not have an eppiglottis as mammals do to cover the hole leading to the lungs/airways.
The key here is warmth in my opinion ... birds are weaker in cold weather as their system is geared to keeping theirselves warm and when you see a purple comb this not only indicates they are not achieving this , but illness may soon follow as immune competance is in this situation compromised.
You can gluegun cardboard on the inside of the coop, provide lowsided cardboard boxes filled with shavings as just a couple of ideas to help them keep warm if your current heating system is insufficient.

 

[beautifulbirds]

If you squirt into their mouth and NOT down their throat, a little bit at a t ime, you can usually manage to dose a bird quite successfully. After all it's not like you can pop garlic juice onto a teaspoon and the little darlings are going to lap it up.

 

[nhchickmom]

Quote:
The girl with the purplish comb is a RI Red, I thought they would be ok in cold weather.........WE have a small dog house that are dog never uses and I was wondering about filling this with shavings as a nice little nook for the birds to go into if they are cold. What do you think?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[dlhunicorn]

I think that an excellent idea... my birds also have such little places as they only like to use their coop in the evening.
For the girls you posted about ... if they look listless and especially cold stressed I would think about bringing them in (and then you will sit with having to reintroduce them slowly back into the cold which can be a pain but if you dont then you may wake up one morning and find them expired.)

 

[kinnip]

I have an Andalusian roo who's comb turns purple on the back 1/5th, or so, in the afternoon. By morning, it's o.k. Some days it's more purple than others. Some days it's not purple at all. This has been going on since he reached sexual maturity. I do think I see a correlation between his angst level and the purple. It doesn't happen at all when it's cold. Maybe he's breeding his way toward a heart attack.

 

[beautifulbirds]

Hi Kinnip your roo may have the onset of kidney problems which is also indicative of a purple comb. I have a cross breed roo that does the same; and we are not having cold weather at all. When I keep him in his run and feed LOTS of greens the comb returns to normal and stays that way, if I pull back and feed him with the rest (and he runs about free ranging and generally neglecting himself because he's chasing the girls and forgets to eat properly) the comb colour alternates. I'd test the situation by feeding more greens and see what happens.

 

[kinnip]

Do you think it's related to feeding layer ration? I've noticed it more often over the past week. I pulled all the 20% feed from the feeders because I was worried I had an egg eating problem. Of course, it's also been a weird week weather-wise. We went from normal winter temps in the 40s to nearly 80 everyday. Last night a cold front rolled in and we're back to normal, so is his comb. This has been going on for six months now, but only when it's warm and mostly when he's agitated.

 

[beautifulbirds]

Hi kinnip, the only way to see if your boy's comb is affected by feeding is to test it. If you can put him (and his girls) in a run by themselves then do so and feed the normal (whatever you feed them) PLUS lots of greens; a mix of silverbeet and lettuce would be good. I also give a mix of white bread that I pull apart into chicken-mouth sized bits, I sprinkle liberally with milk powder, wet with room temp water (cold water if it's hot and warm water if it's cold), mix and serve. Do this for say a week and record his comb colour each day. Then you'll know for sure.
BB.