My Hen is very ill, please help!

[Anndan]

Hello everyone!

I am extremely worried. I have 8 3 ish month old chickens. A week or two ago I had my RIR die randomly in the night. I wasn't too sure what had happened since this is my first time raising chickens but since then I have been taking very close attention to my girls.

I went outside tonight to make sure the girls were all in their coop. Everyone was inside except for my buff Orpington who was laying on the ground. She has been showing more and more signs off illness as of late as she has been lethargic and out of it. I brought her inside and have her secluded with water. She is panting with her tongue occasionally flickering up and down. She was laying down until a few minutes ago and is now standing. She also is quite pale. I gave her a little bit of olive oil but I am not sure what else to do and I am worried about the rest of my chickens. Any help would be amazing, I do not want to lose my girl.

She also just pooped and it looks pretty normal. I will attach photos of her and her poop.

 

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Hey im sorry for your RIR loss and to hear about your sick chick... i loveee buff orpintons!!

Im pretty new to chicken keeping so hopefully someone more experienced will give you a better idea... but iv done little reading to try and help.

First of all whats her diet? If she is having scratch or free ranging she shud have access to grit.

Has the weather been really warm recently the panting may be heat related...

Is she gaping and stretching her neck? Gaping can be a sign of gape worm... worm all chickens just to be safe....

Seperate her from the rest of your flick and clean the coop throughly anything the sick chick has come into contact with needs to be disinfected just incase what ever she has is contagious....

Check and treat all birds for mites... (just to rule out things) safer than sorry....

It may be a respiratory problem....

Put electrolytes in the water of the sick chick and give natural yogurt mashed with feed daily. Also give mashed boiled egg and a little bit of oatmeal to try build up her energy/strength and appetite...

Giver the electrolytes in water and yogurt etc and keep an eye on her... please keep me updated i wish u best of luck!!

Hopefully someone more experienced can give you better advice than i can... but its a start!

Wish you all luck x

 

[Anndan]

She died tonight..
We tried everything we could and thought she was showing signs of improvement but this evening she became extremely docile and couldn't hold her head up anymore. We gave her some water and she couldn't open one of her eyes. We waited and waited and she started to convulse or seize. She would spazz and her body became twisted and it didn't even seem like she was even there anymore even though she was still breathing. After an hour or so she passed.

I don't know if there's anything I can do to make sure this doesn't happen to any other members of my flock. I'm completely heartbroken as she was the nicest and most kind girl I had and she was only 3 months old. I have no idea what this could possibly be.

 

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Im extreemly sorry to hear about your loss.. it made me cry readingvyour post it must have been heartbreaking! You did the right thing making her comfortable at the end.

Im not sure what could have been wrong with your chick, if you look in the learning centre on this website there are tons of articles on sickness in chickens maybe reading them will help broaden your knowledge of posdible illnesses and symptoms to loo for and prevention/cures so msybe you might catch it earlier if anither chicken goes down.

I would give your chickens vitamins and minerals... give them natural yogurt, and plenty protein, verm-x poulty zest is a good mineral supplement. Clean out and disinfect everything well and ue a ground conditioner that kills mites, worms, eggs, larvae etc (nettex ground sanitizer). Make sure they have fresh water daily and treat them for coccidiosis (respiratory problem) just to cover all things and keep an eye on them and hopefully they will be fine.

I wish you the best of luck and hope my post is helpful x