My silkie is dying! Whats wrong with her? Please reply!!!

[seminolewind]

thank you. I will probably now get all my chicks from a hatchery. This is something I've been trying to avoid since chicks die in the mail and I have limited space and I can't have to many. In your experience, how many chicks do die? I know this conversation is steering farther and farther away from soot, but you people are really helpful!

I've gotten chicks in the mail 5 times, and this last time had 1 dead, 1 saved. I ordered the 25 they wanted for warmth, and MM crammed them in a box with no heat pack. I only wanted 9, and they were all female. So I took them to the feed store by me and gave them to the employee. They do sell chicks.

I know one hatchery, it could be Meyer that has a special for small orders, they sell you more heat packs to put in the box. I have never myself ordered chicks in cold weather. I feel that the colder it is, the more detrimental it gets with the chicks.

 

[Soot the silkie]

It's not a given that chicks will die in shipment, I haven't rec'vd a dead one yet. I've had a few slow chicks that perked up with warmth, rest and electrolytes. If you want to place a small order check out My Pet Chicken. I live in CA, they ship via Express mail to me, my chicks are in my hands in less then 24 hours.

That is very good to know. Thanks!

 

[Soot the silkie]

Any time I deal with a lethargic chicken, I always treat for coccidia first. Some might think it's an overkill, but it's been the number one killer of my birds, and I have brought many a bird back from near death by treating for it. Might not be a bad idea to treat your remaining babies just in case. Follow up with some pro-biotics.

I"m sorry you lost your little bird. RIP Sooty.

Sooty seemed to be partially paralyzed on one side. She could eat, drink, and didn't seem to be in pain. Is this like coccidia? My other chickens are very healthy and can run and fly well and have just started laying. I am also not one for unnecessary use of antibiotics, but I would like to do the best for my two remaining chickens.

 

[Soot the silkie]

Does anyone know other diseases sooty could have had? I want to do research to find the most probable cause of her death, but I need a starting place. A list would do. Thanks.

 

[seminolewind]

If someone else gets sick like Sooty I would send the body to a lab for a necropsy when they die. It's really too hard to diagnose a chicken on a forum. While it sounds like it could possibly be Marek's, it could be anything. But, I would always treat every chicken, yours and everyone else's like they have Marek's. Like quarantining vaccinated chicks.

 

[Soot the silkie]

Do you quarantine the chicks to see if they get the disease? At what age? Are my two remaining chickens possibly immune? I am pretty sure my other chickens, being barred rocks from a hatchery, have been vaccinated for different diseases.

 

[Soot the silkie]

My other chickens also liked sooty and would dust bath with her.

 

[Soot the silkie]

They would also steal her special food out from under her little beak because, I don't know, maybe they liked the taste of the vitamin B?

 

[Jynuine]

Im sorry to hear about her passing

We really wanted some froofroo breeds so we got a silkie, a polish and a

Spitzhauben with some other breeds. The Spitzhauben (we named Zitty coocoo)​

was 'special' and came with a 'special' white Jersey Giant (her name is Angel) who walked funny and was a spaz, too. We had them in the run and we called it the special ed class. But I suspected she had crook neck because she would spin her head in circles like she was dizzy and couldnt quite hit the mark on her food. She ended up falling in her water dishing and drowning herself- it was so sad. I cried.

Then the Polish we named Betty (my grandmother is Betty and is polish) would hang out with the Silky but a week and a half ago we had a hawk attack and the first to go was Betty, then Ginger, THEN "Dinner" (our cornish). All in 1 day.

All we had left was Bernadette, our Silky. She was definitely a goofball spazball and it was funny watching her because it was as if she didnt know what to do with herself or where she was going.
We realized last night that she was nowhere to be seen while putting them away for the night- and we havent seen her today. We really have no idea what happened to her, but something has been digging up the dead chickens we have been burying. We assume she is done for somewhere.

Needless to say, we have had very bad luck with the froofroos. My husband said no more. When I was digging on information on Crook neck, I found out that all those breeds have very narrow heads where they literally have vaulted skulls that more or less can leave their brains exposed and suffer brain damage if pecked just right. There are a few threads on it here, one is here.

 

[Soot the silkie]

Im sorry to hear about her passing

We really wanted some froofroo breeds so we got a silkie, a polish and a

Spitzhauben with some other breeds. The Spitzhauben (we named Zitty coocoo)​

was 'special' and came with a 'special' white Jersey Giant (her name is Angel) who walked funny and was a spaz, too. We had them in the run and we called it the special ed class. But I suspected she had crook neck because she would spin her head in circles like she was dizzy and couldnt quite hit the mark on her food. She ended up falling in her water dishing and drowning herself- it was so sad. I cried.

Then the Polish we named Betty (my grandmother is Betty and is polish) would hang out with the Silky but a week and a half ago we had a hawk attack and the first to go was Betty, then Ginger, THEN "Dinner" (our cornish). All in 1 day.

All we had left was Bernadette, our Silky. She was definitely a goofball spazball and it was funny watching her because it was as if she didnt know what to do with herself or where she was going.
We realized last night that she was nowhere to be seen while putting them away for the night- and we havent seen her today. We really have no idea what happened to her, but something has been digging up the dead chickens we have been burying. We assume she is done for somewhere.

Needless to say, we have had very bad luck with the froofroos. My husband said no more. When I was digging on information on Crook neck, I found out that all those breeds have very narrow heads where they literally have vaulted skulls that more or less can leave their brains exposed and suffer brain damage if pecked just right. There are a few threads on it here, one is here.

That is very sad. That is a ton of bad luck. You might want to look up diseases too because then maybe future chickens won't get the same thing... If its a disease. I'm no pro. Just repeating what others have recommended to me... people say I shouldn't get any more silkies, but I think its just bad luck that one was a roo so we had to get rid of him and the other died.