Hi all
Have spent hours trawling through old posts to try to find help, and finally given up, joined BYC and decided to post a request myself!
I have 4 ex battery chickens - we picked them up on April 1st (no joke). This is my first experience of chickens, and all has been fine (and very amusing!) until now.
Teresa is not well, and probably hasnt been for at least 3 weeks.
She started off going all ruffled, and her comb started to go purple/black colour. She was eating a bit but i picked her up and her breast bone seemed really pronounced, so she's lost a lot of weight, but seemed ok apart from a dirty backside. I googled it and lots of sites pointed towards heart failure and circulation problems. So we just thought that we'd leave her to it, and she'd pass away naturally if she has a heart problem.
That probably lasted for about a week. We gave her a couple of warm baths to clean her backside, but it didnt last long. Then her comb went pink again, but very pale. She has become more lethargic, more slow, and about a week ago she was just stood there, closing and opening her eyes. Again, I thought, 'ah well, that's it, she's off', and as it was cold outside I brought her inside in a box to make her last few hours more comfortable. Fed her some scrambled egg and yoghurt, bread, meal worms - she ate them fine, although small portions only.
That was over a week ago. She is now in a box inside, with food (ex batt smallholder crumb), and a few treats which she eats occasionally. If the weather is OK, I put her outside, but recently the other 3 have started attacking her. Not sure if that is because she is dying, or if its because they no longer spend time with her so she's an outsider (she was always at the bottom of the pecking order before, but they are quite amenable hens, so she never used to get attacked). now they are quite vicious with her, going for her pale pink comb, so I keep her separate.
Her poop is OK ish. Sometimes we get a small solid one, slight green tinge, but not noticeably different to usual. Now after a few days inside she has very water poop or wee, with lots of white bits in it. I'm not sure if that is a symptom, or a reflection of the change/reduction in her diet now she's inside. She still has a dirty backside.
Again, vast amounts of googling, everyone keeps saying worms. I've not wormed them since we got them, but when I tried to get hold of some Flubenvet a few weeks ago, it seems there is a worldwide shortage, and no alternative product. I've managed to order some pellets which come with flubenvet in them, but they are not due until next week.
I'm not sure what else i can do. She doesnt seem very happy, but doesnt appear to be on death's door (perhaps I'm just falsely keeping her alive by having her staying inside?).
Things I've thought about - egg peritonitis or egg bound? i think we will give her a proper warm bath at the weekend (we rarely see her during the day as we're at work, so dont want to wake her up for a late night bath!) but I've had a feel of her body and its not obvious that she's got anything stuck. Not gone in her vent yet - but not sure I'd know what I'm feeling if I did! She looks quite big, but I think that's ruffled feathers rather than swollen abdomen.
Any advice gratefully received - sorry for such a detailed post, but I know you experts like to have the whole story!
Thanks
Have spent hours trawling through old posts to try to find help, and finally given up, joined BYC and decided to post a request myself!
I have 4 ex battery chickens - we picked them up on April 1st (no joke). This is my first experience of chickens, and all has been fine (and very amusing!) until now.
Teresa is not well, and probably hasnt been for at least 3 weeks.
She started off going all ruffled, and her comb started to go purple/black colour. She was eating a bit but i picked her up and her breast bone seemed really pronounced, so she's lost a lot of weight, but seemed ok apart from a dirty backside. I googled it and lots of sites pointed towards heart failure and circulation problems. So we just thought that we'd leave her to it, and she'd pass away naturally if she has a heart problem.
That probably lasted for about a week. We gave her a couple of warm baths to clean her backside, but it didnt last long. Then her comb went pink again, but very pale. She has become more lethargic, more slow, and about a week ago she was just stood there, closing and opening her eyes. Again, I thought, 'ah well, that's it, she's off', and as it was cold outside I brought her inside in a box to make her last few hours more comfortable. Fed her some scrambled egg and yoghurt, bread, meal worms - she ate them fine, although small portions only.
That was over a week ago. She is now in a box inside, with food (ex batt smallholder crumb), and a few treats which she eats occasionally. If the weather is OK, I put her outside, but recently the other 3 have started attacking her. Not sure if that is because she is dying, or if its because they no longer spend time with her so she's an outsider (she was always at the bottom of the pecking order before, but they are quite amenable hens, so she never used to get attacked). now they are quite vicious with her, going for her pale pink comb, so I keep her separate.
Her poop is OK ish. Sometimes we get a small solid one, slight green tinge, but not noticeably different to usual. Now after a few days inside she has very water poop or wee, with lots of white bits in it. I'm not sure if that is a symptom, or a reflection of the change/reduction in her diet now she's inside. She still has a dirty backside.
Again, vast amounts of googling, everyone keeps saying worms. I've not wormed them since we got them, but when I tried to get hold of some Flubenvet a few weeks ago, it seems there is a worldwide shortage, and no alternative product. I've managed to order some pellets which come with flubenvet in them, but they are not due until next week.
I'm not sure what else i can do. She doesnt seem very happy, but doesnt appear to be on death's door (perhaps I'm just falsely keeping her alive by having her staying inside?).
Things I've thought about - egg peritonitis or egg bound? i think we will give her a proper warm bath at the weekend (we rarely see her during the day as we're at work, so dont want to wake her up for a late night bath!) but I've had a feel of her body and its not obvious that she's got anything stuck. Not gone in her vent yet - but not sure I'd know what I'm feeling if I did! She looks quite big, but I think that's ruffled feathers rather than swollen abdomen.
Any advice gratefully received - sorry for such a detailed post, but I know you experts like to have the whole story!
Thanks
