Hellooo
This is my first post here, so please bear with me!
Wonderful website and everyone seems so friendly. We live in the UK and started keeping chickens about 10 months ago. I really love having them clucking around the garden and never realised what personalities hens have! We started off with six - 1 Nera, 1 Barred Rock, 1 Cambridge Blue, 1 Black Tail and 2 Light Sussex.
We lost the first hen (Nera) due to an impacted crop, which I have now learned a lot about and am confident I can treat more effectively if it ever happens again.
We have lost two hens since then, one (Barred Rock) in September last year, one (Nera) in January this year and we now have another hen (Black Tail) displaying similar symptoms. After the Barred Rock died we bought 3 new hens (1 Nera, 1 Black Sussex and 1 Copper Maran), thinking that maybe it was a one off - it wasn't, obviously.
They tend to go from being bright and healthy one day to then becoming lethargic with a hunched appearance and slightly drooping wings. They also shake their heads every now and again, which is noticeable, but not constant. They still eat and drink, but tend to stop every now and again to 'sleep'. They hunch up in a corner on their own and frequently close their eyes. This may carry on for a couple of days until they give up and die. Their crops and vents seem fine and they seem to be a good weight, until the end when they stop eating.
They have been wormed with flubenvet recently. They have a dry, well ventilated, but not drafty, house. They are fed layers pellets from a hopper and have fresh water daily. They have seed/maize and also fresh veg, and free range for a few hours per day so that they are not confined to one plot of land all day. The run is next to our shed where we have noticed vermin before, could this be indicative of a disease passed on by vermin?
I really don't know what it is or what to do. The other hens seem healthy, but then so did these until they fell ill. Any advice much appreciated! Many thanks in advance! Apologies for introducing myself and then asking for advice immediately :-|
This is my first post here, so please bear with me!
Wonderful website and everyone seems so friendly. We live in the UK and started keeping chickens about 10 months ago. I really love having them clucking around the garden and never realised what personalities hens have! We started off with six - 1 Nera, 1 Barred Rock, 1 Cambridge Blue, 1 Black Tail and 2 Light Sussex.
We lost the first hen (Nera) due to an impacted crop, which I have now learned a lot about and am confident I can treat more effectively if it ever happens again.
We have lost two hens since then, one (Barred Rock) in September last year, one (Nera) in January this year and we now have another hen (Black Tail) displaying similar symptoms. After the Barred Rock died we bought 3 new hens (1 Nera, 1 Black Sussex and 1 Copper Maran), thinking that maybe it was a one off - it wasn't, obviously.
They tend to go from being bright and healthy one day to then becoming lethargic with a hunched appearance and slightly drooping wings. They also shake their heads every now and again, which is noticeable, but not constant. They still eat and drink, but tend to stop every now and again to 'sleep'. They hunch up in a corner on their own and frequently close their eyes. This may carry on for a couple of days until they give up and die. Their crops and vents seem fine and they seem to be a good weight, until the end when they stop eating.
They have been wormed with flubenvet recently. They have a dry, well ventilated, but not drafty, house. They are fed layers pellets from a hopper and have fresh water daily. They have seed/maize and also fresh veg, and free range for a few hours per day so that they are not confined to one plot of land all day. The run is next to our shed where we have noticed vermin before, could this be indicative of a disease passed on by vermin?
I really don't know what it is or what to do. The other hens seem healthy, but then so did these until they fell ill. Any advice much appreciated! Many thanks in advance! Apologies for introducing myself and then asking for advice immediately :-|
