Newbie here....please help!

The starter is not medicated. She is preferring the scrambled egg over anything else right now. She has eaten approximately 1/2 a scrambled egg today. I have made a batch of the electrolyte water that you sent me to the link to and have made her drink a few drops of that. She has not had any yogurt for a few hours.

Maybe I used the wrong word when trying to describe her poo. It isn't thin or liquidy. It is sort of solid. The problem seems to be that she can't push it out. Pardon this analogy, but it's almost like a tube of toothpaste...like the "toothpaste" just sits there unitl I push it out. She cries a little when I do that. Yes, today, I noticed a tinge of blood and her vent does look irritated, and it is always (since I have been checking) filled with poo. Each time I check on her, I am able to squeeze some out, like tube of toothpaste. I have bathed her bottom in warm water a couple of times today to get the poo off of her feathers, but this seems to really stress her out, so I don't want to do it more than I need to.

The other pullets seem fine. I am checking on them regularly, too. Will check again for poopy butts.

The first sign of this one being sick was when I noticed she couldn't walk and it was 105 heat index outside. The poop issue wasn't noticed until I brought her in and began to tend closely to her, realizing she couldn't push the poo out. She was not dirty with poo when I first brought her in.

Your help is so much appreciated!!
 
Chickens are all descended from Wild Birds that are native to parts of Malaysia, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. They were hatched dealing with hot weather, especially hot and humid weather like you enjoy in Florida and I look forward to in Alabama every Spring.

Chickens however can not cope with direct and hot Sunlight. I have seen such conditions kill an otherwise healthy adult chicken in as little as 5 minutes. It wasn't the heat index that kills, its the unrelenting, beating down, unmercifully Sunlight. Phony constructs like the "Heat Index" are meaningless. Your daily temperature is recorded in THE SHADE and besides that in a moving air stream. Besides, if I remember correctly the body temperature of a hen is about 105 F. In their natural environment the Red Jungle Fowl that our chickens are descended from are not subjected to very much direct, unrelenting, beating down, and unmerciful Sunlight. They live and thrive in the shadows and your chickens will thrive in the shade and shadows as well, at least as long as the humidity is high enough.

As a small boy it fell to my lot to scout my Grand Paw's and Granny's farm stead for eggs. To that end I often crawled underneath my Grand Parent's Shotgun farm house which rested on precariously balanced rocks. Needless to say some of the 100 or so hens we kept laid their cackle berries in the crawl space beneath our feet. In the Summer during the heat of the day every feather on the place would be resting under grandma's house, usually up to their drumsticks in a nice cool dirt wallow. A chicken can fend for itself very well think you as long as you will provide the essentials for chickens to thrive, and deep, dark shade is one of, if not the most important of those essentials.
 
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Hi chickengeorgeto! My chickens get a little morning sun, but after about 9:30 am, they're completely in the shade. They are in an "intermediate" pen right now until we get the full size coop and run finished. I keep clean, fresh shavings in the pen for them, which they seem to love "bathing" in.

I have always thought/felt that they were pretty hearty and able to fend for themselves given the adequate conditions. I think the intermediate pen they're in right now does not allow for their ability to find efficient conditions to keep cool without my help!

My girl is hanging in there. She still cannot stand up, but is eating scrambled egg and drinking some electrolyte water I made, mainly with my help. She is alert to noises around her. She still is not able to push her poo out. I have to squeeze it out, kind of like a tube of toothpaste. It seems normal consistency...she just can t push it out.
 
Hi chickengeorgeto! My chickens get a little morning sun, but after about 9:30 am, they're completely in the shade. They are in an "intermediate" pen right now until we get the full size coop and run finished. I keep clean, fresh shavings in the pen for them, which they seem to love "bathing" in.

I have always thought/felt that they were pretty hearty and able to fend for themselves given the adequate conditions. I think the intermediate pen they're in right now does not allow for their ability to find efficient conditions to keep cool without my help!

My girl is hanging in there. She still cannot stand up, but is eating scrambled egg and drinking some electrolyte water I made, mainly with my help. She is alert to noises around her. She still is not able to push her poo out. I have to squeeze it out, kind of like a tube of toothpaste. It seems normal consistency...she just can t push it out.
 
Lindalouly, thank you so much for your continued concern! Both of her legs seem paralyzed. She can move her wings, her head, neck....but she cannot move her feet or legs, nor can she push her poop out. She is producing poop, but I have to squeeze it out, sort of like a tube of toothpaste. It seems to be a normal consistency.
 
Hi. welcome to BYC. Sorry about your chicken. Two easy things are to change the plain water you are giving to an electrolyte solution. (I will look for a link after I post.) Second thing is no scratch in the heat. Corn jazzes up their metabolism and actually creates more body heat for them. There are better alternatives for treats.

If you still have her inside, this will sound silly, you have to make sure she is not too cold. Wet feathers in air conditioning will bring her body temp down quickly, but since she has been stressed, being too cold will not help her.

Some chickens handle cold and heat better than others, but when it gets too much for them, it can cause organ damage that may not be repairable. If she has poor heat tolerance, this may have happened, and she just needs time to heal.

Not sure about the trouble pooping. The electrolytes might help with the contractions. What type of food does she have access to?


Here is a link to electrolyte solution. post #1

I was going to say the same. Electrolytes and NO SCRATCH.
Ice in the waterers, but not a cold bath. That can shock a living thing. Cool, not cold. A fan in the coop if you can.
 

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