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I would say let your dh catch her and then examine her, they can be quite hard to catch. Hope it's nothing serious, If you can get some Nutri Drench and start her on it, I'll get you the info. check for egg bound by looking at her vent is it red, pulsing? feel her lower belly [carefully for an egg] feel her breast, can you feel her bone? have you ever wormed them? if they are on dirt at all they can get worms. What age are they? http://barnyardsandbackyards.org/2010/09/18/review-nutri-dren ch/ also check out her feet, bumble foot can make them feel bad it's staff infection and there will be swelling and a blk scab on the foot. she would probably be limping too. Just wanted to say all your birds will benefit from the nutri drench so unless she is showing obvious signs of illness you wouldn't have to isolate her.
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ML - try not to laugh when I ask this, but where is the vent??
I honestly have not handled the chickens since I got them. This is one of my Marans, so she isn't that old...I can't remember how old she was when I got her, but she was wormed before I got her. Aside from her tail down, she is still "normal". She's running around the yard foraging and keeping time with the rest of the flock. I will have DH grab her tonight, or try to - she likes to sleep under (yes under) the other girls. What should everything "feel" like?? As for nutri drench, what is it? What does it do exactly? I will go check out the link you posted as soon as I feed the little one! Thank you again ML!!
Nutri-dench is just a bunch of Vitamins and Nutrients that gives birds a good boost.
A chicken's vent is the butt hole.
Maybe I should have worded that different, but the truth is the truth. A normal bird's vent should be pink right on the inside. Don't freak out if it starts pulsating. There should no poop around or under the vent. A soiled bottom can point towards a problem as well.
When feeling around. The Breast should have meat on it. You will feel the keel bone split the breast. It would be helpful to have a healthy bird and do a side by side. That would be the easiest way to learn. Check in the mouth for any lesions or sores. Take a sniff of the mouth. Should smell like warm mucus. For matter, does the bird over all smell like a chicken of something else?
most important: DO NOT RISK YOUR HEALTH. I know you care for your birds, but YOU and the 'bun' come first.
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Thank you so much Matt!! DH and I plan to go outside tonight and check on her after we put DD down for bed. Would wrapping the chicken (Susan) up in a towel be okay for her? I don't want to stress her out and I know she isn't use to being handled. What do we do if we don't find anything? I am trying not to panic, but I am wondering what all the possibilities could be. I even busted out my Chicken Health Handbook, but it's a bit technical for me.
I knew I would have to be broken into the whole sick bird sooner or later, but I really REALLY hoped it would be later...much much later!!
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Thank you so much Matt!! DH and I plan to go outside tonight and check on her after we put DD down for bed. Would wrapping the chicken (Susan) up in a towel be okay for her? I don't want to stress her out and I know she isn't use to being handled. What do we do if we don't find anything? I am trying not to panic, but I am wondering what all the possibilities could be. I even busted out my Chicken Health Handbook, but it's a bit technical for me.
I knew I would have to be broken into the whole sick bird sooner or later, but I really REALLY hoped it would be later...much much later!!
Thank you again for all your help!!
Wrapping in a towel is a good way to handle one less stress for you and the bird. As Matt said Nutri Drench is vitamins and etc. I use it for molting and general over all health. so it sure can't hurt and evidentally it tastes better than poly vi sol because my chickens will drink it where they won't go near anything that has poly vi so in it. If her vent is red and looks a bit swollen it's probably because she is laying, and pulsing is very common in them when laying. But if she is eating and doing chicken things then she might have just eaten something that made her feel a little off. Do they free range? Do you give them Oyster shell on the side?
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ML - they do free range and I have oyster shells available for them in a separate feeding "trough," (not sure what you would call it...a small hanging feeder) only they do not seem to eat it. I did notice her eating an egg shell that I had thrown in the compost bin (that our opossum, I'm assuming, brought out) but she only pecked at it once and left it alone. Could this be a nutritional thing? Should I offer her some scrambled eggs tomorrow? I do have a bag of egg shells, I could crush them up and offer them to her?? Wow, I didn't know things could be this mysterious!!
DH and I went outside and
he was too timid to grab her (he was afraid of hurting her). I gently wrapped her in a towel, but when I picked her up, I heard this awful noise and she expelled some liquid poo. I am not sure if it was because we stressed her out, or if that is a "symptom". We looked her over, and she feels like a pulsating chicken (rather than what I feel when I am rubbing a chicken to eat, if that makes sense?!?) I could not get a good look at her vent (it was dark outside and our flashlights seemed to make her more nervous.) so we brought her inside. Her bottom was covered in poo - I am again, assuming from earlier, so I drew up a warm bath and soaked her bottom in it. I remember reading you all explain if she was egg bound this warm bath would also help, but I did not feel anything that would feel like an egg inside; however, I was careful not to "poke" and "prod" too hard, so I may have missed something, since I don't really know what I am doing. She was alert while bathing, seemed to like the warm water and the bath overall - except when DH turned the flashlight on at her. Her vent looked like what I THINK one should look like. It seemed a little larger than what an "anus" would look like to me, but she has been laying eggs, so that could be. I didn't notice any pulsating, but I didn't look too long as I was afraid of stressing her out more. After I cleaned her bottom, I wrapped her back up in a towel and "cuddled" with her a bit so she could stay warm and dry off. Once she was 90% dry, I took her back outside and placed her in the coop. She went right back onto the nesting box ledge with the rest of the "gang" and didn't fuss. I hope I did alright, and didn't stress her out any. I will order the nutri-drench (would TSC or Agri-supply have some??) tomorrow or run out and get some. Other than that, I guess I will just keep an eye on her and see what happens?
I do hope she is okay!!
Thank you guys ever so much for your help!! I don't know what I would do without you all!!
I'm hoping my little Susan is okay, after all, you can't have Lucie without a Susan!
She's my black copper maran (she's black with a copper neck), the only one I have, and has always been so sweet, even if she's been a bit timid. I do NOT want to go outside tomorrow and find anything wrong with her.
Praying she will make it through the night and not introduce me to my first loss!!
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ML - they do free range and I have oyster shells available for them in a separate feeding "trough," (not sure what you would call it...a small hanging feeder) only they do not seem to eat it. I did notice her eating an egg shell that I had thrown in the compost bin (that our opossum, I'm assuming, brought out) but she only pecked at it once and left it alone. Could this be a nutritional thing? Should I offer her some scrambled eggs tomorrow? I do have a bag of egg shells, I could crush them up and offer them to her?? Wow, I didn't know things could be this mysterious!!
DH and I went outside and
he was too timid to grab her (he was afraid of hurting her). I gently wrapped her in a towel, but when I picked her up, I heard this awful noise and she expelled some liquid poo. I am not sure if it was because we stressed her out, or if that is a "symptom". We looked her over, and she feels like a pulsating chicken (rather than what I feel when I am rubbing a chicken to eat, if that makes sense?!?) I could not get a good look at her vent (it was dark outside and our flashlights seemed to make her more nervous.) so we brought her inside. Her bottom was covered in poo - I am again, assuming from earlier, so I drew up a warm bath and soaked her bottom in it. I remember reading you all explain if she was egg bound this warm bath would also help, but I did not feel anything that would feel like an egg inside; however, I was careful not to "poke" and "prod" too hard, so I may have missed something, since I don't really know what I am doing. She was alert while bathing, seemed to like the warm water and the bath overall - except when DH turned the flashlight on at her. Her vent looked like what I THINK one should look like. It seemed a little larger than what an "anus" would look like to me, but she has been laying eggs, so that could be. I didn't notice any pulsating, but I didn't look too long as I was afraid of stressing her out more. After I cleaned her bottom, I wrapped her back up in a towel and "cuddled" with her a bit so she could stay warm and dry off. Once she was 90% dry, I took her back outside and placed her in the coop. She went right back onto the nesting box ledge with the rest of the "gang" and didn't fuss. I hope I did alright, and didn't stress her out any. I will order the nutri-drench (would TSC or Agri-supply have some??) tomorrow or run out and get some. Other than that, I guess I will just keep an eye on her and see what happens?
I do hope she is okay!!
Thank you guys ever so much for your help!! I don't know what I would do without you all!!
I'm hoping my little Susan is okay, after all, you can't have Lucie without a Susan!
She's my black copper maran (she's black with a copper neck), the only one I have, and has always been so sweet, even if she's been a bit timid. I do NOT want to go outside tomorrow and find anything wrong with her.
Praying she will make it through the night and not introduce me to my first loss!!
You did great and yes TSC should have it and I'm not familar with Agri-supply. you want the poultry nutri drench. and hopefull what ever is going on she'll be much better tomorrow. If she is laying then she is probably not egg bound. Let us know how she is tomorrow.
another thing you might check if she doesn't seem better is to check for mites or lice. lice will be attched to the feather shaft around the vent area and are light colored and mites are tinier than a speck of pepper and you'd want to look under wings and again around vent. I checked my chickens for both alot and still they got mites and didn't know it till they got on me. Seems everyone has to deal with these pests at least once.
Matt... you cracked me up.... with the vent description .
Ruthann.... you did good !
Check for lice/mites. Look under her wing or the vent area, if you see little brownish or white bugs, that could be you problem. Otherwise keep an eye on her.
The holiday orders are already rolling in, and its sucking up all my time + my job.
Next weekend I have a jam class to do, I also have to finishing getting some paperwork together to move on getting $$$ to get my shop. Its about time I got the fast track to getting where I want to be instead of waiting.
With that said, if anyone has any opinions on things they would like to receive for dontations... let me know. I'm working with KickStarter.com to try to start getting help getting my ideas for my business off the ground. Part of what the need from me is a series of rewards for the donors. I can't do gift certs or coupons, but everything else is a GO! Trying to throw some ideas around like packs of seeds from my garden, t-shirts... ect. Would LOVE to hear would creative original ideas you guys come up with for donation gifts. You know, stuff that makes you go 'oh cool, I would love something like that... and I can't buy it just anywhere!!!'
Anyways, if I'm not here very often, forgive me... I'm find... just trying to keep my head above water in the kitchen!
