- Jan 23, 2011
- 35
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My lovely chicken is really sick and I have no idea what to do. I have called all up and down the coast (West Coast NZ, small population) for a vet, but no one handles chickens and I have been told to wait until she dies and send her into Christchurch for an autopsy! I find that cruel, and can't bear to just let her die like that. My book on keeping chickens has nothing like what her symptoms are. She is also the second sick hen in my flock. Early on the morning of the 20th of November my husband found a new mother hen, Nuff, laying weak in poo on the coop floor. I went out to her 20 minutes later with a box of straw and some Coxiprol solution, but she was already dead! When I removed her I saw that she had very green and copious diarrhea around her, she had released a large amount of clear liquid from her mouth or lungs, and her comb had turned purple. I began calling vets in the area, but none of them were any help, most saying that they knew nothing about chickens. I scrubbed the coop, mite dusted it, and began giving the chickens 40ml of Coxiprol per 20 liters of H2O. They all seem fine, and I have no way of knowing if it has anything to do with the Coxiprol. Meanwhile, outside the coop and run, my 'pet' outcast hen suddenly stopped laying, stopped running around the yard, begging at the kitchen window, eating at all, or even drinking. She went into her little coop and just sat there in the hay. She always avoided being touched or picked up but suddenly she stopped resisting it altogether...when I dipped her beak in H2O trying to get her to drink she just sat there, no drinking, no nothing...She has been sitting there still as a stone (but for once) since the afternoon of the 20th of November. The one time she went outside she just stayed in one place and scratched herself with her claws and beak. When the wind ruffed her feathers I saw that her skin was slightly red. I checked her coop for mites, checked her skin too. Nothing. Yesterday she began eating a small amount of wheat and drinking a little H20 if it was placed just under her beak where she sat on the coop floor. Just about an hour ago my husband and I went out to dust her for mites, just in case. I held her and he dusted but she resisted and jumped to the ground. Then she took the most shockingly gigantic liquid poop I have ever witnessed. It was explosive, rank, and vast. And green with weird stuff in it. Now she looks shrunken and weak. I gave her more water with a drop of Coxiprol ('contains 12% Amprolium') in it. I want to give her something nourishing but I'm afraid I'll overtax her digestion or hurt her somehow. Should I give her molasses or cooked oatmeal or yogurt? Or nothing but water? What is wrong with her????? Is it avian flu, coccidiosis, worms? I'm sorry this was such a long message, but I thought being specific might help someone identify what the problem is? I adore my hens and I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about going out there tomorrow and finding another one of them dead. Thanks for your suggestions!
