Orpington having touble holding up her head.

[Cotton42]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Buff Orpington, 16 weeks, feels lighter than the other girls of the same age.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
She is having trouble holding up her head and cannot seem to eat or drink on her own. I found her standing with her head almost touching the ground. She can pick up her head for short periods of time. Also very sleepy.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
A few hours, although she was a little slow yesterday, but seemed ok overall.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
No.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I wish I knew.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
I gave her some water in a syringe, but I have not seen her eat or drink on her own.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Don't know yet.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Isolated her and force fed her water.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Treat myself.

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Free range during the day in a small backyard, housed in a coop at night with sand for bedding.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[yinzerchick]

I have a pullet doing the same thing! I think mine was stung or bit by something, because there is some swelling on the back of her head/neck area.
I also gave mine water in a syringe. The first evening she managed to eat a couple bites of bread I dipped in water, but that was the day before yesterday. Since then she has only eaten,(as far as I've seen) a piece of a strawberry, a tiny bit of yogurt, and one little bug. I haven't seen her drink on her own either.
Yesterday, I brought her and and let her sit on an old towel next to me on the couch for a few hours in the heat of the afternoon.
Then, after I took her out, she managed to get up on the roost by herself last night. She looked so pitiful out there todayin the back of the run all by herself, (she didn't go out of the run to free range) and, it's since it's so darn hot and humid here, I brought her inside and have her in my bathroom, in a basket with another old towel in it. She's very lethargic when she does move.
Can you tell if yours has any swelling or anything?
I didn't get any advise or responds to my question, so I'm just doing what I can. Which for now is keeping her as comfortable as I can, (out of the heat) and trying to keep her hydrated.
Let me know if you find anything out, in the meantime, I'd do the same for her as I'm doing for mine. Good luck!

 

[Cotton42]

I'm sorry to hear about your chicken. Here is a picture of my BO that is sick. Head and tail down, eyes closed most of the time. I did find her laying down for a little while earlier, but most of the time she is like this. I turned on a heat lamp because it rained here today and she was wet when I found her. She does not have any apparent injury.

 

[Cotton42]

Well, after doing research all day on this, I'm pretty sure it's either Marek's or mold. I'm leaning toward mold because she is able to move her neck and doesn't seem paralyzed. I put some epsom salt in her water and gave her some in a syringe. Hoping it's not Marek's, but I have no idea if she was vaxed for it or not. Fingers crossed she gets better!

 

[Cotton42]

Well, this morning she looked 100 times better! She is eating and drinking and almost looks normal. I'm going to keep her isolated for a few days to give her time to recover from whatever caused this, but I'm so happy she's improving!!

 

[yinzerchick]

Glad she's made such a speedy recovery! I wonder what it was...?? My little pullet is back out with the flock. She's still not leaving the run, or doing much, but neither are most of the others. Its so humid here it feels like it's 120〫so everyones just trying to stay cool. I did see her come out to eat some oatmeal this morning, so that's something. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Again, so happy your BO is feeling better!

 

[Cotton42]

I did a thorough cleaning of the coop this afternoon and I think I found what was making her sick. There was a bunch of old food behind the waterer and it was wet, moldy, and had fly maggots in it. Gross! I would be sick to if that was in my house. I'll have to make sure I clean the coop more than once a week now and get a better watering system.