- Mar 30, 2014
- 108
- 21
- 161
About 2 months ago a dog killed 3 of our hens and chased the other 5 around the yard.... There were no bite marks or blood on the 5 surviving hens, but they were all pretty shook up. The hens stopped laying for several weeks and a few of them took over a month to start laying. 2 of our Red Sexlinks (2 years old) have had poop on their tail feathers and have been off and on lethargic and not themselves. Anyways, one died last night. She was fine in the morning and in the afternoon she was very sleepy and staying very still. I brought her inside to try and keep a close eye on her. Her symptoms over the past few months:
tail droopy Off and on
sleeping more-Off and on
poop on bottom- consistent
Comb was less red- off and on
Wings were droopy (just yesterday)
She seemed dizzy (just yesterday)
Breathing seemed fine
appetite seemed fine until yesterday when she wouldnt eat or drink at all in the afternoon
Checked for fleas and mites and couldn't see any
Not egg bound
curled up on the ground (off and on over the past few months, but never for more than an afternoon)
Now, my other hen doesn't seem to have any of these symptoms except for the poopy bottom. She seemed a little sick a few weeks ago for a day where her comb was less red and she was lethargic, but she seemed to get better the next day and has not been like that again.
We feed them organic egg layer food, lots of veggie scraps and they have a big area to peck and scratch during the day. I just (yesterday) added grit, oyster shells, the vitamin pellets and sometimes we put the probiotics in the water. What else should we be doing for them?
These chickens are part of our family and losing 4 in the past 2 months has been really hard (especially on our 4 children) and we really want them to be healthy and live a long life.
Side note: There are no vets in the area that know anything about chickens, we have taken our hens 2 times and they can never figure out what is going on with them, so we decided to just stop taking them, although I don't think anyone could have saved Peanut yesterday.
Thanks for any ideas and maybe direction on something we should add to their diets.
tail droopy Off and on
sleeping more-Off and on
poop on bottom- consistent
Comb was less red- off and on
Wings were droopy (just yesterday)
She seemed dizzy (just yesterday)
Breathing seemed fine
appetite seemed fine until yesterday when she wouldnt eat or drink at all in the afternoon
Checked for fleas and mites and couldn't see any
Not egg bound
curled up on the ground (off and on over the past few months, but never for more than an afternoon)
Now, my other hen doesn't seem to have any of these symptoms except for the poopy bottom. She seemed a little sick a few weeks ago for a day where her comb was less red and she was lethargic, but she seemed to get better the next day and has not been like that again.
We feed them organic egg layer food, lots of veggie scraps and they have a big area to peck and scratch during the day. I just (yesterday) added grit, oyster shells, the vitamin pellets and sometimes we put the probiotics in the water. What else should we be doing for them?
These chickens are part of our family and losing 4 in the past 2 months has been really hard (especially on our 4 children) and we really want them to be healthy and live a long life.
Side note: There are no vets in the area that know anything about chickens, we have taken our hens 2 times and they can never figure out what is going on with them, so we decided to just stop taking them, although I don't think anyone could have saved Peanut yesterday.
Thanks for any ideas and maybe direction on something we should add to their diets.
