Sick chicken-HELP!

[TheOddOneOut]

What breed?

 

[Chicalina]

Please post this on the "Emergencies" thread. You need some help and support! Best of luck!

It is!

 

[Chicalina]

If you are worried about her not eating, then you can mash up a paste of mealworms and peanut butter and chicken vitamins and feed it to her with an oral syringe. For now though, the priority is working out what is wrong with her, so you can treat it, if it is treatable. Water more important than food right now.

 

[Lisaaa]

This is how Red will sit all day long if I didn't move her.

 

[Chicalina]

oh the poor thing. She is very hot, look at her purple comb. The foot can be sorted later (bumble and scaly leg mites).

I would be keeping her cool, mist with water, and do the intensive care thing I mentioned earlier.

Does she have feather mites too? Have you dewormed her recently? Just basic things to check/rule out.

 

[Chicalina]

She is a production red btw. So could have worn out her reproductive tract already. Check for eggbound first. Has she passed what looks like egg white/yolk recently?

 

[Sonya9]

I would NOT do any sort of bumble foot removal (cutting) procedure right now. She likely had those bumps for a while and this sudden downturn is probably caused by something else entirely.

You said you inherited "some birds". When did you integrate the other birds in with the flock? This hen is very young but high stress could trigger another illness. You also said it hurts when she walks around, how was she walking? Was she acting uncoordinated before she began laying around constantly?

 

[Lisaaa]

She is a production red btw. So could have worn out her reproductive tract already. Check for eggbound first. Has she passed what looks like egg white/yolk recently?

Oops sorry, I should have clarified, "Red" is her name. She's also a Red Sexlink- breed. She has not passed anything that looks like egg yolk. Can chickens get a fever?? Could that be why her comb is purple?? It's not hot here. It's been in the mid 60's and is about 55 today, so it's not due to weather.

 

[Chicalina]

That is good, it means that if she is egg bound then it hasn't broken inside her. That can lead to nasty infections.

Can you feel a hard egg when you palpate her lower abdomen?

 

[Chicalina]

No need to clarify. By production red, I meant red sex link, ISA Brown, RIRx etc etc. Not her name. They are all bred to produce an egg a day, and they get worn out much quicker than other hens, and can sometimes (not always) only live a few years because they are accelerated.

I've had them and they often had reproductive problems after 3 or so years. It is something to be aware of if they seem sick, like check that first kind of thing.