sick chicken

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JewellChicks

JewellChicks

In the Brooder
5 Years
Mar 6, 2014
45
0
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Hello-

Can anyone help.

One of our hens has been sick. A few weeks ago we noticed that she has been lethargic and not joining the other chickens when they are out in the yard to scratch. She mostly stays by her self, sometimes another hen may be with her. A few days ago I saw her show some spunk chasing a bug. I was hopping she was getting better, but looks like not.

She has been picked on just a bit, but not too bad.

Her comb is very pail and droopy. She is very thin. I felt around on her and she is all bones. I felt for large masses or anything abnormal and did not notice anything. I did see mites. Some were quite large, larger then a flee. I was not even sure the large ones were mites. We treated her with DE yesterday. She is still lethargic she is not eating much. Today when I gave them breakfast she just sat by her self looking outside.

I am going to isolate her and treat her with more DE.

I am tempted to give her yogurt, egg yoke and feed mixture that I saw suggested on a thread I was reading.

I will check her out some more and let you know what I find.

We are relatively new to this chicken thing and I am not sure what to do for the poor gal.
 
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Could be worms. Worms slowly drain the life right out of a bird over time. Comb goes pale, they get more and more tired as the worms eat all their food, take up room in the intestines. I would consider worming her with either Wazine or Safeguard Equine paste.

Good luck with your hen and welcome to BYC!
 
Thank you for the suggestion.

If it is not worms does it hurt to give the wormer? If it is very bad infestation should I be careful about how much medicine I give her? Is Equine Safeguard for Horses? How much should I give her? What can I feed her to try to get her strength up fast?
 
JewellChicks said:
Thank you for the suggestion.

If it is not worms does it hurt to give the wormer? If it is very bad infestation should I be careful about how much medicine I give her? Is Equine Safeguard for Horses? How much should I give her? What can I feed her to try to get her strength up fast?
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It is never good to worm unless they have the symptoms of worms, and from your description, it these were my birds, this would be the first thing I try. Fast acting and will heal them quick if they do have worms. Worming won't hurt them if they don't have worms however. I have wormed birds with issues before when I wasn't sure what they had, even though they didn't have any worms.

Wazine is easy on birds. But it only takes care of round worms. Round worms are the most common of worms. You can get Wazine in the feed store. 1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) of Wazine in one gallon of water for 1 FULL day. Repeat in 12 days to get the eggs that hatched.

Safeguard is just that. Safe. You can get this at the feed store or even in pet sections where they sell horse supplies. (Walmart for example) It comes in a long tube as paste. You would put a pea sized dolup on a tiny piece of bread and give each bird one piece. Repeat in 12 days. Safeguard takes care of all worms except tape worms. These worms are not all that common.

If you do worm, do not eat the meat, eggs or feed them back to the chickens for 2 weeks after the last dosage. It will break down in the system after 2 weeks and there are no traces of it in the bird.
 
Okay thanks. The feed store had safe-guard for goats and that is what she said others use on chickens. The post in the other tread I made on this said the goat kind was fine. So I am going to head out there now and give her that.

Thank you so much for the help. Lets hope this works.
 

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