sick han

[chicken jim]

i have recently had a hen who looked slow from the rest of the flock she also walked in a kind of drunk dispassion,externally she looked & appeared fine she did not take food for couples of days when i decided to start force feeding her,i have done so for three days,she eventually got stronger & feed by her self i have than return her to the rest of the flock where she almost back to herself,four weeks on & another Han have taken ill with similar symptoms only this one did not make it, she was slight wobbly the whole week in the isolation coop,when i have isolated her she did eat on her own but not the normal dose for her normal intake,i did not introduced any new comers to the flock,i did not feed them any differently from the pass,the coop is normally clean,they are most of the time looked in the coop(mongoose are around) off which they have a large area per bird to roam free, i do let them out most days for an hour or so to graze on the wild fresh grass, i have recently notice some rodent presents in the coop???i will appreciate any comments which in light on the problem i am having,
thanks in advance Jim.

 

[realsis]

i looked this up before i answered. unfortunately it can be a number of things. here is what my search came up with. head injury or inner ear infection even worms. some say it could be signs of mareks but most popular answer was inner ear infection. its really tough to narrow down.also came up with eating something slightly toxic. I'm sorry i cant pin point exact causes. I'd try to rule these things out one by one. i also looked this up in my chicken illness book
a unsteady gate or stager can be caused by a disease called gumbro. however its usually accompanied with dieareah and dis shoveling look of feathers:'. sorry i couldn't narrow it down more but at least these are some things that can cause this behavior. hope this helps some and good luck to you.

 

[chicken jim]

the ear infection sound kind of probable,my first hen had some kind discharge in her ear which i treated with antibiotic ear drops, i have cleaning by picking the ear out from the ganged build up she did have a rocky recovery as i have found her the other day standing feeling sorry for herself shivering at times, i have isolated her once again & dose it her up with antibiotics which revived her back, but the second hen did not show any thing remotely like it,how would the hen gat a head injury? i do treat the chickens with diatomic earth for external parasites & i think they also consume a small portion of it which should treat or help some what for internal worms,the dropping is clear of any worms,the dropping have been kind of runny & soft but that may be dew to too much of the home waste food,do you think the present of rats can cause the birds to gat sick?