Sick Isa Brown HELP!

[LeonieJane]

Hello All,

My 1 year old Isa Brown (Parma) is sick. She hasn't been acting herself and is being picked on by the others. She has been keeping to the coop and when she comes out she is forced back in by the other chooks, who she normally gets on well with. She just sits in the corner with her eyes closed. I have isolated her and on closer inspection I have noticed she is missing feathers from around her neck and her tail feathers are somewhat colourless.

Any idea?

 

[klmclain1]

Have you checked her over thoroughly for any external parasites like lice or mites? Has she recently been wormed? Parasites (internal or external) can literally suck the life out of her. Does she lay regularly? If so, has she been laying? The missing feathers could be from the others pecking at her - but I'm thinking they may be doing so because they know she's sickly. How does her crop feel? And her belly?

 

[LeonieJane]

I just read on another forum about red mites? Now I saw some red little critter the other day while cleaning the coop but just thought they were spiders...Could this do it to her? Also I have never wormed her...what do I use and how do I do it?

Thanks Leonie

 

[klmclain1]

Worming advice from dawg53 is the best! You can do a search on this forum for his posts. I will PM you with some advice he gave me awhile back.

As for mites...my understanding is you can best see them on the roosts at night. If you think you have a mite problem, you'll want to get Sevin dust and "dust" all your chickens with it. The best way I've heard is to put it in a pillowcase then put the chicken in up to it's neck then work the dust in and around the feathers making sure to get everything well covered. Then, before returning your chickens to the coop - you have to completely clean out all their bedding an "dust" the coop really well including all other living areas like dustbaths, etc. The entire thing has to be repeated at 10 days to get anything that has hatched. I've heard of using Sevin liquid to spray the coop area - that's always sounded better to me as it gets into the cracks much more thoroughly!

 

[chicknmania]

You can use Safeguard dewormer, that's that best and gentlest broad spectrum dewormer I know. Though, you don't have much time if she is that bad. Put her iin a pen where she can have some privacy, or a rabbit cage, dog crate, or something...where you can give her some tlc and she can have some privacy but still haar and see the others. Dust her with the Sevin dust and then start her on some vitamins..you can use baby vitamins or there are poultry vitamins you can order on line; TSC sells some show poultry food that is reasonably priced and has lots of vitamins and other stuff that is good for chickens and I like to use it for sick or injured birds. She needs vitamins and good quality food right now, for starters. Give her whatever she likes..yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit, berries, oatmeal, scrambled or hard boiled eggs, she needs to eat. That is the most important thing in keeping a sick chicken alive. If she's not eating, you will probably have to force feed her. You can order the Safeguard from the Chicken Doctor at www.firststatevetsupply.com, and there may be other places where you can buy it locally. Likewise he has vitamins, so do lots of other poultry supply places. Get her started on the vitamins and dewormer as soon as possible! Once a chicken starts showing symptoms, they are bad off, because they conceal symptoms of illness for as long as they can. I would treat the whole flock with the Sevin dust, dewormer and vitamins too. She is eating, right? Does she have any other symptoms? Runny nose, coughing, sneezing, swollen or runny eyes, pale comb and wattles, scaly legs?