Sick, lethargic chicken.

[MiloDaisyMissy]

Hi all. Please help!

My beautiful 11 month old Wyandotte hen is lethargic and ‘sick’.

This is the third night of her illness, the first night when she didn’t roost, I thought she was broody just on the ground, second day my partner said she was sleeping standing up all day! (I was at work both days)

She stumbled and fell flat on her side when I tried to put her on a roost

She is lethargic, eyes droopy, not scared and as flighty as usual.

Her comb and wattle are perfectly normal colours.

Her legs are splaying out to the side as she sits and her wings are drooping. Shes not standing up and turning around in her isolation pen, she has stayed frozen all day.

She laid an egg today - so isn’t egg bound, surely?

She only eats if I hand feed her.

Her poo is normal, not runny, or bloody coloured.

I gave her coccidiocis treatment and a scrambled egg this mornkng but that hasn’t worked.


I have leftover Baytril 25 antibiotics from our last sick chicken, should I give her that? I don’t know what to do.

 

[azygous]

While we can't provide a firm diagnosis, we can point to several possibilities.

If her poop is normal, her problem doesn't particularly point to a bacterial infection. But you can try the Baytril if these other suggestions don't effect any improvement.

Just because she laid an egg doesn't mean she isn't egg bound. Often, two eggs are involved, and she could still be struggling to get the second one out. Her poop would not necessarily be normal, though. But in case she has a second egg impacting her, give her some Tums or better, calcium citrate, one whole tablet directly into her beak. This can't hurt if we're wrong.

Another possibility is a vitamin E and B deficiency. It's harmless to go ahead and give her vitamin E and B-complex to cover this possibility. If it's an E deficiency, she should show almost immediate improvement within a couple days. The B would take a few weeks.

Another possibility is an avian virus. She's at the right age for onset of symptoms from the leucosis virus. If this is the issue, vitamin therapy won't help, and she will continue to get sicker.

Mold toxicity and petroleum distillates poisoning can also cause these symptoms. Investigating her environment for these toxins would be a good idea since other chickens could become affected.