Sick Symptoms

[Tomgee]

I have 5 chickens (all about a year old). One of them is an "Easter-Egger". This very cold winter she stopped laying and all the others produced plenty of eggs. I am told it is normal for her breed to stop in winter. She started laying again on the first day of Spring. However, for the last couple of months she has been lethargic, sleepy all day and often closes one eye. She eats fine and she is laying. Also this condition has lingered. I am wondering if it is fatigue from the winter or she has some sickness that she has been coping with for a long time. She doesn't sneeze and doesn't have a runny nose. Just sleepy and slower than the others.

 

[Red 7889]

When is the last time you dewormed?

 

[Tomgee]

Never had her dewormed.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Also check them over very carefully for mites or lice. Internal and external parasites can bring a bird down and eventually kill it.

 

[Red 7889]

I'd go right to the closest tractor supply or poultry supplier and ask them to give you a dewormer for ALL your chicks. I'd then ask them to show you where the diatomaceous earth is (powder form) and I'd take each hen place them in a bucket and while wearing gloves sprinkle the powder under their wings, under their feathers and rear side as it will kill off all lice and mites. Get ride of your bedding, too!! Sprinkle the diatomaceous earth in their coop to kill any other bugs u can not see and spread more bedding down. THEN sprinkle more diatomaceous earth on top of the bedding And their roosting areas. After about a week of the deworming and debugging, you should see an improvement from her (and all others) too! Keep up that same process every other month or when u think it's necessary again.

 

[Red 7889]

Be careful not to get it into their little lungs. It can cause issues !!

 

[casportpony]

DE won't work, use a proper poultry dust or 5% Sevin powder instead. If you're going to get a wormer, get Safeguard for Goats, Safeguard or Panacur paste for horses, not Wazine as Wazine kills just roundworms.

-Kathy

 

[Tomgee]

Well before I just start treating them with dewormers and poultry dust I would like to know what is wrong with here. It has been a month of sluggish behavior and the others are all fine.

 

[casportpony]

Well before I just start treating them with dewormers and poultry dust I would like to know what is wrong with here. It has been a month of sluggish behavior and the others are all fine.

If you really want to know, take her to a vet. A vet could do a thorough physical exam, fecal float, fecal smear, blood work, xrays, etc. That will cost you about $300. Or, you could do like many here do, rule out internal and external parasites first and do a cloacal exam to check for a stuck egg, ascites internal laying and cancer. You should also weigh her her every few days and watch for weight loss. While you're at it, weigh all of them, that way you'll know what their healthy weight is. If you've never wormed or dusted, chances are pretty good that they have parasites.

-Kathy

 

[Tomgee]

Ok thanks I will try dust and deworming.