Something is Wrong with my hen "Hawk"

[Lacrystol]

Hawk is an excellent hen mommy, she has 6 babies, the babies are about a 1 1/2 month old. Tonight I found Hawk on the opposite side of the coop, in a ball. Her feathers all puffied up, and alone. Her babies went into the coop box by themselves chirping for her. I picked her up and put her in the box and she went to the opposite side of where the babies were. I could tell she wasn't acting right, because when I call her name "hawk" she usually talks to me by chirping. She lets me know where she's at and what not. Tonight not a word from her. So I brought her in the house and she's still in a puff ball, she's not shaking and I can't see anything phyisically wrong with her. I gave her water and she drank it like it was going OUT OF style... She hasn't eating anything yet. But what would cause a chicken to want to Drink sooo much.. Could this be a sign of Egg Bound? Since she had the kids i haven't seen her lay any eggs. perhaps this is the time to start back up and now she's having problems??? I did give her some Polyvisol but I'm not seeing any changes... PLEASE HELP MY HAWKY>>>>> If Egg bound I'm not seeing her straining nor trying to push so it makes me think she's not egg bound. The weather has changed could it be that....

 

[Judy]

They are especially prone to lice/mites when broody, they can make them very sick, and they are hard to see if you've never seen them. Also easy to fix so I kind of hope this is what it is. My broodies don't usually start laying til several days after they stop mothering their chicks.

http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8162.pdf

 

[chookhead]

kk lok this is gonna sound drastic but if its mites or lice spray with mortein outdoor and they will spread it themmsleves this will get rid of mites if internal garlic and cayane pepper

 

[Lacrystol]

Quote:
I don't understand? I have 7 Dust I could put on her? Let me go check, because that was the first thing that came to mine I looked her over but not to the extreme. Let me go take a deeper look at her..

 

[Lacrystol]

OMG she's dead, I went to go check on her and suprising she pooped, Here's what her poop looked like, within about 10 minutes she jerked her body, legs went stiff fluids, LOTS OF FLUIDS came shooting out of her mouth and shortly she passed.... WHAT THE HELL is this. I have about 60 chickens outside all acting just fine. I'm scared to death NOW>. She was an Excellent MOMMY

I hope you can make this out.

 

[Nonny]

I am so so sorry for your loss.

Has there been any fertiliser broadcast near you recently? The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that causes the thirst followed by convulsions and death is some sort of agri-chem poisoning: pesticide, herbicide or fertiliser.

The "lots of fluids" you mention coming out of her mouth is probably all the water she had been drinking coming out with the rest of her stomach contents.

 

[Lacrystol]

My husband said they same thing, Poison, I can't think of any types of poisioning unless it was on the straw that we bought last week. You don't think it's COCCIDIOSIS do you???? Her poop looks pink and from what I read Coccidiosis is more like bloody...

 

[CapricornFarm]

I am so sorry about your chicken, hope the chicks are ok, do they need heat now?

 

[Lacrystol]

I don't think so, I have other chicks inside that I can bring them in, but I'm afraid if she had COCCIDIOSIS I don't want to mix them up with the ones inside just yet. Should I repost this with the pic of her poop and see if anyone else thinks it may be COCCIDIOSIS??

 

[Nonny]

Could she have eaten something metal that ended up in the run? Heavy metal poisoning also seems to have similar symptoms. There's some info here: http://www.avianweb.com/heavymetalpoisoningbirds.html