SOS Chicken Down

[932ninja]

I have a 6 month old Leghorn that is very lethargic, drooping wings, panting, and limping! She's a hot mess. She is the smallest bird of 20 and never flourished like the others. I have her isolated in an inside barn stall. She has water with electrolytes and vitamin supplement added. She also has scratch, meal worms, and some crumble available. She has gotten worse in 24 hours and is now almost weezing and she can hardly stand. I just gave her .01 (or less) of baytril in a 3cc syringe with pedialyte. I laid her back down in a towel and she had a hard time getting up. The limping is odd, there is no lesions/bumps/swelling to indicate what the problem is. Any suggestions? I am baffled and quite stressed out. I don't want to freak her out but I also don't want her to suffer

 

[dawg53]

Has she laid an egg yet? If not, she could be eggbound.

 

[932ninja]

I don't think she has laid an egg. We have 6 leghorns and have gotten one white egg two days ago. She is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than all the other 19 birds. I will check to see if she is egg bound because I am at my whits end here!?!

 

[dawg53]

I don't think she has laid an egg. We have 6 leghorns and have gotten one white egg two days ago. She is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than all the other 19 birds. I will check to see if she is egg bound because I am at my whits end here!?!

Try soaking her in a container of warm water up to her sides. Then gently massage her underside front to rear while she's soaking. Do this for about 20 minutes. The warm water will relax and expand her innards. Massaging will help move the egg along. Hopefully she'll lay an egg if that's what the problem is.

 

[932ninja]

She is burning up so I am hesitant to put her in warm water..... I just did a quick slip of a lubed pinkie up there and it feels about 120 degrees and there was no obstruction, but I only went about 1" in.... was that far enough? I have a small fan in the large stall and she limped over and stood directly in front of it. I am going to leave her alone for a bit. What do you think?