Standing Sleeper

[MohawkJEn]

We have a chicken right now who is sleeping during the day. While she is standing up. It's weird. I am wondering what this is about. We are kind of nervous. It's not hot out anymore, the weather has cooled off recently. We feed them organic lay pellets. Always filtered water. What would make her act like this?

 

[BantamLover21]

A healthy chicken doesn't usually sleep during the day, especially standing up. It is likely that your hen is sick.

There are many diseases/ailments that would cause the symptoms your hen is describing. I would recommend doing a thorough examination of your hen, checking for any abnormalities on her body. To figure out what is wrong, we need as much information as possible. Does she have any swelling on her body, or any discharge from her nostrils? Any mites or lice? Does she walk normally? And how old is she?

If she is young (less than 4 months), I would suspect Coccidiosis. Coccidiosis is a disease of the digestive tract caused by protozoan parasites. It can be fatal if untreated. Fortunately, it is usually easily treated with Corid (amprolium).

Another possibility, if she's an older hen, is egg binding.

 

[MohawkJEn]

She was covered in mites. But I am afraid that something else is wrong. We bathed her, and the rest of the flock. We had to do her twice because she was so covered in them, it honestly might be too late. We are hoping that now that they aren't feasting on her she will come around. We demited the whole coop as well, I guess I was just ignorant. I thought you couldn't get mites without grass so I never check them for that.

The sick one also has a purplish blue tummy. Like where the food sits in her gullet. But the rest of them also look slightly blueish around that area. Is that normal? Would worms cause that?

 

[BantamLover21]

The mites are probably the problem. Not only do mites suck lots of blood (causing birds to become weak and anemic), but they also can irritate skin around a bird's eyes. The irritation usually makes the affected birds close their eyes a lot, like what your hen was doing. It is unfortunate that the infestation got so severe, but it is good that you noticed and are treating her correctly. Everyone makes mistakes when caring for their chickens at some point or another.

The purple/blue abdomen is most likely normal. The skin color of chickens varies greatly with both their breed, diet, and body condition.

 

[MohawkJEn]

I figured that about the belly. So she actually had poultry lice. Which is so much better in the matter of the coop being safe, even though after what we did yesterday I don't think a mite could have survived. She is still alive, and we are feeding her with a syringe. It seems to be working. We are just glad she is alive. And hopefully she makes it, now that she is cleaned up.