Suddenly sick 5mo French Maran,Please help!!

[sunshineyarns]

HI all,

We got 4 new pullets about 6 weeks ago, and 1 of them suddenly seems like she is on death's door today. She was fine yesterday, as far as we could tell. Then a couple hours ago, she didn't come out of the coop, and I just got home to check her out.

She hasn't laid yet, and is a grower organic feed. We dont' feed them much else besides the occassional kitchen scrap.

Her symtoms right now: can't stand up straight. seems to be failing on her right side completely. Laying on her side... eyes closed, labored breathing and a ucky butt.

Any thoughts on what to do? Hubby has her down in the yard right now and is trying to get some water into her with a dropper. And, is just petting her. I don't know if she is going to make it.

 

[sunshineyarns]

I wanted to add that we just took a look at her legs, and nothing appears to be injured... she just seems super weak. Trying to get some water and yogurt into her, but no go so far.

 

[sunshineyarns]

I didn't hear from anyone on this, but wanted to put an update here. We ended up taking her into the vet tonight and put her to sleep. She was just going downhill super fast.. I'm sure she would have died during the night, but I wanted to see if we could do anything for her. The vet said that she must have had something underlying, because she was a little on the thin size...definitely a weird case. Based on her labored breathing, and how she was acting, we all felt like there was very little chance of recovery.

We are going to thoroughly check out all the other chickens tomorrow, but had handled them all 2 days ago, and didn't notice anything off. Our 6 year old Maran has been broody, but other than that, things seem okay.

So sad tonight. I lost my Dad a few weeks ago, so this one just hit me extra hard.

 

[kgb6days]

I'm so sorry for your loss. it's always hard when one of our chicks gets sick and dies. I've been through it myself and it seems to be not an uncommon problem with chickens. Hope the rest do well.
Kristy

 

[sunshineyarns]

Thank you! Yeah, out of our original flock of 8, we are down to the last 2.. they are 6 years old One, our Easter egger, still legs 3-4 eggs a week. Anyway, each of the chickens we have lost so far had a totally different end. So, we are learning. This was hard, as this one was so young, and it just threw us for a loop today.

 

[snowflake]

Thank you! Yeah, out of our original flock of 8, we are down to the last 2.. they are 6 years old One, our Easter egger, still legs 3-4 eggs a week. Anyway, each of the chickens we have lost so far had a totally different end. So, we are learning. This was hard, as this one was so young, and it just threw us for a loop today.

I don't want to alarm you, but if any more get sick you may have Mareks, the only way to know for sure is a neycropsey, which can be costly in some states. although some times chickens just die and we never know why, did you have your birds vaccinated by any chance? if so then you know it probably was not Mareks.

 

[Fluffers]

I didn't hear from anyone on this, but wanted to put an update here. We ended up taking her into the vet tonight and put her to sleep. She was just going downhill super fast.. I'm sure she would have died during the night, but I wanted to see if we could do anything for her. The vet said that she must have had something underlying, because she was a little on the thin size...definitely a weird case. Based on her labored breathing, and how she was acting, we all felt like there was very little chance of recovery.

We are going to thoroughly check out all the other chickens tomorrow, but had handled them all 2 days ago, and didn't notice anything off. Our 6 year old Maran has been broody, but other than that, things seem okay.

So sad tonight. I lost my Dad a few weeks ago, so this one just hit me extra hard.

that is sad, i could of helped you. if this happens again,give them an epsom salt bath and feed them oil on treats, sometimes they won't eat it, so you have to force them to eat. My chicken little Jerry had this, the salt bath really helped. when you do it clean the bottom off well.If your hen has Pasty butt you have to do this if not there is a lower chance of survival. Little Jerry was saved just in time. give them vineagar in their water every 2-3 days.and when they don't feel good give them oil on a treat (i used avacado oil) this is very important.

 

[sunshineyarns]

Well, they were vaccinated according to the little farm we got them from. And, our others that have died have all died over the course of the past 3 years. We didn't have a sudden case of loosing chickens. Our first chicken we lost was 3yo, and pretty much every 6 months, we have lost another one. One of our chickens had some sort of seizure. And, I know that another had a tumor. Most we have had a chance to take to the vet. A couple chicken had egg binding issues that we couldn't work through...

Man, its hard work being a chicken Mama. I love my girls

 

[sunshineyarns]

Yeah, we tried an Epsom bath yesterday, and tried to get her to eat. I did get a teensy bit of yogurt in her, and a little bit of water through a dropper. Its just crazy, as she appeared to be fine the day before. I had them out with me in the garden and they were all running around, seemingly fine. Today, we are going to be cleaning everything, and making sure we don't have mites. I did find one on her yesterday...

I need to read through everything here on things for mites, but let me know if you have any solutions. I saw that wood ash is good, and DE.

 

[Fluffers]

Yeah, we tried an Epsom bath yesterday, and tried to get her to eat. I did get a teensy bit of yogurt in her, and a little bit of water through a dropper. Its just crazy, as she appeared to be fine the day before. I had them out with me in the garden and they were all running around, seemingly fine. Today, we are going to be cleaning everything, and making sure we don't have mites. I did find one on her yesterday...

I need to read through everything here on things for mites, but let me know if you have any solutions. I saw that wood ash is good, and DE.

yes check for mites and worms

Mites
tie bouques of wormwood to the roosts
spray chickens themselves with garlic juice mixture(this has a 100% kill rate over 25 hours)

Worms'
regularly feed them pumpkin seed or watermelon seed i myself would not use commercial wormers