The EE braggers thread!!!

[Peach2u]

I went through this in February, for unknown reasons I had the same responses you are having with my Hen, Lady...I still don't know, maybe female problems. She was only about 2 yrs old and it came on so suddenly and only after a rescue of a Rooster which I got rid of soon after.. She'd just stand and stare and then sit down like she had no strength. It was very painful to watch her go down hill so fast. 5days I think. I was holding her when she passed away. Heartbreaking. She was the Hen in charge until the Rooster came along. Could be a coincidence, but I thought maybe he had something. Later I was told he had leg mites and Lady did show signs of mites or something? on her face and she'd never had them before. So who knows what else he may have had, Thankfully none of the others got whatever she had.

Mites can cause a lot of problems it left unchecked. First they are blood suckers. Second, they reproduce fast and can cause the air quality in a nice dry coop go down fast. I had a outbreak 2 years ago. Little red mites. My chickens where having breathing problems and started losing weight. At that time I was not taking out perches when cleaning. I was just cleaning the floors, dusting the walls and scrubbing the perches in place.

So one day as I was cleaning the coop, I noticed little red spots on the end of the perches I was scrubbing. I removed that perch and discovered a colony of mite living in the cracks of the joints. I was horrified. Then I was on a mission. I removed all the perches and power sprayed them with bleach. Then I power sprayed the inside of the coop at all the connecting points. That is where they where living. It took most of the day for the coop to dry back out and my hens were not happy with me. Just before the sun set I put all the perches back and put seven dust in the joints and cracks. Just in case I missed any. Then before putting the hay in the bottom I put the dust on the floor under a thick pile of hay.

I added vitamins to the water and add the 22% protein layers pellets. by the end of the week they where almost back to normal. It took a couple weeks for the egg production to come up.

Now, part of my cleaning routine, I add seven to the joints, cracks and under the bedding. No mite or any other bug problem since.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Peach2u, I am wondering if she is having problems from too much calcium in the laying crumble? Four weeks is too young for that feed. The little ones' bodies cannot handle too much calcium. I cannot remember what it does, but you might try to do a search on here for that and see if the symptoms fit.

No they are eating laying crumble, table scraps and free ranging with mom. The stool is normal.

She is alert. If it was cocci she would be sleeping a lot, eyes closed with bloody stool. But just in case She is in the house in a disposable box. This is day 2 of being in a box. Day 4 -6 is show time for Coccidia. If that is the case then she will have bloody stool by then and the death rate is very high for young birds with this parasite by day 8 she will be dead from blood loss or on the mend and will then be immune to getting it again.

It has been very wet here but temps have been below normal. The roost is clean and dry. I clean it out once a week. The run is mostly dry, with heavy rain a little creek runs through it. It sits on low lands near the creek. After we first built it and had heavy rain we had 6 inches of standing water in it. So we dug a french drain down one side to solve that. The whole run is covered with tin roofing. Cocci likes hot humid areas. Like the soil around the water bucket. I have mine sitting on square stepping stones. It is easier to scrub that down during cleaning. And keeps the dirt out of the water. Now if they would learn not to spit in the water!

 

[debid]

Ditto on the layer feed. Excess calcium interferes with phosphorus absorption and, yes, can cause rickets (leg lameness) in addition to other issues. It's certainly not the only possibility and without a vet exam, it's impossible to know for certain but I'd switch to grower ASAP even if this is the only symptomatic chick. The damage is internal and doesn't always present such obvious signs.

 

[baseballchick]

2 of the babies from my recent hatch from my flock. They are so fluffy!

Can't wait to get my eggs!

 

[MaineiacJay]

came home today and the little girly had fallen off the roost and was laying on her side again. my fiance thought she was dead but when i picked her up, she wiggled a bit. i set her back up on a flat piece of wood but shes really in poor shape. cant get her to eat or drink anymore and her wings are hanging down and she can hardly hold her head up. shes not doing good at all =( i just hope whatever she had isnt contagious. first i thought it was heat stroke, then thought maybe it was coccidia but i havent seen any blood in her stools or anything, i dont know what it could be, im so new to chickens.. should i worry about the rest of my flock?

also, i picked up Red Lake Earth - diatomaceous Earth with calcium bentonite on someones suggestion. anyone have any input on that? thanks

add: i think i just reported my own thread when attempting to hit the "edit" button. sorry!

 

[ChickNmamma]

came home today and the little girly had fallen off the roost and was laying on her side again. my fiance thought she was dead but when i picked her up, she wiggled a bit. i set her back up on a flat piece of wood but shes really in poor shape. cant get her to eat or drink anymore and her wings are hanging down and she can hardly hold her head up. shes not doing good at all =( i just hope whatever she had isnt contagious. first i thought it was heat stroke, then thought maybe it was coccidia but i havent seen any blood in her stools or anything, i dont know what it could be, im so new to chickens.. should i worry about the rest of my flock?

also, i picked up Red Lake Earth - diatomaceous Earth with calcium bentonite on someones suggestion. anyone have any input on that? thanks

I am really sorry about your girl. It sounds almost like Marek's disease - look it up on the internet for symptoms and what it is. If you have the possibility for a free necropsy I would do it - to find out what it is for certian. I don't think she is going to last much longer from the sounds of it.

She should be quarantined if you haven't done so already.

I have Diatomatious Earth I use for dust bathing (white food grade) mixed with wood ash from the wood stove. The DE becomes almost useless when wet and it is a source of calcium so you will not want to add it to their food. Some of mine did eat it, but they stopped quickly. They can dust in it - as long as you and they are not breathing the dust. It does kill mites if you use it in nesting boxes under the nesting material - and I used it to let the little chicks dust bathe in when I suspected they picked up mites from my mother's chicks being in with them for a short time. I also put it in the corners of the coop after cleaning it out - just to make sure no mites are hiding in there under the boards.

 

[MaineiacJay]

I am really sorry about your girl.  It sounds almost like Marek's disease - look it up on the internet for symptoms and what it is.  If you have the possibility for a free necropsy I would do it - to find out what it is for certian.  I don't think she is going to last much longer from the sounds of it.   She should be quarantined if you haven't done so already.

I have Diatomatious Earth I use for dust bathing (white food grade) mixed with wood ash from the wood stove.  The DE becomes almost useless when wet and it is a source of calcium so you will not want to add it to their food.  Some of mine did eat it, but they stopped quickly.  They can dust in it - as long as you and they are not breathing the dust.  It does kill mites if you use it in nesting boxes under the nesting material - and I used it to let the little chicks dust bathe in when I suspected they picked up mites from my mother's chicks being in with them for a short time.  I also put it in the corners of the coop after cleaning it out - just to make sure no mites are hiding in there under the boards.

thank you... she died sometime within the hour. i just checked on her and she was gone...

i looked up Mareks disease but it didnt quite fit. it wasnt that she couldnt use her wings but rather that she was just so utterly weak that she just couldnt hold them up. her condition deteriorated very quickly. it was 3 days i think. i found her on her side in the coop, brought her in and into the ACed room with a fan on her and she perked up. she roosted on the side of the tote all night the first night and ate and drank ok, though not very frequently, it was like she forgot she could. i had to dip her beak in the water and move the food around in front of her before she would eat/drink. the second night she got weaker. she couldnt hold her head up for very long, just slept all day and night. today, she was so weak... she fell off the perch a few times and just lay on her side in the tote, couldnt even get up. thats when i moved her to the board.. i didnt want her to just lay in the tote because she was getting covered in feces..

her eyes didnt seem right, but not like she was blind, but they were pointed down so you could see the whites of her eyes more than the pupil. im not sure if that is something or not. the feces seemed a bit foamy, but im not sure if they really were or not... or if that is a symptom.

well, im just glad she isnt suffering anymore, though i wish i could have saved her. im not sure if any vets around here would do a necropsy but i can look around tomorrow. is there anything specific i should do with the body in anticipation of a necropsy?

thanks everyone for your help. i hope i dont lose anymore chickens =(

sorry for cluttering up this forum, i know this probably should go in the health section and ill probably head over there shortly but i didnt want to abruptly end this discussion...

 

[Penny Hen]

thank you... she died sometime within the hour. i just checked on her and she was gone...

i looked up Mareks disease but it didnt quite fit. it wasnt that she couldnt use her wings but rather that she was just so utterly weak that she just couldnt hold them up. her condition deteriorated very quickly. it was 3 days i think. i found her on her side in the coop, brought her in and into the ACed room with a fan on her and she perked up. she roosted on the side of the tote all night the first night and ate and drank ok, though not very frequently, it was like she forgot she could. i had to dip her beak in the water and move the food around in front of her before she would eat/drink. the second night she got weaker. she couldnt hold her head up for very long, just slept all day and night. today, she was so weak... she fell off the perch a few times and just lay on her side in the tote, couldnt even get up. thats when i moved her to the board.. i didnt want her to just lay in the tote because she was getting covered in feces..

her eyes didnt seem right, but not like she was blind, but they were pointed down so you could see the whites of her eyes more than the pupil. im not sure if that is something or not. the feces seemed a bit foamy, but im not sure if they really were or not... or if that is a symptom.

well, im just glad she isnt suffering anymore, though i wish i could have saved her. im not sure if any vets around here would do a necropsy but i can look around tomorrow. is there anything specific i should do with the body in anticipation of a necropsy?

thanks everyone for your help. i hope i dont lose anymore chickens =(

sorry for cluttering up this forum, i know this probably should go in the health section and ill probably head over there shortly but i didnt want to abruptly end this discussion...

Refrigerate it. not freeze it. If you leave it out it will start the decomp process and give them less to go on when they look as well as being very unpleasant.

I have had something very similar happen with three of my young chickens. One died. The other two I took inside and force fed them layer pellets soaked in acidopholus milk. Yogurt will work too. I made them open their mouth and poked the pinch of food in. I did this every couple of hours and let them have free choice with the food inbetween. I also dipped their beaks in the water after eating. By holding them in one hand and tipping their whole body forward then back it seemed to stimulate them to actually drink and swallow a little. The food made them thirsty and eventually they began to drink more and voluntarily. I also added some baking soda to their water in case it was sour crop messing with them. Their crops were spongy (you squeeze it gently and it is like squishing a wet sponge) like the description of sour crop but I didn't notice the bad smell that is supposed to be associated with it. They recovered.

One of the most important things that you must do in the instance of any sick or injured animal: They must be hydrated. If you have to get an eyedropper or a turkey baster and put the water down their throat then do it. The lack of water alone can kill them. I saved a dove once that had flown into a window and ruptured her eye and had what had to be a concussion and what looked like some neurological damage. I force fed her water with poultry drench in it with an eyedropper for a day and kept her in a dark box until I could get her to the wild bird rehab people. By the time I turned her over she had quite circling and twitching and would open her mouth for the dropper when I filled it and tapped her beak. She had been in no condition to eat any solids before that. That was why I put the drench in the water to give her vitamins. It worked.

 

[baseballchick]

I picked up 10 beautiful olive eggers earlier this week, some have fuzzy legs and some do not.... All bred the same (I think) is that normal?

 

[Peach2u]

I'm not sure, but I'm leaning closer to injury to my little sick pullet. My chicks do eat at the layers bowl at time scratching away in the pan. But I have feeding stations away from the main area for the chicks and young birds containing chick starter. I put starter in the grow out pen, but the adults like it too. The babies with moms eat at both stations.

My pullet still isn't able to stand and will eat and drink when hand watered/fed. Eyes are still clear no runny nose or discolored mouth. All her siblings are still running the yard. It has been raining here for 6 days now! we are flooded and have small creeks running thru the yard. But, everyone is pecking and catching the soaked bugs.

I think I may have interrupted a hawk during a dive. Maybe it had just enough time to land but not finish the kill as I came out the door. The pullet was too big to fly off with. I did find her in the same spot I lost one last year to a hawk. I chased it off but it was too late she had been pecked in the chest and I had to put her down. The shade tree in the yard is misleading to the chickens. They feel safe under it but that hawk has learned if can dive through the branches.

The smart chickens hide under the 10' holly bushes. I have 2 on each side of the front yard. Plus they have the 40' long porch to hide under as well as the grow out pen and run. They can also scramble to the thick under growth of the woods next to the pens. I don't go in there either. Saw brier's and poison ivy grows thick in there. The chickens have made little trails under it to the creek.

I will give her till morning and if she isn't standing on her own after 5 days then she isn't going too. I hate losing animals.