The Forlorn Chicken

[luukasama]

Hey guys,

Just freshly joined here. I have a beautiful chicken (not sure on breed) who has been acting a little strange the past day or two.

Her name is Larkspur. Lately, whenever we are around and let the chicken out to forage, we find the Lark sometimes stands off to the side, and then doesn't move. At all. If she does move something, it's just her head and only very rarely. It's like she's either deep in thought or pondering some philosophy of life. She also seems a little sad to me when she does that. I approached her slowly and kneel down, and can touch and pet her, but it's like something is bothering her.



This is what she looks like. She's very fancy, has two extra toes on each side of each leg and feathers going down all the way to her claws. I believe the extra toes are part of the breed (unlike the spurs you would normally find on a rooster, I think). Do you guys know what breed that is? If you need a better picture, please let me know.

Has anyone ever seen behavior like that, and if so, is it temporary? Should I be worried? I'm wondering if this is because we are slowly leaving them longer and longer in the coop outside, so maybe this is just separation anxiety?

 

[Stiggy]

she looks like a faverolles cross. because she has the beard, extra toes, fluffy feet/legs and muffs. have you checked to make sure she isn't blind?
are the others picking on her?
is she eating ok and holding condition?

 

[luukasama]

Doesn't look to be blind because she is definitely not stumbling around. I've actually not seen any chicks picking on each other, Lark included. Eating seem to be a little diminished right now. She doesn't seem to get excited about the food, but she will eat a little. Normally, they all go nuts when I take the food out, shake it or refill it, then put it back, but for the past two days, she's being kind of meh about it. Could it be parasites or something else?

 

[Stiggy]

It could be but it sounds like coccidious , treating them for that even as a precautionary measure might bea good idea

 

[aart]

How old is she?
Are her feces normal?
Any runny nose/eyes?
Has it been hot where you are?

She may just be nervous about being in a new environment.

 

[luukasama]

How old is she?
Are her feces normal?
Any runny nose/eyes?
Has it been hot where you are?

She may just be nervous about being in a new environment.

She is about 1 1/2 months old. I had to look hard to see her poop. She actually pooped on me and it was very liquidy, white and kinda greenish. No blood, thankfully.

No runny eyes or nose. It is a little hot but the coop has loads of open netting for air. Last night was their first night sleeping in the coop.

I think it may be coccidiosis. The symptoms she is exhibiting match almost line by line. We got corid and put it into their water. Day 1 with Corid, day 3 of her being very listless. All the other chicks are so lively...and i dont see much improvement with Lark.

I wish there was something else I could do for her.

 

[Stiggy]

Let us know how shes doing, and if the corid works, it can take a week or so

 

[luukasama]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the support. I think she is slowly getting better. Yesterday, I noticed her making a good effort to try and follow the other girls, not as lively, but it's a great deal more movement I've seen her do more than she's done in the past 4 days. She even hopped up onto the wood door frame and watched them run around and scrounge for food, then looked around for food herself. Still pretty lethargic, but she certainly looks less miserable.

We're still trying to figure out how to make the coop less hot, and all were panting inside, so took pity and got them into the house. We have central AC, so while they don't have as much room to move around at the moment, they are quite cool because we have central A/C. We removed the boards from the hatch that opens on the second floor and put in netting instead to allow for better airflow. (I'll take some pictures and put into the coop thread).

Here's hoping to me seeing more improvement in her health and behavior.

 

[luukasama]

Okay, so a new update. Lark has definitely gotten better. She's moving around a little and eating, but she's still behaving very lethargic. We have nearly finished our chicken run, and now let them stay there all day. When I look out the window at her, I find that a lot of times she's just sitting there, breathing kinda heavily, and sleeping. Oftentimes, she would do this standing up. We've given them Corid for over a week now, and all the other chicks are mighty fine. I try to give her more attention and noticed that she's extremely bony! I can't ever feel the crop on her, so it's like she's eating more, but not enough or even nearly as much as the other chicks.

Is there something that could be wrong, or could this still be the effects of coccidiosis? I do have a bucket with nipples that we recently purchased and I filled it full of vitamins, as well as given them the smaller waterer that has Corid in it. Am I missing something here? I did look up a bunch of illnesses that chickens could have, but the other symptoms don't add up to how she's behaving.

 

[aart]

You're not supposed to give any other supplements when dosing with Corid and it should be in the only water they are provided with.
Chicks failure to thrive could be from cocci as it damages their intestinal tract, if that's what she has/had.

You might confine her to a wire dog crate and closely monitor her eating, drinking, pooping for a 2-3 days.

Some chicks just don't thrive, from either some undetected disease or some genetic internal physical malformation, it's really hard to say what it is/was unless she dies and you have a necropsy done.