Tired chicken, had a virus last week....

[macylee36]

My barred rock has me a bit puzzled so here we go!

8 months old, had something going on last week so I took her in to the vet. Vet said it seemed like some kind of virus. Gave her an antibiotic and dewormer just in case. She actually started to seem better that night.

Now last night I noticed she has slowed down her pace considerably. Her energy level seems to be very low. I've checked her crop and that seems fine, no weird smells. I put her in the sink with some warm water this morning in case she is egg bound. I noticed the tips of her comb were blue. After being in the warm water for awhile, her comb is now normal color! So now I've got her drying and separated from the others.

Any ideas?!

Thanks!

 

[kari_dawn]

can you post a picture? More info would be helpful too. What are you feeding? Has she started laying yet? Tried giving her any electrolites, vitamins?

 

[aoxa]

She could have mites

They make chickens very week. Some kinds of mites hide in the coop during the day and drink the host's blood during the night. Best to louse her to be safe.

Does she have any runny nose/watery eyes/cough/congestion in chest? It could be something respiratory, which is contagious.

Give her some electrolytes in the water or some Apple cider vinegar (in the water).

I hope she is okay! I love BR's!

 

[macylee36]

I never did respond to this with the outcome and even though its been a long time I thought I would share. Never know when it could help someone else.

Turns out she had E. Coli. She suffered with this for about a total of three weeks. It started with her sneezing. After a few days of that, she got very weak and pretty much stood around. Took her to the vet and they gave her a general antibiotic. That helped for about another week. Then she got ill again, switched vets to someone more experienced with chickens. They took a stool sample from her. Unfortunately, she progressively got worse. Her crop filled up nonstop with nasty foul smelling yellow fluid. I repeatedly drained her of this and set her in a warm sink as her comb was turning blue. Looking back, I should have put her down at that point but was waiting to hear back from the vet. The bird passed the day before the vet called to tell me it was E Coli. There's really nothing you can do when they have that, so it's best to just put them down or cull them yourself.