Unresponsive silkie hen. Not moving, not accepting food or water - please help!

[Cluckandquack]

Hello, in need of some help please. We recently got two five month old Silkie chickens, a hen and a rooster. We've had them for about three weeks and they've been doing great, if a little timid. We noticed that our hen was lay still in the grass and went to go check on her. She wasn't responding at all, she just lay there and didn't shy away from us like she usually does. Fifteen minutes earlier she had been running around and seemed fine. We brought her inside and tried to offer her water, but she didn't take it so we tried to syringe her some. Her eyes are closed and she isn't moving, her breathing seems to be okay - kind of slow and deep. She feels and looks fine, no lice or ticks, not thin. We read sugar water with some salt and bicarbonate of soda is what we should try, so we're going to try and syringe her some of that. (Edit: we've tried but she won't take any, she's still not moving.) Does anyone know what could be wrong with her? Any advice is really appreciated, thank you.

 

[Cluckandquack]

I just saw you were in Florida, perhaps overheating? My black australop overheated (sounds similar) last year so I put her in the basement to cool down and gave her homemade chicken electrolyte via an eyedropper. She didn't want to take it, but I got a few drops into her every couple hours. I did have to hold her beak open to insert the eyedropper but only put a few drops in at a time to prevent asphyxiation.

Hope she is doing better!

I'm actually in England, and it's been warm over here but not overly hot. She has been kept inside and out of the sun since she started acting strange and its quite cool inside the house. She has had sugar water with salt and bicarb of soda through a syringe every hour or so, and she ate a tiny bit of scrambled egg today. Thank you for the suggestion about the eye dropper, I'll have to give it a try because it sounds like it could be easier than a syringe. Thank you for the advice and well wishes, I really appreciate it

 

[ginny_e]

I just saw you were in Florida, perhaps overheating? My black australop overheated (sounds similar) last year so I put her in the basement to cool down and gave her homemade chicken electrolyte via an eyedropper. She didn't want to take it, but I got a few drops into her every couple hours. I did have to hold her beak open to insert the eyedropper but only put a few drops in at a time to prevent asphyxiation.

Hope she is doing better!

 

[guineapeeps]

Hello, in need of some help please. We recently got two five month old Silkie chickens, a hen and a rooster. We've had them for about three weeks and they've been doing great, if a little timid. We noticed that our hen was lay still in the grass and went to go check on her. She wasn't responding at all, she just lay there and didn't shy away from us like she usually does. Fifteen minutes earlier she had been running around and seemed fine. We brought her inside and tried to offer her water, but she didn't take it so we tried to syringe her some. Her eyes are closed and she isn't moving, her breathing seems to be okay - kind of slow and deep. She feels and looks fine, no lice or ticks, not thin. We read sugar water with some salt and bicarbonate of soda is what we should try, so we're going to try and syringe her some of that. (Edit: we've tried but she won't take any, she's still not moving.) Does anyone know what could be wrong with her? Any advice is really appreciated, thank you.

Any changes on your hen? How is she doing? Any injuries that you noticed that would indicate that a predator got ahold of her?

 

[Cluckandquack]

Any changes on your hen? How is she doing? Any injuries that you noticed that would indicate that a predator got ahold of her?

She seems slightly more active than yesterday, she's moving her head around and she stood up at one point to turn around which is an improvement. She still hasn't opened her eyes though, and she still seems very lethargic. She doesn't seem to have any injuries at all, there's no visible wounds or breaks that I can see.