URGENT. hot in AZ. Easter Egger laying on side in puddles/panting.

[Hannah'sCoop]

This is a 9 mo. old Easter Egger. Weight??. She is laying in puddles on her side, panting, constantly clucking, and will not move or stand up. We live in Tucson, AZ and it is HOT here (104 today). She has been acting listless since yesterday afternoon, but only truly symptomatic this afternoon. There do not appear to be any signs of trauma. There are 2 other chickens (RIR and Barred Rock) and they are fine; not sure what could have caused this except for the heat. She was eating and drinking earlier today, not sure about the last few hours. Haven't seen her poop recently, either. So far, we have brought her inside (in a box) where it is air conditioned and symptoms have not changed. The only difference is she stopped clucking. She lives in an outdoor coop, open to the air, with lots of shade cloth, fresh water, and regular dousing with water of the shade cloth. There is alfalfa hay for nest bedding. She spends most of the day out in the yard, under trees, drinking and eating from citrus tree wells, etc. We would prefer to treat the condition here at home if possible.

Any ideas?

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. It certainly sounds like it's heat related. It's been upper 90's, low 100's with very high humidity here and my EE cant handle it neither. I brought her inside in a cage in the a/c and gave her plain yogurt (probiotic) and scrambled egg (extra protein)...she ate it and started recovering nicely. A few hours later I let her back out in the yard and she did ok. Try the plain yogurt and scrambled egg mixture, it should get her back to normal.

 

[rufus]

Sounds like she could be going broody. If she gets all fluffed up and and crazy, that is the problem.

Visit the "Arizona Chickens" thread. We have had many discussions about how to handle extreme heat.

Rufus

 

[Hannah'sCoop]

Thank you! She started perking up and is now eating yogurt like crazy. I don't have an egg to give her. Can you believe it??? Hopefully she'll be back to herself here in a bit...at least the sun is going down.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
Yay! Keep us posted.

( I raised this EE to POL along with my EE that died (probably of heat) a month ago while we were out of town.

)

 

[dawg53]

What? No eggs? Hahaha....I figured the yogurt would get her going, just observe her for the next couple of days to make sure she's ok. If it happens again to any of your chickens, you know what to do. BTW- Get some eggs! lololol!

 

[chkn]

I tell my chickens, "you know whats happenz to chickenz who don'ts makes no chicken eggz..."

Seriously, though, I'm just joking 'em.