URGENT my chicken is poorly

[jesseroony]

Hi am new to this website. One of my chickens is shaking her head and closing her eyes. she is very lethargic. she is drinking and does eat if i throw some mealy worms or corn in the coop but is not well. She is in a coup with 9 other birds who all seem fine. does anybody have any ideas to what is the matter with her? She keeps herself to herself and lays under the coop on her own

 

[chi-rn]

I'd pull her out & put her somewhere away from other hens for a while until you can sort it out. I sometimes use a LARGE dog crate for this. It'll give her a chance to get food and water without competition & you a chance to observe for more specific symptoms.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. Yes, seperate her as Chi-rn stated. What are the ages of your chickens? Have you introduced new birds to your existing flock? What are you feeding them? When did the symptoms first start? What color and consistancy is her poop and have you seen worms in the poop? Did you visually inspect her for lice or mites? When did she lay her last egg? Inquiring minds need more info.

 

[jesseroony]

Thankyou for your messages. The chickens were bought at 16 weeks old they have all been fine up until last week when the one cuckoo chicken started to be lethargic and close her eyes a lot and seems to not be able to see the food. Today she is still the same and even when i put some worms right in front of her she didnt eat them. a friend of mine who has chickens told me to wring her neck!!! but i dont want to do this until i have tried all options. she layed on friday dont know if she layed sat. All the chickens are fed on layers pellets and corn and have treats. the coop has hemmcore for bedding. her poo is normal colouring but small, i am grateful for all comments. i have now separated her and put food in plus dandelion leaves and she is not touching them



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i have 1 pied, 3 cuckoos, 1 ranger,1 light sussex, 2 copper blacks, 1 blue, and 1 black tail.

 

[jesseroony]

having separated her from the rest i have looked at her more closely. One of her eyes seems to have a whitish film over it could this be an eye infection and if so does she need to be away from the rest of the flock or could she be put back in with them? he other eye seems ok.

 

[NormaJeanChickenQueen]

Don't know too much here, but if it were me, I would keep her apart from the others until she starts eating again. Good luck

 

[lampshadeee69]

THIS IS VEDY IMPORTANT: are your chickens silkies or do they have any strain of silkie DNA in them? I had to learn the hard way that silkies are extremely fragile. There is a hole in their skull similar to a baby's soft spot. When they get pecked sharply on the head by other chickens, their brain can swell, causing sometimes irreversible damage. This has happened twice to all the silkies ive had. One died after about 2 weeks after the initial injury. He forgot how to eat, kept his eyes closed, and his head would list and wobble. My silkie hen this happened to survived. She would do the same thing but i guess she wasnt hurt too bad. My roosters would try to violently mate with her and it caused swelling. After a week of degrading she would corner herself in crevices in the barn and just sit there; too weak to eat, drink, move, or lay eggs. I had to pick her up; place her with the food; and ward off every rooster that wanted a piece of her. Over the next few days i could see she was slowly regaining strnght. She lived to be a happy mommy after that. Try to keep away those pesky roosters and just pray she'll be fine if the brain swelling is the case.

 

[jesseroony]

Thank for that she is a cuckoo so has no silkie in her. I dont have a rooster so dont think she has brain swelling. i thought she had a film over her eye but having just bathed her eye it seems to be clouding of the pupil with a few white spots she has been eating so i have just put her back in with the others and she has gone straight to lay her egg

 

[lampshadeee69]

Good. I hope everythings fine with her! And i just realized how dumb i sounded above when i spelled very "vedy"

 

[donna1811]

Put all your hens on a course of herban or if you can get your hands on it, then tylan soluble. Both are added to drinking water. I would recommend you do this for a couple of weeks, because it sounds to me like they could have infectious bronchitis or possibly mycoplasma gallisepticum. I would certainly isolated the infected bird again as she will end up infecting all your others.