Very off balanced chicken

[moomee56]

1) What type of bird , age and weight: Bantam brahma hen, almost three years old, possibly a little overweight
2) What is the behavior: She is VERY off balanced and she falls over frequently, and occasionally I find her on her back because she has tiped over and can't get up again. She has been drinking, some, but has not been eating much
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?: eight days
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?: Only her
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma: None
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation: possible heat sroke, but she has been inside in the air conditioning all week
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all: an electrolyte mixture, with medicated baby food, and boiled eggs.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny?: slightly runny
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?: Electrolytes and being inside
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?: As much as I can do on my own
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.: None
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use: Collapseable cage with a plastic table cloth for the bottom since its open, she is iscolated.
Any help is great!


She is not vaccinated against anything, but has hadd very little contact with birds outside our flock, and it has been over a year since she has had contact with any

 

[moomee56]

Also I'm not sure how well she can see, her eye look bright and fine, she just doesn't seem to be able to see very well

 

[KootenaiRiverChick]

We had a similar experience with one of our black sex link hens. Two weeks after we brought her home along with seven other birds, all approx. five mos. of age, she started sneezing. Then her comb started to turn black, so we put her and all the other birds on antibiotics as folks at our local feed stores diagnosed a respiratory infection. She was mouth-breathing a lot but still ate and drank fairly well. We took her to the vet after four or five weeks of this and no improvement, but the rest of our flock stayed healthy. He administered a more powerful liquid antibiotic that seemed to help for a week or so. After that, she went right back to sneezing and the other symptoms. Feed store staff told us that maybe it was just a habit now. One morning about four weeks ago, I let the hens out of the coop and she came stumbling out, drooping on one side and her head cocked to that same side. She looked like she had had a stroke. We gave it a day or two but no improvement and she started dragging one foot and her wing on the same side. She still ate and drank but did not improve and started to get worse after several days. We again consulted with feed store staff and they said we had to put her down, as it was more than likely a neurological condition made worse by whatever respiratory ailment she had. The vet charged us so much money the first time we couldn't take her back, so we did some online research and determined it was either infectious bronchitis or Newcastle disease, but the place we got her from assured us their chicks had all been vaccinated for those things. Who knows, maybe it was genetic. It was awful and so sad as we are first-time chicken owners, rather traumatic, but we ended up putting her out of her misery since at that point there was no improvement. Not sure if this will help you, but if your hen's symptoms are the same it might at least give you some answers. Best of luck to you; hope she gets better.

 

[moomee56]

Thanks so much for your reply! She is not sneezing or caughing hower, just very off balance and seems to be losing her vison. Thanks for your help!

 

[moomee56]

She hasn't eaten today her food is untouched,and she seems to have even worse vision