Very tired chicken

[Eggeater]

One of my year old black sex-links is constantly falling asleep. She will walk sometimes with her eyes closed then wake up. Looks like she is exhausted. I have 10 sqft/bird for the coop and they have a 20' x 30' pen. They have been fed layer plus pellets (18% protien). Comb looks good not pale, and I suspect she has not been laying. Last night on the roost her crop was empty. Vent and surrounding feathers are clean although looks like small case of mites where some feathers are missing on her bottom. I threw down some diatomaceous earth a couple days ago to hopefully cure the mite issue. Could her condition be mite related? Any ideas?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

DE may prevent mites; it will not treat an ongoing infestation.

Sounds like coccidiosis to me. Treat with sulmet or corrid.

 

[jjthink]

If she is at the point of feeling so tired, you have an EMERGENCY. Time is of the essence.

Provide info on as many of the following questions (largely taken from 2nd sticky ion this section) as you can so folks here can be of maximum help to you.

- What type of bird , age and weight.
- Anything else about behavior, other than lethargic?
- Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
- What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation - we know you've spotted some mites.
- Is she eating and drinking? - we see from your note you provide layer pellets for feed
- How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
- What has been the treatment you have administered so far? - reference to DE noted
- 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?
- Describe the housing/bedding in use
- Has she been laying eggs? Do you know when the last one was?

Also use the 'search' mech toward the top of the page and type in 'mites' - you will get good info on treatments. Given her compromised condition you are going to have to get tough with the mite situation (beyond DE), and today. In addition to treating anything else that comes to light as wrong with her.

In addition to treatment for what ails her, she is going to need nutritional bolstering right away. 3 drops Polyvisol liquid childrens vitamins (no iron) daily, carefully dribbled along her beak line so she swallows on her own. Any and all healthy foods you can get her to eat to gain some strength back - eggs, sunflower seeds, yogurt...

JJ

 

[Eggeater]

Thanks for the help. I ended up giving her a warm bath and checked her vent for a stuck egg - could not feel one. I put her back in the coop that evening and the next day she was a little more alert. As each day passed I noticed her acting more normal. Today she laid her first egg since the beginning of her condition - hopefully a sign my lady is feeling up to snuff. I'll keep a close eye on her and the others for any further developments. Thanks for your quick responses. It's reassuring to know that help is just a message away.

 

[threehorses]

You said mites: that's the start of the problem and must be addressed immediately as she will be anemic and die. The other issues are all stemming from this.

Kill the mites first: dust the bird with a permethrin dust - "Poultry dust" available at most TSC and other feedstores.

Mites don't necessarily stay on the bird - they often actually live in the barn and come out to feed. So you won't see them on all your birds. You must thus treat the premises as well. Dust the bedding, the nest boxes, the roosts, etc. If you can, you'll want to dust the cracks of the walls. Some people make a "paint" of the permethrin and paint it on the wood to get in the cracks. That's where some mites lay their eggs - cracks of the coop, etc.

You will want to retreat twice - in five day intervals - on the bird. Treat all your birds.

Now you need to treat her anemia: make sure she is eating her complete feed mainly. If she doesn't, tempt her by wetting it so that if you grab a handful it sticks together, but if you drop it it falls apart. Make a small batch to give her first thing in the morning: In the water that you will use for this mixture, you'll mix 1 teaspoon of yogurt, about 2 teaspoons of water. Use that to moisten crumbles. (You can add boiled/mashed/wetted egg yolks to great effect.)

Also I would definitely give her vitamins for a week, then every other day for another week, then twice the next week. Enfamil non-iron formula PolyViSol baby vitamins will do and are easy to give. Three drops in the beak's side. You can find the non-iron at CVS as well as other stores.

She also needs to continue drinking; make sure she does so.

She absolutely MUST have her blood built back up, and the mites MUST be killed or she will decline horribly and quite likely die.

As for the DE, you can use in hopes of reducing numbers of future parasites. But as for mites, they're tricky to get and so easily brought into the barn by wild birds. It only takes 48 hours before their eggs hatch. They bloom and take everything down. That's why painting the interior of a coop to eliminate as many cracks is very useful. Then keep checking them every couple of weeks to make sure. Check at night: some mites only get on the bird at night to feed.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions or email me or whatever you need.