Why does it seem like it is always the most friendly, favorite, lap sitting chicken who gets sick.....I'm waiting/hoping for a phone call from the avian vet who has treated my 22 year old Cockatiel for several years. I've never had to take a chicken to see this excellent doctor but she has told me that "chickens are difficult" and she has had less success in caring for them. My sweetest Buff Orpington, Blondie, is sick. Yesterday morning my husband found an egg dropped from the night roost that had absolutely no shell, no membrane. He said all the girls looked fine and I went out to check. Blondie has had previous problems so I brought her inside so we could get a good look at her vent. It looked fine and she seemed to be acting normally. The other 4 girls seemed OK as well. Yesterday evening I went out to sit with the girls in their "outside play area" and Blondie was definitely sick. Her back was hunched up in an abnormal posture and she, who is usually the first to run after any treat, was lethargic and seemed uninterested in her usually scratching around for goodies. This was SO different from her usual behavior and I was really very concerned. She was the first to go up into the coop and instead of going to the roost she squatted in one of the nests. It was relatively cold (for Texas) last night...in the 30s and I wasn't sure if I should leave her undisturbed in the nest or bring her into the house to sleep in a crate. I got the crate ready just in case. In searching online around 11:00 last night I read her on BYC that giving her a Calcium Citrate/Vit D tablet might help. So I went out, gathered her up and managed to get one half of those huge tablets down her throat before putting her in the crate. I checked on her a couple of times during the night and much to my relief she was still alive. This morning I smashed up one of my huge Calcium Citrate + Vitamin D tablets and mixed it with water.....managed to get some of this down her throat with a syringe. I cooked a scrambled egg with another smashed tablet and tried to get her to eat some of this as well as encouraging her to drink some water. Inside the crate I found a little poop which seemed normal, but also a 2" clump of cheese looking yuck. Her vent looked red, dry and irritated so I applied some KY jelly. She seemed to look better after eating a few bites of the egg and drinking a few sips of water. Even though it is still cold outside I thought it would be better to put her back with the group. When I returned her to the run she went to the water container and drank a good bit of water. I thought that was a good sign, plus she seemed more alert and did a little bit of scratching around. Then I read that chickens with the infection Salpingitis drink lots of water. I was hoping that the calcium had helped her get rid of the cheesy gunk and all would be well. Instead it seems that she must have an infecton that must be treated with antibiotics so I have a call in to the avian vet to see what she thinks.........
I lost my very first love of a pet chicken, Speckles, from egg yolk peritonitis and after that horrible experience we didn't have any chickens for a number of years. Now, as I've gotten very attached to Blondie, it seems like a repetition of what happened with Speckles. Blondie's crew turned two in March so she isn't that old. She started laying daily eggs weeks before the other girls (one other Buff Orpington and three Barred Rocks) which worried me because it just seemed like she was going to have problems from shooting out an egg every single day for weeks. Next she became broody and I thought I would never be able to break her from that problem...Following that issue she scared me because she had signs of scaley leg mites.....which a separate group of older girls had contracted. I treated everyone for that and finally got that under control. The next problem began when I noticed that her tail feathers were looking odd...She and one of the Barred Rocks had depluming mites. I had never even heard of depluming mites. That was a major problem but, after weeks of treatment, things seemed better and both girls are now over that. Blondie molted a bit before the other girls and they are all now in the process of getting new feathers. She hadn't seemed to feel unwell until yesterday afternoon. I thought the fact that no broken bits of egg shell were seen would be positive, but the cheese looking thing she expelled last night seems to be the signal of doom. It was small and soft with no layers; mostly yellow spongy stuff. The vet's office is closed now but I'm still hoping to get a phone call and possibly some way to get prescription antibiotics if that is what she needs.
People without chickens think it is crazy to consider them as pets and I realize there are so many more sad situations that have much higher priorities than a sick chicken, but I can't help but feel so sad that she is hurting and may die from this situation. We always have oyster shell out for the girls and I include a good sized pinch of smashed up egg shells in their nightly treat. Since the girls were babies they seem to think I've prepared a gourmet treat when I just add water to their regular crumbles food. Now they have Layena and since they are molting I put in some "feather fixer" pellets with more protein. So their main treat is just those foods with a small handfull of uncooked oatmeal stirred together with water and the crushed egg shells. I just let the shells dry and smash them with my rolling pen. I haven't cooked the shells.....Don't know if that could cause an issue. Each evening I do feed the girls bits of cheese and some wild bird seed which has millet, maize, wheat and sunflower seeds. I thought the cheese would give them calcium.....We have not been able to keep wild birds away from the out of coop "play area" where the hens are allowed to visit every evening. Most likely that is where the depluming mites found their way to Blondie and Tilly. It is probably a good thing that I never had children because if I get this upset over Blondie, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a sick child.
I couldn't find a forum labeled "Moaning" so I've posted this here but if I don't hear from the vet I'll be posting on the disease/illness site. Any suggestions for treatment or whatever would be appreciated....
Photos show her kind of hunched back posture and the yucky yellow thing she passed last night.
I lost my very first love of a pet chicken, Speckles, from egg yolk peritonitis and after that horrible experience we didn't have any chickens for a number of years. Now, as I've gotten very attached to Blondie, it seems like a repetition of what happened with Speckles. Blondie's crew turned two in March so she isn't that old. She started laying daily eggs weeks before the other girls (one other Buff Orpington and three Barred Rocks) which worried me because it just seemed like she was going to have problems from shooting out an egg every single day for weeks. Next she became broody and I thought I would never be able to break her from that problem...Following that issue she scared me because she had signs of scaley leg mites.....which a separate group of older girls had contracted. I treated everyone for that and finally got that under control. The next problem began when I noticed that her tail feathers were looking odd...She and one of the Barred Rocks had depluming mites. I had never even heard of depluming mites. That was a major problem but, after weeks of treatment, things seemed better and both girls are now over that. Blondie molted a bit before the other girls and they are all now in the process of getting new feathers. She hadn't seemed to feel unwell until yesterday afternoon. I thought the fact that no broken bits of egg shell were seen would be positive, but the cheese looking thing she expelled last night seems to be the signal of doom. It was small and soft with no layers; mostly yellow spongy stuff. The vet's office is closed now but I'm still hoping to get a phone call and possibly some way to get prescription antibiotics if that is what she needs.
People without chickens think it is crazy to consider them as pets and I realize there are so many more sad situations that have much higher priorities than a sick chicken, but I can't help but feel so sad that she is hurting and may die from this situation. We always have oyster shell out for the girls and I include a good sized pinch of smashed up egg shells in their nightly treat. Since the girls were babies they seem to think I've prepared a gourmet treat when I just add water to their regular crumbles food. Now they have Layena and since they are molting I put in some "feather fixer" pellets with more protein. So their main treat is just those foods with a small handfull of uncooked oatmeal stirred together with water and the crushed egg shells. I just let the shells dry and smash them with my rolling pen. I haven't cooked the shells.....Don't know if that could cause an issue. Each evening I do feed the girls bits of cheese and some wild bird seed which has millet, maize, wheat and sunflower seeds. I thought the cheese would give them calcium.....We have not been able to keep wild birds away from the out of coop "play area" where the hens are allowed to visit every evening. Most likely that is where the depluming mites found their way to Blondie and Tilly. It is probably a good thing that I never had children because if I get this upset over Blondie, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a sick child.
I couldn't find a forum labeled "Moaning" so I've posted this here but if I don't hear from the vet I'll be posting on the disease/illness site. Any suggestions for treatment or whatever would be appreciated....
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