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Chirping
My blue-laced red, Mora, is a pullet approaching her first birthday (end of November). She has always been quite hefty since reaching laying age, but since having this problem, I fear she has been losing weight as she seems lighter when I pick her up.
Around three days ago, I noticed one side of Mora's face was lightly swollen and discolored because of it. The other side was normal, did not look as if there has been any injury, and she was being her usual self--lazy. I was concerned, but thought it might have been an insect bite, and decided to see if the swelling went down. It hasn't.
Today, both sides are swollen far past what I first saw, to the point where it is making her eyelids slightly droopy.
She either hunches over standing or lies down away from everyone, which I know is a sign of sickness in chickens.
She is not laying.
She has poop stuck to the fluff of her butt, but I didn't know that would be cause for ruling out an illness until I looked some things up.
She's still pooping, but it's mostly water.
I don't think she eats her feed. I let her free-range while the others are in their fenced yard, and she IS showing interest in scratch and grass.
There is the slightest redness running up her legs and in between her toes; I couldn't get a good picture of it because it was so light. Not sure if it would be a contributing factor.
She's also been losing feathers at an extremely fast rate--I know it's molting season and our older hens are doing it, but neither of her broodmates has dropped a single feather.
None of the other birds are acting like this. We do have a case of bumblefoot in the flock we're trying to out right now, but Mora is one of the chickens without it.
I feed our girls--and ducks--Purina AllFlock Starter/Grower crumble. Their bedding is just standard flakes in bulk from TSC.
I would love to take care of this myself as my family is very suspicious as far as the use of antibiotics in chickens goes (which is what the vet has administered in the past for the bumblefoot), but I want to save this chicken if at all possible. They are all like kids to me.
Please let me know what you think I should do.
Around three days ago, I noticed one side of Mora's face was lightly swollen and discolored because of it. The other side was normal, did not look as if there has been any injury, and she was being her usual self--lazy. I was concerned, but thought it might have been an insect bite, and decided to see if the swelling went down. It hasn't.
Today, both sides are swollen far past what I first saw, to the point where it is making her eyelids slightly droopy.
She either hunches over standing or lies down away from everyone, which I know is a sign of sickness in chickens.
She is not laying.
She has poop stuck to the fluff of her butt, but I didn't know that would be cause for ruling out an illness until I looked some things up.
She's still pooping, but it's mostly water.
I don't think she eats her feed. I let her free-range while the others are in their fenced yard, and she IS showing interest in scratch and grass.
There is the slightest redness running up her legs and in between her toes; I couldn't get a good picture of it because it was so light. Not sure if it would be a contributing factor.
She's also been losing feathers at an extremely fast rate--I know it's molting season and our older hens are doing it, but neither of her broodmates has dropped a single feather.
None of the other birds are acting like this. We do have a case of bumblefoot in the flock we're trying to out right now, but Mora is one of the chickens without it.
I feed our girls--and ducks--Purina AllFlock Starter/Grower crumble. Their bedding is just standard flakes in bulk from TSC.
I would love to take care of this myself as my family is very suspicious as far as the use of antibiotics in chickens goes (which is what the vet has administered in the past for the bumblefoot), but I want to save this chicken if at all possible. They are all like kids to me.
Please let me know what you think I should do.
