Young Bantam hen VERY droopy. hides from others.

[Chicken Rustler]

I have a 17 week old bantam, have been told she is campine. She just stands with tail drooped, neck drawn in, eyes not real wide. She is eating and drinking good. Her food is a locally produced that is mostly ground med fine. Her poo looks normal color and texture. I did a 5 day treatment of corrid (9cc / gal). When she was with the other birds she would hide and not come out to eat or drink. I have her seperated now. She has been doing this for about 2 weeks. I am going out of town next week and hope I don't have to have my chicken sitter do special duty taking care of this one.
Any help / suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Rob

 

[threehorses]

To more accurately help you, could you please answer some more questions from this sticky post (see link) into this thread?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

The feed you're feeding is a dry mash. But we need more information. For example, is it a grower mash? Does it have any medicinal additives? Does it have a complete vitamin/mineral package?

Have you checked her thoroughly for lice/mites? If she's with other birds are they adults? Have you wormed your flock?

Does she have any sticky droppings near her vent? Any reddening there?

What is her weight - is she thin, heavy, lumpy, medium? You'll want to pick her up now and thoroughly examine her, particularly for mites, anything unusual on the skin, listen carefully to hear breathing (put her ear against her chest and throat), examine her nostrils, the inside of her mouth for patches of discoloration or excess mucus. Check all of those things and then please let us know all your findings.

The more information, even things that seem little and silly, that we have about your ENTIRE flock and the environment in which they are kept, the more help we can provide you.

I look forward to your reply.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

thanks for your quick reply. Sorry I didn't get everything covered. As for the feed it is a non-comercial locally made. I am pretty sure it has no meds in it ( I will find out) and I don't know about the minerals ( will find that out as well). Tomorrow I will go give her a close look. and try to get the answers you need. Also she was with 3 adult hens age ? 12 that are 2 weeks older than her (all standard size) and 2 bantams same age as her one is a roo.

 

[threehorses]

Thanks for finding out more tomorrow (today?) for us.

Ask him specifically what age it's for - laying, growing, etc. That will help.

And do please let us know how she feels. Thanks! I hope she does well tonight!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Checked her over this am. She is very thin. Had one little clump low under her vent almost like on stomach ( I removed) which I think may be because she is in a cage with kind of deep hay and she sets down a lot. Skin is pink no signs of any parasites that I could see. Did not hear any unusual breathing sounds. Nose is dry but looks like it may have some dry (boogers ?) in it. Did not see anything in her mouth. I have not wormed. What should I use and do I need to toss the eggs when I do? I have not seen any indications that they have worms. I know that doesn't mean they don't but it is not real obvious if they do. And I kind of make a habit of randomly looking at poo trying to catch things early.

ETA plan to go get feed today and will post answers about the feed later today.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Well sorry won't be able to update about feed today. I just called to go get some and she is out and won't have any made up until Monday. Will update then.

 

[threehorses]

Ok since you can't find out about the feed, just be sure to tell the woman that you need "grower" feed - not laying feed. Laying feed will start when her combs and wattle start to turn cherry colored and plump out. Then you start mixing the laying in and make sure then that they have oyster shell.

The feed needs to be a "complete feed". Ask your woman over the phone, ask her if it's a true "complete ration - grower, not layer or starter". Because that's what you need. The thing that concerns me is that we don't even know if this bird is getting her vitamins and minerals. That and the fact that she's thin to some degree can cause her to be droopy because of just a lack of food.

If by thin her keel bone on her chest/underside is sharp and spatula like she's too thin. It should be more V shaped than Y shaped. Not U shaped in any non-broiler chickens.

Also the hey - it should probably be less deep. 3-4 inches is usually way plenty deep. personally I prefer shavings to hay as it dries and dehydrates the poop out more, causing less chance of coccidiosis, more chance of clean and dry conditions. But that's just me. I just find it's easier to keep the conditions less wormy, more airy, more hygienic.

I bet that her meekness contributed to her lack of fuel. I'd feed her up, and then see if you could possible solve the flock dynamic issues. Another alternative would be to put feed/hay where she would go hide from the others - or at least a second station at a distance.

There might be another issue, but really there's not enough pointers to show us what it is.

She could be wormy, and at her age she's about the age when I worm mine the first time. You could do the wazine with her. Or a stronger wormer at this age like fenbendazole (Safe-guard paste), ivermectin (pour on, injectable given orally, or the paste), levamisole (reconstituting the 'boluses'). I would definitely give thought to worming your entire flock so they'd all be on the same schedule.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

I raised all17of my chicks (including her) on this feed and this seems to be the first problem. She was OK and then got sick.

Yes she is "Y" shape even though she has food all the time and we see her eating and drinking.

She is seperated and that is the reason she has hay for bedding. The only place I have to put her is in a rabbit cage and shavings fall out. The hay is only an inch or two.

I treated her for cocci using corrid @ 9cc per gal for 5 days. No change.

She was with my other 2 banties and looking a little droopy but not much. Then I put all 3 of them in with my other girls. That is when she started hiding and went down hill fast. I pulled her out when I noticed.

I have ivermectin injectable. What would the dose be and if I do the whole flock do I need to toss the eggs? I aso have wazine 17 and Duramycin-10.

 

[threehorses]

Ohh ok on the hay.

I thought perhaps that was your full-time bedding as it sometimes is. And she's certainly cocci free now. So yes - that's not it.

Now there could be something else we're not seeing. I still think - from my own experiences with it - that the hiding and getting thin are connected. I occassionally have spooky birds and they just worry themselves thin.

I'd use the wazine 17 first for them all. That might be all it takes. Then if you want, do the ivermectin in a month or so. You withdraw from eggs and meat for 2 weeks on wazine. On the ivermectin, you withdraw 10 days. Duramycin doesn't seem applicable yet and I'm reluctant to say use an antibiotic where it doesn't seem antibacterial strongly enough yet for me to treat if it were my bird. If you do it, you could - but make sure that you give her non-yogurt probiotics daily while treating, treat at 2 or 3 teaspoons per gallon of water for 7-10 days. No less. 3 is treatment for a sure-thing respiratory illness. 2 is usually for chicks or prevention.

I'd have to look up the ivermectin injectable (given orally) dosage. Everything I have of it usually includes use of a slowing agent.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

OK thanks so much for all the help. I am going to try the wazine first. Is there a wormer that is "egg safe"? You see the chickens are a theropy for my wife and she is so excited when she gets eggs. The mention of having to toss eggs upsets her very much, she is stroke survivor with some real issues.

I would not even take a guess at the dose for ivermec. I know with the goats it is 1.5cc per 110#. However since our vet said it is very hard to overdose I treated adults at the full dose and kids over a couple weeks got 1/2 dose. Never had a problem.

I totally agree on the antibiotic and was just letting you know the choices I have on hand. I don't use anti unless there are good indications that it is needed. Otherwise it tends to become ineffective when you really need it.

My regular bedding is chipped tree limbs aged and a little loose hay scattered over it now and then, which the girls make short work of scratching.