Sick chicken - I'm at a loss

[curly_kate]

I have a chicken that I noticed out in the yard, just kinda standing there. When I brought in food, the others came running, but she didn't move. So I went and picked her up & she didn't put up any kind of a fight. Wouldn't eat with the rest of the chickens. So I put her in a separate cage in the garage, gave her some water w/a vitamin supplement, and food mixed with yogurt & a couple of tomatoes thrown in. She started eating immediately, so that made me feel better. But when I went back in there, she was just standing over the food bowl, looking like she was dozing off. There's no sign of respiratory illness, crop feels fine, can't feel an egg stuck inside her. Visually, she looks fine, if missing some feathers because we have an over-abundance of roosters (that gets remedied on Sunday). Oh, she's about 3 yo. Any ideas?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That's a hard one. Something obviously is not right. I'd keep her isolated and make sure she is eating and especially drinking. It could be some type of disease, thus the isolation, but my guess is that she ate something that does not agree with her. Maybe a poisonous plant, maybe mold. Maybe a poisonous snake bite or possibly she ate a nail or something and punctured her gizzard. Those last are a reach but it shows how little I know about the situation.

Whatever it is, it is not good. If it is a poison of some type, try to keep her eating and drinking. She may come out of it.

I had one that was acting somewhat like that, but her neck was also drawn back. She had severely injured her neck, probably broke it. I fed and watered her by eye dropper and she recovered. Don't totally give up hope.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

what about mites or lice? have you checked over her vent and tail area between the feathers to see if she may have the lice crawling on her? mite may be harder to see moving but you can usually find the eggs near the shaft of the downy feathers near the body under the wings and near the legs, also in beards or crests of some breeds. sometimes the chickens get very stressed when they have bugs on them. it sometimes affects them and sometimes they are fine.

 

[curly_kate]

Still not seeing anything on her, but thanks for the ideas! It does look like she has really watery diarrhea. Not sure if that gives any more clues....

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

You're doing good by what you've done for her so far.

What comes to mind immediately for me is mites (as already suggested), worms, or heat stress. I've dealt with my share of heat stress this summer. Sometimes I got them through it, sometimes not. I find that the youngest girls, and the oldest girls, are effected the most.

If she looks pale at all, or her come isn't as bright or perky as usual, she could be anemic. While you've got her isolated, I would worm her and then keep up with the extra TLC you've already started.

The hard part for me about raising a backyard flock is not getting overly upset if you can't "save" her. Do what you can for her, but ultimately she has to put up a good fight to survive. They don't always.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Look up the symptoms for Coccidiosis. Most of the time when they have Cocci, they do not have bloody poo. The symptoms you mention could be pretty close. All it takes for them to get Cocci is a bird to fly over and poop.

 

[lesa]

Sounds like you are doing everything right...Take a look at the bottom of her feet and just check for bumblefoot (black scab looking spot.) You could try soaking her in a warm tub of water just in case she is egg bound. Does her poop look a little like egg yolk or foamy like egg whites? The 3 and 4 year old chickens sometimes just die- no matter what you do. You are doing everything you can- now you just hope and wait... Keep us posted. Good luck.

 

[curly_kate]

She's a little better this morning. The weird thing is that the weather just turned cool and damp after about a week of 95 and dry dry dry. Also, I cleaned out the coop on Monday. Maybe I stirred something up that bothered her? We've had a chicken that was egg bound, and this one is not acting the same and I don't feel an egg stuck.

 

[momofdrew]

Hope she snaps out of it...I have lost a few with out even knowing what or why... I am not an experienced chicken wrangler but I would make her as comfortable as possible and hope for the best...

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

The 3 and 4 year old chickens sometimes just die- no matter what you do.

Yup, that's for sure, unfortunately. This summer I lost my pretty golden laced polish hen Weezie, and one of my absolute favorites, Dee. Neither one showed ANY signs of illness one day, and in the morning of the next day they were dead. It's worrisome, to say the least, but sometimes I think things are just out of our control...