Solitary chicken - need advice

[Scooby]

Poor Suzannah sounds like she's caught a bit of a cold, she's sneezing quite a bit and sounds quite snotty, also one eye seems to be a bit watery.

 

She is getting citrocidal in her water, but other than that I don't know if there's anything else I can do?

 

I read somewhere that moving hens can be quite stressful for them and can cause these symptoms - she's a week into settling into her new home with us so could be this.

 

However, the other girl she came with, Trinny, seems fine, other than sleeping a fair bit - didn't know if this was normal for such young girls?

 

Any advice gratefully appreciated!

[Scooby]

bump

[Daphne]

um, not terribly expert about Suzannah's symptoms other than I'd keep an eye and if they get worse or don't clear up then I'd go to the vet. We had breathing problems with youngsters and Baytril cleared it up - but we didn't have eye problems or sneezing. My sense is that youngsters are less able to fight off things that the older girls 'just deal with'. We've had 5 youngsters over the past few months and some of them did surprise me by the amount of time they spent sitting down (and they still do more than the grown ups). There was also more sleeping than I thought would happen, but I'm not sure if that was tied up with the illness so again I'd keep an eye. Sorry this is probably not as clear cut as you were hoping for, so maybe somebody with more experience will be along to help.....

[Scooby]

Thanks Daphne - I will keep an eye out. But I feel better knowing that your littlies spent time sitting down and sleeping.

[Mrs Frugal]

I read somewhere that moving hens can be quite stressful for them and can cause these symptoms - she's a week into settling into her new home with us so could be this.

 

Sorry I didn't see this earlier, Scooby. My Sussex Girls all came down with sniffles, runny noses and sneezes around a week after introducing them. The stress of introductions and new homes can reduce their resistance to the odd snuffle. I used Citricidal in their drinking water and this cleared up the symptoms. However, if there's no improvement or they develop rattly breathing, swollen faces/combs/wattles, or appear hunched and withdrawn, the best thing to do would be to let a vet take a look at them in case they need some antibiotics.

 

Good luck!

[Scooby]

Just an update...

 

 

So... I left the girlies for a while longer as they didn't seem to be getting any worse, thought the cidtrocidal and poultry spice doing the trick, then suddenly Frenchy developed a cough as well as sneezing and seemed quite bunged up. Then Rizzo followed with a cough and then Jan followed suit. So after a bit of hunting I finally managed to find a vet who would deal with hens and took Frenchy and littlie Suzannah to see him.

 

He diagnosed a respiratory problem and said to treat the whole flock as he couldn't say if it's bacterial or a virus (he also asked if anyone in our household had a cold or flu )

 

I feel really wicked and very guilty that I didn't do something sooner.

 

Anyway - to my relief he has given me Baytril BUT has said not to eat their eggs as it would be dangerous and also said I could not even feed the eggs back to the girls.

 

Just wanted to check if anyone else was told this when their girls have been on Baytril?

It's going to kill me having to throw out all those lovely eggs! Serves me right I suppose for being a bad chicken mommy.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear that the girls didn't improve. Your vet sounds helpful.

 

There is some info **here** on meds and the egg withdrawal issue.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Glad you've managed to see a nice vet - hope the treatment works and they're back to full health soon .

 

You're not a bad chicken mummy - you obviously care about your girls so you can't be .

[Scooby]

 

There is some info **here** on meds and the egg withdrawal issue.

 

Thanks Egluntine - most informative.

 

 

You're not a bad chicken mummy - you obviously care about your girls so you can't be .

 

Thanks ANH for being so kind