iamkate Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Hi All, I’d like some advice regarding our poorly chicken.. Shadow is a standard brown farm type chicken, we’ve had her about 2 years now and she’s almost 4 years old. She’s always been pretty healthy, though she and another chicken had leg mite which we treated with Xeno 200 and regular applications of vaseline. Her legs look much better now. Over the last week she hasn’t seemed quite herself; she has been slow to get down from the perch in the morning and hasn’t been running for food quite so enthusiastically! I’ve noticed her standing on one foot fairly often though there is no obvious damage to either leg or foot (I’ve been over both legs and feet twice). I thought that she may have bashed one of her feet and that would explain her being a bit down in the dumps! We’ve also had a couple of soft shelled eggs (which is unusual) so I also considered that she may be laying those, and that would explain her being a bit down as I know that can make them uncomfortable. Yesterday she was on her perch in the morning (8 AM) and I left her on there (I think if she wants a lie in she can probably have one!).. However when we got home from work last night (6:30 PM) she was still on the perch. When we got her down she just sat on the floor. She was not keen at all on standing or walking. She showed little interest in the water I gave her (with a poultry tonic of some description in it). She did stand and eat some cucumber and tomato but she kept having problems as when she reached out to eat she kept missing it – like she couldn’t see it properly. She did eventually decide she wanted to walk a little, and we let her out with the other chickens (who promptly ate her left over cucumber/tomato!) I believe that she spent all yesterday on the perch because of her behaviour above and because her crop felt completely empty. Also, we left her out there and when all the others had put themselves to bed she remained sat on the run floor. We felt her rear end and it doesn’t seem to be swollen or odd at all. Her poos seem pretty normal. She doesn’t appear to have any mite but we did dust her and the house at the weekend just in case. We don’t have oyster shell available but we have been giving them back their egg shells in their pellets which I believe to be a calcium supplement. They’re fed on layers pellets and have fairly regular vegetable s"Ooops, word censored!"s from the kitchen. They’re wormed with verm-x (which I know is not necessarily as good as Flubenvet). The Xeno 200 treatment was around the end of April. We got her up again this morning and she stood to eat a little cucumber with avipro sprinkled on it. Sorry for the essay! Does anyone have any ideas what we could try with her? Thanks Kate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Tea Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Hi She sounds really poorly. If I were you I'd take her to the vet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamkate Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Hi, I wanted to post an update on our chicken, as when she was poorly and I was looking up posts I was frustrated by finding information about sick chickens with similar symptoms but no update as to what was actually wrong with them..! She went downhill quite quickly after I posted this message. We took her to the vets and sadly she had to be put to sleep. The conclusion was that she had a respiratory infection (that we had not picked up on) and that by the time she was acting poorly it was too far gone – it had affected her neurologically and she could no longer hold her head up properly. I assume that’s also why she pecked in the wrong place when we were trying to feed her. Its pretty rubbish and I feel awful for not realising that she had the respiratory problem. I think taking her to the vets as soon as she looked down would have been the answer, but having nursed chickens back to health before I assumed that I could do more of the same. Anyway, I hope that comes in useful for someone at some point in the future. Kate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaKiw1 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Poor you - but don't feel guilty. As everyone says by the time they show any signs of weakness, let alone proper symptoms, they are often too far gone and so you did the best thing by letting her go to sleep. Big hug x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
