Hen_Pecked Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Sorry for not visiting for while, everything has been going perfectly for the last year or so until this morning. I hope you'll forgive me and be able to offer some advice. My wife went down this morning to let our pair of ladies out, and Daria (the Gingernut Ranger) came out and flapped out madly for a while in kind of uncontrolled manner. She quickly exhausted herself, and laid down on her side and closed her eyes. Wife came screaming back into the house to get me, and when I went back out she was still laid down in the back corner of the run (standard Eglu). I dissassembled the run from the hutch area and picked her up. She felt cold (for a chicken) and was very passive. She's usually a properly feisty girl and will flap after being held for about 30 seconds. Her underside feathers are dirty and the fluffy feathers around the vent have a little caked faeces. She's usually very clean. There's also a little redness to the skin around the vent, but it's hard to see as the feathers are so dense. She let me take her inside, holding her tightly in my sweater to warm up. I was holding her for about 30 minutes, and she was doing something funny with her neck, as if she was trying to vomit, but didn't have the energy. Her eyes kept closing as she was doing this. For now we've put her in a box in the house with some water, some layers pellets and some mealworms. She's starting to perk up and is rummaging around for the mealworms (her favourite) in the straw. I've googled and searched this forum, and I don't know what it could be. It could be a combination of anything, or just her getting too cold overnight (although she was fine in the snow last year etc.) and wanting more sleep! We've not used any worming medication since we got them in June 2010, and they have never been to a vet - we're not aware of a local one here in Southampton that "does" chickens. She really is part of the family and we're both extremely worried about her. Usually by this time of day she will have escaped over the fence a couple of times and she'll now be standing on top of the eglu surveying her domain, demanding mealworms and grapes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 The vomiting type moment was probably stress related it's a sort of spasmodic movement like they are hiccupping with beak wide open, she possibly got herself in a state when she was flapping - in short that's probably not a symptom of what is wrong with her It's worth worming them if you haven't done it yet, flubenvet can be bought quite cheaply on the Internet, it's the only licences chicken wormer. It's a powder you mix with the food and the dosing details are on the pack. You can buy food premixed with it from somewhere like SPR Centre online The flapping about doesn't sound too good, almost like she was having a fit, see if it happens tomorrow and maybe consider a vet if it keeps happening Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyhas3chucks Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 her crop was not full and sqidgy/watery was it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen_Pecked Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Thanks for the replies. After warming up in the house for a couple of hours she started to drink vorasciously. I made her some mealworm and blueberry porridge (to which the wife said I make better porridge for the chickens than I do for her!) which she wolfed down. She then started trying to escape from the box, so I knew she was on the mend. I picked her up again and the usual struggling was back, so decided to put her back outside with her sister. She went straight to the food, then to the water, then back to the food. After an hour or so she went over to her preening log, stood there and had a good clean. By bedtime she had escaped once, scared off a cat and laid a lovely egg for us. This morning she is perfect, scratching around like usual and digging up the daffodil bulbs again. What a relief! Her crop was fine, although she does have some white marks on her wattles that look a bit like mould? Our other has had that since we had her and she's always been fine, but only just noticed it on . We're going to buy some of that worming stuff, just in case, and have added some of that vitality tonic to the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 How frightening glad she's ok now. Lots of things went through my mind as you described what happened. I'd do the same as Redwing advised and worm her and give her a tonic, also check for mites and parasites then keep an eye on her for other signs. If her vent is caked then it would probably benefit her to wash that area in warm soapy water, rinse well and blow dry with wife's hairdryer. They become quite passive stood in warm water and love a hairdryer. If the skin is very inflamed some gentle ointment may sooth it like teatree cream or sudocrem type cream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...