Eglu Cube Coop and Accessories

[sarahjayne]

Hello

 

This is the first time I have posted after lurking for a couple of years gaining lots of information from you. Thank you.

 

Unfortunately the first time I have needed to post is to ask for help.

 

We bought 4 POL (none laying yet) hybrids 3 weeks ago. One seem quite subdued when we got her home. After a day I phoned the supplier who said it may be the stress from the move and to see how she was in a couple of days. They had apple cider vinegar in their water from the day we brought them home. She was quite up and down always eating and drinking but spending a lot of time asleep. One morning she came out of the house and had a brown dishcharge round her nostrils. I phoned the supplier back who said maybe she had a cold. I stopped the apple cider vinegar and put avipro in their water. She seemed to pick up for about 5 days and was scratching around just like the others. I started worming them on Weds with flubenvet. She then seemed to go downhill again. Still eating and drinking, no sneezing, coughing, wheezing ever but just lots of sleeping.

 

Yesterday morning she seeming very weak so I took her to the vets. The vet couldn't find anything wrong, couldn't see any sign of colds or infection and from what I told her thought maybe she was a weak hen who would never be a 'good doer' so rightly or wrongly on the advice of the vet I made the decision to have her PTS. (my sons were so upset!) The vet also said we needed to think of the other hens and maybe this weak one was a carrier of something. She never seemed to be in pain or distressed, just very lethargic.

 

This morning the boys let the other 3 out of their house and the head hen usually out first took some persuading to come out. She is now sitting hunched up with eyes closed just like the one we have lost. I will phone the vets when they open at 9.00 but just wondered if anyone had suggestions or advice.

 

Sorry for the long winded post but wanted to give you as much info as poss.

 

Not a good start to hen keeping unfortunately. I emailed the supplier last night but have not heard anything back yet.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Sarah Jayne

[cyclonetog]

How far from the supplier are you?

 

We took our Silkie back to see the supplier 2 days ago and he was very helpful, always is and we've come away happy for now.

 

You've not had them long and a good breeder will be happy to help.

[Olly]

This sounds as if there is something wrong and you should definitely go back to the breeder, to have one hen with something wrong could be bad luck but if another hen is showing the same symptoms then I would suspect that they were not healthy.

 

I hope your vet can give you some sort of diagnosis so that the remaining hens can be treated, it sounds as if you did the right thing with the first one but I would definitely get on the phone to the breeder today.

 

I'm sorry that you've had such a tricky start to keeping hens, I hope once this is sorted out that you'll have many years of trouble-free hen keeping ahead like most of us.

[sarahjayne]

Thank you both for your replies. Have sent the breeder another email, if she doesn't respond shortly I will give her a call. I have asked if she has had any issues with her other hens. Not sure what to ask of her though. Even if she offers to replace the hens, I think I would be worried that the new lot will have the same illness as all the hybrids were in a big pen together.

 

Maybe a course of antibiotics would help? When we spoke to the vet yesterday she did mention sending off dropping samples for testing or a post mortem on the hen we had pts if we wanted to go down that route.

 

I will see what the vet suggests when she phones back, I have left a message for her to call me. I will also phone the breeder later if she doesn't respond to my emails.

 

Thank you again for your help.

 

Sarah Jayne

[Egghead68]

Just wanted to say -I strongly recommend you find an avian specialist vet (list of chicken friendly vets on this website). General small animal vets tend to know next to nothing about chickens.