Topic: Poorly chicken????

[jono]

Hi folks,
I'm after your knowlege, I have three chickens two black rodes and a brown warren. My brown warren seems really not her self. All she seems to do is puff herself up in a ball and try to sleep, her comb seems to be leaning over and not standing up straight as it was. I found red mite on their perch in their coup but have treated with red mite dust. Any ideas whats up with her???
many thanks
Jono

[mummybunny]

Sorry to hear this Jono. Is she still eating and drinking? Hopefully someone with some more knowledge will be along shortly.

I've only had mine since last year only thing i have been affected with is Marek's disease which the symptoms are Paralysis of legs, wings and neck, Loss of weight, Grey iris or irregular pupil, Vision impairment and Skin around feather follicles raised and roughened.

Does she have any other symptoms?

Lucy x

[jono]

She had what looked like a sore bum, caused by mud and poo!  This has been cleaned off. When out of the run she seems ok to start and has a scratch but after a while just stops, puffs up and stands on one leg. She also seems lazy/slow too.

[manicscousers]

puffed up, stops, slow and sounds like me  ;D ..could it be the cold?

[northener]

Sounds like shes egg bound. Have a look on the Poultry forum. What i did was sit the hen in a bucket of warm soapy water for 10 minutes, dry her off and isolate her from the others. I put ours in a guinea pig cage and kept them in the house for a couple of days. It worked with one and sadly i lost another one but its worth a try. How is she?

[jono]

It not egg bound as I know she's laying, we have two different colour eggs due to the two different breeds and she is our best layer.

[xlynettex]

hello,
when was the last time you wormed her ? what colour is her comb ?

[Biscombe]

One of mine is exactly the same, puffed up, head down comb over, moving slowly eating and drinking very little, the other two look their usual perky self.

She's not egg bound, one chicken has been laying soft shelled egg despite putting grit down. I think she's had an egg that burst inside here, nothing much we can do. Hope your chook gets better jono

[jono]

what are you going to do abouts yours? I am thinking about putting her out of her mysery. Just not sure what to do with her after? I know there is a fox down the allotment so  might leave the body there. Any thoughts?

[northener]

I would'nt leave the corpse for the fox, he might like the taste and come back for the rest. Heyup Rosie hope your well, dint no tha got sum chucks.

[Old bird]

I have sometimes found (I am not very knowledgeable tho) that they get food stuck in their necks and so I massage their necks ver gently in a downward motion to check that there is nothing stuck as, apparently - they can't bring food upwards!

I did this for one of my girls then helped her to feed as she was very weak through lack of food and water.  This worked for one of my girls but the last one that went like you are describing had something go and she ended up walking very funnily so I imagine something happened "down below".

You will need to make sure that she is drinking and eating so I used to separate my sickly one and make sure that she got food down and was not pushed out of the way by the others.

I did leave my last one that died out for the foxes but I took it up to some woods well away from the chicken's run!

Old Bird

[Biscombe]

We had to put our chicken out of it's misery this morning, very sad, I couldn't do it my partner wrung it's neck, but she was so ill, she didn't put up a fight so to speak!

As expected a soft egg had burst inside her, she smelled rotten. I think her gland or whatever works the shell production had packed up, they get fed a complete meal, and every now and again they get crushed shells fed back to them.the other two are fine. Just one of those things I suppose  :(

Hope yours is OK Jono XX


Ey up Northerner! I think I've been away from Barnsley far tooooo long LOL! dint no tha got sum chucks needs some translation  ;D.

[jono]

I have looked on the web and most sites say her symptoms are egg bound, apologies for my earlier comment saying she wasn't. I have sat her in a bowl of warm water for 30 min today and put her in an old indoor guinea pig cage for tonight and will see how she feeds tomorrow morning. If nothing then I will do the right thing and put her out of her pain, followed by quickly replacing her before my son asks where "nana" has gone!!
If the worst happens then I will take her body to my allotment which is a mile or so away and leave it there for the fox. The allotments are by a golf course and stables so will hide it in the undergroth somewhere.
I'll update tomorrow!  :-\

[Biscombe]

If she's not egg bound she could have peritonitis

Copied from net

uid pooling in her abdomen. It can be caused by a number of things, most often by yolks missing the "funnel" and falling directly from her ovary into her abdomen. Other types of infections and sometimes cancer can also cause peritonitis. There are also two types of peritonitis - sterile and septic. If your girl has sterile peritonitis, it means that the fluid in her abdomen is not filled with bacteria and is not caused by an internal infection. With this type of peritonitis, the best thing to do is leave the hen alone. If she is extremely uncomfortable and having a hard time breathing, you can try draining off some of the fluid to relieve pressure AS LONG AS you do the procedure under sterile conditions- if you introduce bacteria into her abdomen, she will get a nasty infection and the peritonitis will turn septic - then she will likely die. With sterile peritonitis, the hen will have trouble getting around and will have some loss of appetite, but she will continue to eat and will improve gradually over time- potentially she will recover totally or she will always have fluid build-up. I have a hen with sterile peritonitis and she has been this way for almost 2 years now. She is going slowly downhill, but still seems to enjoy life. She has a harder time breathing as the fluid has put pressure on her airsacs and lungs (this is especially evident when she lays down at night) but she is still hangning in there. WHen she stops ovulating for the year, usually in winter, the fluid is reabsorbed into her body and she is totally normal. She's running around and acting quite silly at the moment...

The other type of peritonitis is septic peritonitis- the fluid gets bacteria growing in it and then there isn't much you can do for her as the infection is so wide-spread and huge that usually even massive doses of strong antibiotic aren't enough. In that case, you can tell that your hen has this type because they go downhill rapidly and lose their appetite. Often they have a fever (hot comb- very hot under wings). You can try to drain them- this definitely offers them some relief- it takes the pressure off their organs. If the source of the infection is still there, though, they fill back up before long. If you'd like to try treating her then you need the following: 20 or 22 gauge 2" long catheter (or, if you can't find that anywhere, a 20 gauge 1.5" long sterile needle), 20 cc syringe, clear container (preferably measuring cup - at least 500 ml), skin soap, cotton balls or gauze, band-aid, iodine or rubbing alcohol.

Find the area on your hens abdomen near her rear end- I usually do it on the hen's left side. You need someone holding the hen firmly while you do this... Find the area on her rear abdomen that is relatively free of feathers- this will be easy if she is quite swollen from fluid. Find a spot that has no vessels under the skin to minimize any bleeding- there won't be any if you miss the vessels. The spot you find should be about 2 inches from her rear end, in the spot with no feathers and no vessels. Wash this area, scrubbing three times with soap and water, rinsing the soap off well each time. Wipe the area with either rubbing alcohol or iodine. Take the catheter (I'll tell you how to do it with the catheter as it is my preferred choice= the needle works too but there is a higher chance of accidently poking internal organs with the needle so I prefer not to use it)... take the catheter and poke it straight into the spot you have cleaned. Only poke it in far enough (1/4 inch or so) to get the catheter itself in, then remove the needle, leaving the catheter inside. You may need the needle again, so put this into a pan of alcohol or iodine to keep it sterile. Slide the catheter into her further, then attach the syringe. Fluid will start coming out quickly, but it's best to use the syringe to collect it. Start to draw off the fluid, being careful not to put so much suction on the syringe that you suck internal organs up to the end of the catheter. Leaving the catheter in the same hole, pull it in and out a bit, move it around and with your other hand, lift up the abdomen a bit to allow as much of the fluid as possible to be drawn off. Put all the collected fluid into a separate container- the 2 cup measuring cup. Drain out about half of the fluid then take out the catheter. By the way, if it comes out by accident during the procedure, you can reinsert it into the same hole using the needle that you have sitting in the alcohol - NEVER reinsert the catheter with a dirty needle or use anything other than sterile syringes and catheters or you will be introducing more bacteria than you are taking out and you might as well not do anything... Also, you don't want to drain all the fluid off in one go, as it might throw them into shock- losing all that fluid at once. Better to take out half, let her recover for a bit, then drain her again, taking a little more out the second time. Again, being sterile is very important.

Anyway, once you are done and the catheter is out, put a blob of antibacterial ointment over the hole and cover that with a tiny gauze or cotton ball. Tape or band-aid the gauze on, just to keep the little hole from being exposed to further bacteria. Now, you can either start the hen on antibiotics or not- I've had equal "success and failure" with them on strong antibiotics and off. Baytril is the best choice for massive infections, but it is only available through a vet or online (waiting for delivery...). Other drugs are good, too- broad spectrums, sulfa drugs and Pen G procaine will all work alright.

Your hen may fill up again in a day or two or she may not. It will be up to you to decide how well she is doing and whether or not to drain her again. Do not reuse the catheter- always get new ones (find a friend who is a doctor or nurse- they can usually get them for cheap for you....). If she rallies well in between drainings and you're not draining her daily, then keep going. If she is miserable, not eating and refilling almost immediately, then she is probably past the point of treating and, sadly, she will need to be put down...


there's also a video here

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5886172048737508337#

[northener]

Fingers crossed for her. I don't understand feeding the fox with your dead chicken, why?

[jono]

Hi, the feeding to a fox is really just to help out the fox, I cannot eat her, if I bury her in my garden there is a risk of a fox digging her up and bringing unwanted attention to my other chickens. Plus the fox down the allotments is a big old thing and probably finding it hard to get food in these conditions.
It makes sense in my head! It would be a shame for her death not to benifit somone not just end up on the rubbish heap!

[jono]

Evening,
Unfortunatly a had to put "Nana" our poorly chicken out of her pain yesterday morning, she became very weak to the point she couldn't stand up so after dark I did the right thing and quickly snapped her neck. If my little boy asks she has gone to visit her parents, I will replace her next week with another one too. one thing I can offer from all this is that if you are looking to keep chickens or looking at different breeds the Warren is not the hardest!! I contacted a local expert and he said that Warrens suffer badly with the cold. I am left with 2 black rhodes and they are true hard southern's!!!!