[plumseverywhere]

Our 5 month old cochin hen has suddenly started to lose her balance and if knocked, no matter how gently, by others falls onto her side.  She was seemingly fine until about lunchtime.
Any ideas? could it be Mareks?  she's isolated and eating/drinking fine

[Stereo]

Could be Meraks.  Ear infection?

[Hevxxx99]

Too much fermented fruit?  Can she get up after falling over?

[plumseverywhere]

There's no fermented fruit in her reach.  She can get back up. She seems to have grip in her feet and isn't doing anything 'weird' with her head (like I've seen in Mareks videos' on youtube)

She's survived the night and actually looks a bit brighter this morning. one poo had a little blob of pink in it, not frank red blood but what looked a bit like gut lining the size of a small human tooth.

[Marches Farmer]

Has she been wormed recently?

[plumseverywhere]

I have some flubenvet on the way, could it be worm related?

[chrismahon]

Dehydration can do that, as well as Mareks or ear lice. Is the water additive free?

[plumseverywhere]

Its tap water (?flouride?) with apple cider vinegar

[chrismahon]

Depends on the concentration of ACV Plumseverywhere. It should be 1% maximum. We have stopped using it at all, as we can't perceive any health benefit and believe it stops them drinking enough in hot weather.


So it may be dehydration?

[plumseverywhere]

After reading the dehydration possibility yesterday, my husband and I were watching the chickens all drinking pure tap water that my 7 year old gave them - it was like they'd not had a drink in ages... I think you've hit on a point - THANK YOU!!!
I only added it because we had a couple of sneezers in the flock so we'll go back to water water instead 

[chrismahon]

Obviously the conclusion is the hens prefer pure water, but people are still putting in all sorts of additives thinking they are doing the best for their girls. But the big question is, was dehydration the reason your Cochin was falling over Plumseverywhere?

[plumseverywhere]

I think time will tell... she's onto 'normal' water again, give a few days to see if she recovers? hope for no lasting damage. She's not off of her food and there are no other symptoms, just a bit wobbly.
She's less unstable on her feet now, I rehomed her with 5 others and kept them all in isolation for 2 weeks but now I'm thinking I'll only ever hatch my own and keep a closed flock as there's always that niggle that I might have brought something in. 

[Stereo]

Whenever we have used ACV I get the impression that the sneezing actually starts so I'm not convinced. Personally I'm trying to breed birds who don't need all this stuff to survive. I think a bit of garlic is good and also DE etc. in the house but both of those for mire problems. Other than that, they should be able to survive on rain water and a balanced diet with no meds. I'm trying to get to the point where we only hatch from 3 year old hens who have never been sickly or needed any meds. Survivor genetics.

[plumseverywhere]

Is the 3 year old marker based on survival and checking they were healthy all that time, Stereo or does that age denote anything else? I'm interested to learn more about breeding just my own stock and not buying in ever again now.

[Stereo]

I would have said it's a general indicator of strong immunity and lack of genetic faults. Also the sense to get in out of the way from a predator or whatever. I'm also separating hens who insist on not roosting and they won't be bred from. One hen who is determined to fill a nest box up with poo every night can ruin a whole load of eggs the next day.

I've had a fair few hens fall over and die at first moult or when it's gets hot or cold. Usually a heart problem or something. It's possible that I could have already hatched from that bird and that's what I want to avoid. If they make it to 3 with no issues and are still laying well shaped eggs with good shells, then I figure they are good breeding stock.

Plan is to hatch new birds around March and raise them up, selling any eggs cheap as pullet eggs.

1st Birthday the eggs start going on the gate as they should be nicely sized, maybe sooner.

2nd Birthday the best go in the breeding pens to produce high value hatching eggs.

3rd Birthday any good survivors are used to produce replacement hens and off we go again.


This is just a theory, I haven't got that far as yet!