[Womble]

Poor old Raisin. She just doesn't want to be sociable these days!




She's been like this since Saturday (we initially thought she was egg-bound,  but she's still with us, so it seems probably not?). Her abdomen initially felt a bit swollen, but seems better today.

She's spent the past three days though standing in a corner (no straining or attempting to lay), or wandering around slowly on her own. She has a very smelly mucky bum (have washed it off twice!) and diarrhoea, but she seems to be eating normally, and her crop feels ok. However, her tail is down, her head is withdrawn, and she often appears half asleep.

All her pals are fine, so I'm at a loss as to what's up with her.  Does anybody know what's wrong, and what I can do to cheer her up?

[BlueDaisy]

Tail down and withdrawn head are generel symptoms of your chicken feeling unwell.
I would take her to the vet and have her looked over, it may be that she needs antibiotics.
If you don't want to take her to a vet, I would isolate her (so she doesn't pass anything on) feed her tasty high protein stuff, like catfood or porridge and bio yoghurt, (worm her?) and give her some vitamin booster, or oregano oil. Perhaps also put some apple cider vinegar in her drinking water.
Hope she pulls through for you.

[doganjo]

Sorry to say this, David, but by the time I see any of mine like this it's usually too late to do anything.  I suspect you may lose her, although if she is still eating she might pick up.  Try sardines in oil, and I give mine porridge with citricidal and poultry spice regularly - I have both if you need it urgently.

[Womble]

Thanks both. She ate some sultanas and porridge this morning, and I've isolated her and dosed up the water with vitamins. Just not sure what the matter is - I'd expected her to be either dead or better by now, but she just mopes on regardless! 

[doganjo]

You are sure she isn't egg bound?  Have you tried sitting her in warm water?  Other than that I'm stumped too.

[Womble]

Well, she moulted just before Christmas, and never came back into lay. Also, she's not showing any signs of trying to lay (not going into the nest box, not visibly straining or anything). I could try the bath of hot water trick, but to be honest, I think it's probably something else.

[doganjo]

No, you're probably right.  Some of mine aren't in lay yet, and they stopped altogether from when the snow hit us.

[Womble]

Well, as I'd expected,  by the time I got home tonight she was even worse (hardly able to stand), so I put her out of her misery.  I'm gutted, as she was one of our original two Black Rocks who started us off with this whole smallholding adventure, and I'm sorry she didn't get to hang about to enjoy more of it. Anyhow, I'm off for a stiff drink - that was a hard, hard thing to do.

So long Raisin, and thanks for all the eggs  .

[little blue]

poor Raisin, she's not suffering anymore though. 

it looked like maybe coccidiosis, how she was hunched up in the photo.  keep a close eye on the others, its a horrible thing

[Rosemary]

You did the right thing - gave her a chance but stopped her suffering.

[bloomer]

poor chook

i don't know enough about chooks yet to offer ideas

but I have to say Raisen is a cool name for a chook!!!

[Womble]

but I have to say Raisen is a cool name for a chook!!!

Yes, and Rum is feeling very lonely now, having lost her other half  :-(

After a bit more research, I think little blue may well be right with coccidiosis. I had initially discounted this because she is quite an old hen, I'm sure she should have been vaccinated when she was a chick, and there was no sign of blood in her droppings. However, a couple of websites do say that yellow poo is a sign, and she certainly had that. Also, the timing being just after the worst of the cold weather might also be a sign (the infectious oocysts apparently don't like extremes of temperature).

I have to say though that if it is coccidiosis, I haven't a clue what to do next. I'd even struggle to dose their drinking water, since the hens all drink out of the burn normally. As usual, any ideas folks?  We have eight hens here that have lived here for years, four of ours that came with us when we moved, and thirty six week old hubbard table birds. Should I be concerned, and is there actually anything I can do about it other than just keep fingers crossed that the others will have built up an immunity?

Cheers!

[little blue]

well, we had a spate of deaths & illness last year - lost a lot of very young quail chicks, old hens & a couple of young ones.  none had the "classic" signs of cocci, just the hunch-up-ness. (no diarrhoea etc) 
  we treated all the birds for worms & cocci (Baytrill) on our vets advice - had to calculate a rough weight for each birds & dose each treatment per kg bird! By syringe!
And at an ENORMOUS cost, as it turned out... but no more deaths.

btw, ours are penned separately, not free ranged, so I felt that we were responsible for whatever it was spreading between the different groups of birds...
think it was brought in by a "rescue" bird 

[BlueDaisy]

we treated all the birds for worms & cocci (Baytrill) on our vets advice - had to calculate a rough weight for each birds & dose each treatment per kg bird! By syringe!

Baytril wouldn't work against Cocci (or worms) as it's not a bacteria, it's a parasite. So if Baytril cured your flock then it wasn't Cocci causing the problems.

See here http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/health/coccidiosis.html