Hen not doing well

[User00013]

Hi All I have a 4 month old wellsummers who seems to have been sick for a week. It started just standing and not going with the rest of the flock and its head was pulled in very close to its shoulders or whatever the hen equivalent is. It's now lost a lot of strength and not standing as well it doesn't seem to be drinking either now. I'm half expecting it to die very soon.

Any ideas what could cause this? Last ditch cures?

 

[Fair Hill]

Is it being bullied?

 

[User00013]

Is it being bullied?

No doesn't seem to be, it just came out of the blue.

 

[Fair Hill]

I'm no expert but if was me I'd separate from the others and just make sure she has water and food available all the time and she's in a warm place.

It's a balls when they get sick, I feel your pain but she might pull through yet.

 

[CarlW]

Could be any number of things. Worth checking whether it's egg-bound.

Edit: Just seen the age. Less likely!

 

[glasshalffull]

Sorry to say but I keep hens and you're hen's prognosis isn't good. The heartbreak of keeping livestock I'm afraid is dead stock. Like us some get sick. Sorry to be so negative..

 

[User00013]

Yea I think it probably a lost cause, if it was a disease surely i would have thought the rest would be sick? They are all fine just this one.

 

[User00013]

Sorry to say but I keep hens and you're hen's prognosis isn't good. The heartbreak of keeping livestock I'm afraid is dead stock. Like us some get sick. Sorry to be so negative..

No it fine I am well used to stuff dying or having to be put down, it's the way of life.

 

[old keeper]

Another one for the bird being possibly egg bound

 

[User00013]

Another one for the bird being possibly egg bound

It's only about 4 months old but

 

[landkeeper]

Coccidiosis more than likely any blood in its droppings ?
If its not eating or drinking its almost cetainly a lost cause , baycox is the approved drug for cocci treatment in poultry or vercoxin which is not approved but does the same job

 

[User00013]

Not too sure about the blood, that name rings a bell something tells me that could be quite a problem around here a lot of it in the ground in my area if that's the same thing.

 

[NoIDeer]

Hens do this., when we kept them we lost a few and suspected it was Marek's disease. When the right time came we had to do the humane thing.

 

[WH308]

Are they on medicated growers pellets? If so coxy won’t be the issue, Mareks is a possibility, but they tend to go wobbly with that. If they are on long grass they can get crop bound, if you feel it’s crop is it empty or spongy? Does it have a bubbly discharge from its eye, that can be mycoplasma......

 

[landkeeper]

Medicated feed wont prevent cocci it just keeps it at bay until birds gain their own immunity to it if a bird gets a bad enough infection of cocci it will succumb to it
Mareks manifests itself most of the time in partial paralasis almost like a stroke in a human

 

[VSS]

Coccidiosis more than likely any blood in its droppings ?
If its not eating or drinking its almost cetainly a lost cause , baycox is the approved drug for cocci treatment in poultry or vercoxin which is not approved but does the same job

Veccoxan works very well on chickens that are suffering from coccidiosis, but as said above it's not the approved product for the job. It comes in big packs for treating flocks of sheep. To treat one hen you would need just 3 or 4 drops from a pipette. Scrounge some from a friendly sheep farmer if you can (although that wouldn't be legal, I hasten to add).
I treated two large broods of Oxford Old English Game birds with Veccoxan when they were really sick with coccidiosis, and the recovery of all bar 3 of them was little short of miraculous. In fact, two of them (one retained by ourselves, and one sold) went on to win champion hardfeather at a couple of fairly large poultry shows.

 

[User00013]

They are just on ordinary layers pellets not medicated to my knowledge

Does the sheep vaccine for coccidiosis need injected into the hen?

I gave it a shot of antibiotics there just to see if that will help it get through the night, until I can get something else sorted tomorrow.

 

[VSS]

They are just on ordinary layers pellets not medicated to my knowledge

Does the sheep vaccine for coccidiosis need injected into the hen?

I gave it a shot of antibiotics there just to see if that will help it get through the night, until I can get something else sorted tomorrow.

No, not an injection. Just a few tiny drops, by mouth. (By beak, I mean!)

 

[landkeeper]

If its as bad as you describe its hardly going to survive
And quite often animals that get a bad dose of cocci never thrive even if cured as the lining of their intestine is damaged and scarred due to the cocci infection ,therefore the ability to absorb digested food is compromised

 

[User00013]

UPADATE: hen is dead this morning, as expected, will look about getting the rest of flock treated for potential coccidiosis.

Thanks all for the help.