Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Shazzer on October 03, 2007, 09:14
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I have posted previously about my Maran who has been unsteady on her feet and stopped laying about a week ago. This morning I let them all out and she came out last, slowly. When we looked our 30 minutes later she was on her side, she had fallen and couldn't get up, we put her in a box and brought her inside. She is just led on her side. She look alert enough in herself. She doesn't seem to have any strength in her legs. I don't know what to do poor girl.
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It's difficult to say without seeing her, she's probably dehydrated, has she been drinking ? Try droppping some water into her beak if she's not drinking.
She sounds very ill. I think vet or heaven are your only choices ( and the vet will probably recommend heaven) :cry:
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thanks i have been thinking that. A vet would probably charge me quite a lot to send her to heaven, but i dont think i could do it, should i just wait or is that just cruel. Why would she get so ill?
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MY guess (and it's only a guess) is egg peritonitis.
She has stopped laying and an egg yolk has gone into her body cavity instead of into the egg tube. This can set up an infection, which I thnk she has. If you feel her abdomen (below her vent) and it's swollen than that is the result of the peritonitis.
If it's not that then she has some other infection which I don't think she will recover from.
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Thanks. What do i do with her if/when she does die. Should i be doing anything about the hens that she has been with, if she's had an infection could they have it?
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Officially you're not allowed to bury the bird, how silly is that (I burried Gerty in the flower bed she was never allowed in) . You can, however, put dead hens into the domestic rubbish.
If she has peritonitis the other hens are not at risk. Don't leave it too long to take action, she is suffering :cry:
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Ah I had better take her to the vet I can't do it
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What are your other options Shazzer. I would have no hesitation in going to the vets - money no object for my pets, but many think it a waste of money.
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Could she have Mareks disease? I just seen it on another site.
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What are your other options Shazzer. I would have no hesitation in going to the vets - money no object for my pets, but many think it a waste of money.
I agree with you there aunty. In my mind a pet chicken is the same as a cat or a dog. :)
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it wants a vet visit to cull it and take the bird home dont let him get rid of it for ya ...... charge a blooming fortune to dump em on the tip ..... bury it in 2ft hole :(
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Hey there,
Sorry to hear your hen is not well.
I am a complete newbie at this, so bear that in mind, but I have been looking for info on my own sick hen and the symptoms you described sounded a bit like the calcium deficiency ones - http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206913.htm
I know your hens wouldn't live in anything like the commercial hens described on that page, but the symptoms sounded similar. The other thing is I would guess you are probably doing all the right things re calcium as there seems to be heaps of good advice on how to provide it here.
Just thought I'd mention it though seeing I had just read the page when I read your post.
Good luck with it!!
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Good thought Zoidberg
You didn't say if she had a swollen tummy Shazzer :!:
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I dont think her tummy is swollen, i put her in a spare rabbit cage we had so theat shes seperate from the others, she moving about a lot and managing to stay upright , just hobbling about.
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if she falls she can get up by herself
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Is she improving ?
Is she drinking ? If not drop some in her beak.
Are you taking her to the vets ?
Wish I could be there to help you :(
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well shes on her feet and shes drinking, can't get to the vets until tommorrow, its just her legs, she need crutches? :cry: Wondering whetheri should keep her separate from the others, i could section her off a bit in the main run. Do you think that there would be any reason why the vet would not suggest putting her to sleep.
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There are quite a number of things which can effect chickens legs.
Including jumping off of things, there is also a condition called. Poly rhumatism something (I'll have to look it up). A friend of mine's chicken had it and couldn't walk and wasn't eating or drinking, it responded to antibiotic treatment and made a full recovery.
The vet might be able to doagnose it (If they know about birds). Even if the vet sugests putting her down you don't have to agree !
If she's drinking she might be improving :D
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polyarthritis it's called :D Just a thought, not a diagnosis !
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Took Miranda the Maran to the breeder who I got her from, she said that she was pretty healthy and not much wrong apart from the fact that her legs aren't right, she said leave her a few more days and see how shes getting on. I must admit that I thought she'd be a goner by now but she seems ok aprat from her walk, and sitting a lot. Shes eating and drinking ok. The problem is that we have her separate from the others becasue they will go for her, so we have to lift her from an old rabbit hutch to a separate run every day.
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Took Miranda the Maran to the breeder who I got her from, she said that she was pretty healthy and not much wrong apart from the fact that her legs aren't right, she said leave her a few more days and see how shes getting on.
Don't think I'd be happy with that reply :evil: did she not offer to swap her :?:
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no she didn't, she wondered if she could have hurt herself jumping or something. I must admit she runs a pretty tight ship and her birds all free range in lovely grass pens and its all very well kept, she shows them,and her standards there are pretty high. She said that mareks disease could be a possibility but her comb and eyes were too bright, so she ruled that. Thing is shes a lovely hen but its a bit of pain having her separte, and she's not laying either.
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daft question .,,,,, you got cockeals in with ur hens?
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no just 6 hens
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ok rules out a cockerel giving her aggro :wink:
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I've just posted about one of mine who's wobbly on her pins! She has diarhoea as well.
The wobbly legs happened before but she made a complete recovery and the problem has only returned after at least a year maybe more. If she seems ok otherwise and will feed and drink then carry on as you are as, like mine, she doesn't sound to be in any pain.
Good luck, do hope she's soon back on her feet!
Judi
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Well my Maran was not doing to bad, eating and drinking and getting about but this morning her legs seem completely paralysed and she is trying to walk on the tops of her legs with the legs out stretched in front of her. Its horrible to see her like that and i will have to get her sorted out today (vets or someone who will wring her neck?) What she also has, that she didn't have before is the thing that chickens get where the pupil runs into the iris which suggests Mareks disease. I'm really worried now becasue of my other hens.
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That's really sad Shazzer.
Does it fit with this: http://www.ruleworks.co.uk/poultry/Mareks-Disease.htm
2-16 weeks old and not vaccinated, and are her eyes "grey".
I think your supplier should give you a refund. Don't purchase from her again !
Fingers crossed for your other birds :!:
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Having looked again i'm not sure that its the pupil running into the iris, it looks more like her bottom ey lid. How can I post a picture of her?
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How can I post a picture of her?
Have a look in the Anouncement in the Welcome section.
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The breeder discounting the possibility of Mareks due to her comb being to bright is incorrect.
In my experience Mareks will suddenly start to show itself in the healthiest and best of your chickens if they have the virus. On a number of occasions, I've had chickens ready for shows in the peak of condition, only to go to the pens literaly to see them come down with it overnight.
A bird can have Mareks without showing any symptoms what so ever for a long time and suddenly Bingo ! They have it. Stress will quite often bring it on and this is why its quite common for the onset of laying in young pullets to show cases in your flock.
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here here , both bodger n sally :D