Hey Everyone,
I am new to the board and new to owning chickens. My fiance and I decided to get a few chickens early this year from a retail store. Later we attended an auction where we got 3 chickens, all Polish Crested hens. The one hen (Cocoa) was smaller than the other two so we assumed that she was younger than the others we bought and didn't think much about it until she was home and in the coop. We tend to spend a lot of time out with the chickens and noticed in the next couple days that we had Cocoa that she was coughing and sneezing. We got a hold of a local vet that told us to use tetracycline in their water and to treat the whole flock because he figured it was a chicken cold and the others could pick it up easily. Anyways, Cocoa goes through stages, where she seems to get better and then she declines. Our area has seen a lot of rain in the last 2 weeks. Our coop is built from wood with a tin covered roof. The wood got enough rain that it began to seep in one area. Sunday morning when I went out to turn the chickens out Cocoa was laying over on the wet area, drenched, and wouldn't get up. I brought her into the house and wrapped her in a towel and blowed dried her. Got a box set-up with a heat lamp and called the vet. He told me to up the antibiotic and make sure she kept drinking and eating...over the last couple days she has continued to eat and drink on her own, but she isn't able to stand and seems VERY weak. She's also having problems elimanting and has pasty butt a lot of the time. I dont know if thats because of the amount of anitbiotic or if she's just really sick this time. But I check her vent several times daily and make sure to keep her cleaned up. Last night when I was holding her I tried to get her to stand, she's holding her right leg and wing funny. I am begining to wonder if maybe she didn't have a stroke, and thats why she didn't move out of the water in the first place. You can move the leg and wing in any direction and she wont pull them back toward her body instinctively like she does with her left side. When you hold her out away from you and act like your going to stand her on her feet on the ground she spreads her left foot out normally but the right foot just hangs there slightly closed. I have felt the wing and leg all over and moved them this way and that way and she doesn't seem to have any discomfort in them and isn't in pain. The main thing that makes me think that she's lost feeling on her right side is because of last night. She's active and wants attention, so she pivoted in her box with her good leg so she could see me and rolled her right wing underneath her body. She didn't even notice that it had happened just kept scooting closer to me without moving the wing. Something has obviously happened with the nerves on that side. I called the vet that we've been talking to this morning and he said that he can't help us because he doesn't know much of anything about birds. We live in Nebraska and I can't find a single vet that still does Avian work. I must not be looking in the right place. If anyone has any information and knows of a vet that I could call to even talk to about whats going on I would greatly appreciate it. I know that it might be just a chicken but we love them and it's hard watching her the way she is. We want to make sure that there isn't anything possible that we can do for her before we even consider alternate options. Cocoa is very loving and really is a wonderful little hen...it would kill us to have to have her put down. Thank you all in advance!!!!!
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August 15, 2010, 23:22