[eveybee]

Hi guys, I wonder if you can help.

I just went down to shut the chooks in and found Pepper laying on her side. At first I thought the fox had been in but no.

She's alive and there are no wounds. She seems to want to curls her head inwards to her chest and slightly to one side. This seems to disorientate her and she flops over. Her neck is still stong so I don't suspect she's broken anything. Any ideas? What can I do for her. I've put her in a crate with straw in the shed for now :o(

Help.....?

[pigeonpie]

Hi,
Really sorry to hear about Pepper.  How old is she?  What breed etc? 

[eveybee]

Sje's about a year old and I think she's a bluebell? She's lovely, healthy, laying etc, quite a character....hope she's going to pull through this...

[Chickway]

Good luck and big kisses for your chicken.  Thinking of you its horrible watching a pet suffer and you dont know what to do to help.  Good luck. x x x

[pigeonpie]

Hi again.
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

I'm really sorry but the only time I've seen any of my girls behave in that way its when they've been very ill and usually about to go to the big chicken hutch in the sky due to old age.  That's why I asked the age of Pepper.

It sounds as though she is very poorly but chickens do have an amazing resilience.  I once had a chicken who threatened to die for months, every time having an amazing recovery and she was an old girl having come from a battery farm so not in the best of help.

I'm not really sure what could be wrong with her but if she's no better tomorrow then I would suggest taking her to the vets.  In the meantime I think you have done the right thing by putting her in the crate in the shed.  Fingers crossed she will pull through ok. 

[eveybee]

Hi there,

Took her to the vet this morning and he was cluless. He basically said he didn';t know what to do so I asked for long acting antibiotic and anti inflammatory injections. I managed to get some water into her by syringe and she was very interested in some cat food I had, although she hasn't the strength to hold her nevk/head up. The water also has some wormer and chicken spice in in.

She is about a year old, she went thorough moult (poss partial) and was laying again. Wings are held correctly.

Hope she finds the strength to lift her head :oS
x

[jinty1911]

Really hope she gets better soon.  I know how worrying it is to have a sick chicken, esecially when you don't know what's wrong.   

[pigeonpie]

Glad to hear she's still with you and lets hope that the antibiotics do the trick.
Thinking of you and your poor pepper.

[Pol]

Hope pepper gets better soon

[Lindeggs]

Poor little pepper! 

I don't know what's available to you, but can you get hold of some kind of high-potency multivitamin and mineral mix?  Perhaps one sold for caged birds? 

I'm looking for the reference now (I've read too much in the last few weeks  ) but I do remember reading about similar symptoms being due to a nutritional deficiency.  Even when the regular food contains all the right elements, there can be various anti-nutrient factors that can result in a bird not absorbing everything she needs from the food, resulting in a deficiency.

If you can get a water-soluble vitamin and add it to the water you're feeding her, that would be ideal.

Good luck with Pepper, I hope she is feeling better soon.

[bantam novice]

Just wanted to wish you and Pepper good luck

[eveybee]

Thank you all for your kind words...

Pepper is still with us, no change really.

I spotted a louse on her last night s treated her with some ivermectin. There's quite a few dead ones on her this morning so hopefully she'll feel a bit better after that.

I'm just trying to get fluids into her and some of her layers mix, made into a porridge with warm water, honey and yoghurt.

Here's a pick of her about 2 weeks ago:

[eveybee]

Also, here's a pic of her neck, it doesn't look very nice I know...

[eveybee]

Also, I've been reading up about Marek's disease, I know she's little old to have it (1 year) but the symptoms kind of fit. Then again, so does botulism...

Here's a pic of her eye, do you tink it looks like Marek's?


xxx

[eveybee]

Thank you Lindeggs, I'll try and get my hands on some soluble vitamins.

x