AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

hi all.. am new, and will pop over into the intro forum in a minute.
first though, i was hoping for some advice. I bought 2 10 week old pullets on sunday, my first ever have a secured chook house with a decent run. yesterday morning, i noticed one was quite lethargic and her chest was 'puffed up'. she would wander around occaisionally, but spent most of the time sitting and dozing. she's still drinking , and eating a little. after researching most of the night, i have checked her crop.. it feels pretty normal.. not massive or hard. she doesnt have any discharges, and the poo i can see looks ok too. she seems a little perkier today, was comfortable with me handling her. i attempted to give her a little olive oil with a syringe, but she just shut her eak and looked at me like i'm an idiot! have put a garlic infusion and a little cider vinegar in the water, and made up a little food mix using honey, oats, grated apple and a hard boiled egg yolk. would vitamins make her feel a little better, and do i need to purchase special ones? any ideas what causes ruffled and puffed chest feathers and lethargy? thanks in advance!

Assuming they were well when you picked them up? It maybe some vehicle sickness combined with stress. From reading you have done all the good dietary things but be careful not to change their diets too suddenly or vastly.

Another possibility to consider. Travel and a move to a new place can be very stressful to a bird. Stress can decrease their immunity and they are certainly more likely to become sick. At 10 weeks old they are still young and coccidiosis is a potential problem. This is a very common problem in young birds especially on the ground in damp conditions. Cocci. is a bacteria found in the soil and there are different strains of it. A young chook coming on to your place may not have been exposed to that strain before, and in fact may not have been exposed to ground before, and would be more likely to pick it up. A sick chook normally becomes lethargic and has a fluffed hunched posture. Another more obvious sign is blood in the droppings. There is every chance she wasn't well before you bought her but thats probably impossible to tell now.

The problem is we used to be able to buy Sulpha based medication to treat this quite easily. Recently it has been made a vet only prescription which is difficult because it's quite common and the general public can't afford to take their chooks to the vet all the time! Its quite easily treated with medication but without it, the potential for death is high. It is also quite contagious so you definitely want to move your sick chicken away from the others. She really needs to be somewhere she's kept warm and dry and you can keep an eye on her. This of course would be stressful to the other chicken being left by herself so you'll have to weigh up whether you do this or not. Its generally a good idea buying 3 at a time in case you ever lose one so you don't have one lonely bird left. I don't know how to treat for cocci. (if this is what she has) without the Sulpha based medication. I suggest you check your local stockfeed place, you never know they might have one left. It will be called something like Sulphaquin.

Vitamins certainly won't hurt, and if you add some plain yoghurt to the mixture you made up this can be a good pickmeup too. I suggest you google coccidiosis and use the search function on here to learn more about it.

Good luck with your girls, I hope she's strong enough to recover.

Yep, did a fair bit of searching re cocci too. The majority of her symptoms don't seem to match - she's eating, drinking and has normal droppings .. However there is something up with her. Is it worth trying to get this medication just in case? Ie will it harm her if she doesn't have it? There seems to be no chAnge this morning, she ate breakfast, but is now having a rest in their sandbath. The other chook is quite active. There's no vets here that treat chooks unfortunately so... Should I attempt to give her cocci meds if the livestock store has some, even if it's not sure she has it? And vitamins? What vitamins are suitable? Also, the 2 girls are very close, and I think it will be more detrimental if I seperate them at the moment. Thanks heaps for your help

I would try it yes, its certainly not going to hurt. If you can find some Sulpha medication grab a few (and send some to me!!)

There are heaps of water soluble vitamins you can get, I would check what your local stockfeed place carries.

Its good that she's eating and drinking. If its not Cocci and she has something like a respiratory infection or is just feeling under the weather, she may just get better on her own steam. Just make sure they are both warm and dry and not in a draughty area. Being on wet soil, or having dirty or wet bedding is not going to help. Clean fresh drinking water and age appropriate food too. She should be on grower crumbles at 10 weeks and crumbles have the added benefit of cocci medication being in the food (not enough to treat an outbreak though).

It sounds like you're doing all the right things though, and you're certainly very proactive in finding out whats wrong. My fingers are crossed for you!

Roova's explanation is excellent, yes stress is one of the major triggers for disease and from reading all you are doing is all you can do. I wish you all the luck with her recovery