Brahma losing weight

henry

henry

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Moreton, Wirral
I have a Brahma who has lost a lot of weight recently and i have no idea why. I used to spend hours outside with the hens but due to illness have been unable to recently. Today i noticed that she was just staying in the coop. I got her out and she did not really struggle, when i put her back ion the coop she fell over to her right side as if she could not stand, and she is definitely off her food, because i gave her sweetcorn and she did not touch it. Can anyone help me please. I would have contacted the lady i bought her from who has a place near to Cheshire Oaks her name is Anne and that is all i can remember.
Thank You
 
How old is she now, Henry, and when was she last wormed? Do you know if she is in lay, or hasn't she started again yet this year? Do you know what her poos are like? Is she drinking at all?
She's obviously not at all well, I'm afraid -by the time they just stay inside and don't eat and lose weight and interest in life, they're usually quite ill. They do try to cover up any illness for as long as they can, in case the others detect weakness and bully them. A heavy worm burden can pull them down even if something else is really the main problem. I don't think anyone can be much help without a few more details, so maybe you need to decide whether or not its worth taking her to vet, I don't know how you feel about this, as it could be a number of things.
If you sense she may be on the way out, maybe just make her as comfortable as you can.
Sorry to hear you've been ill, I hope you're getting back to normal now.,
 
As Marigold says we would need a lot more information to guess at a the cause of the weight loss Henry -crop condition, comb colour, poos etc. It takes a long time for a bird to get that bad and the priority now is getting water into her. My first completely wild guesses would be worms followed by sour crop, but I could throw in some more. Think a vet is definitely needed as it sounds like you may not have the time available with her to experiment based on our guesses.
 
Hi Chris,
Sadly she died yesterday. The weird thing is she was running around as normal only about 10 days ago. And had been eating normaly then as well. The sad thing is that with her having such thick feathers it is hard to see when she lost weight, it was only because of the total change in her behaviour that alerted me. Luckily the others all seem to be okay.
Regards
Peter
 
Hi Henry. Sorry about losing her so fast. Problem is when they are ill they hide it and by the time they look ill it can be far too late to do anything. I worry when any stop talking, as I have found that is a reliable early indicator of illness.
 
Hi Pete,
Sorry to hear this, but I'm not surprised. As you say, it's very difficult to detect early signs of weight loss in big fluffy hens. Good to hear that her illness didn't last long . Often, there's not much that can be done for hens, they are not a long- lived species at the best of times.
 
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