drooping tail and falling asleep

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Hiya, I have a new Copper Maran who have had about a week, she is looking very sleepy and keeps stopping where she is with her eyes shut, her tail is also very downward facing, she looks quite spaced out... any help please? I am completely new at this so you will need to spell things out in simple words please...
 
Hi Fiona --these are non specific signs of illness. It could be one of many things , by the time they show symptoms they are often very ill. Things it could be are--Coccidiosis , Respiratory infection ,mites/lice ,worms etc. If you have only had a matter of days I would suggest contacting the seller for advice/exchange etc. If you do not want to do so then consider a vets opinion ? I hope she gets better.Ros.
 
thanks Ros, I have given her some olive oil (I read somewhere about impacted crop?) she seemed to like that and I have massaged her crop (?)(at least I hope that was what I was massaging) but it all seems very loose and now I have put her seperately from the others, will try the breeder and our chicken friendly vet. No-one told me it was this stressful or emotional!!
 
Just spoken to the breeder he says I should worm them all with some flubivet? Can you tell me where I should get this?
 
Hello,

You can buy Flubenvet from loads of places on the internet. I think I bought mine from P&T. You can get feed with it ready mixed in now, by a company called marriages (I think!). Hope your chicken gets better soon!
 
Sorry, but I don't think its a simple case of worms, it sounds like the hen is ill, and a trip to the vet as suggested would be advised.
Saying all that, I would expect the breeder to replace the hen if you have only had her for a week, but I understand this would depend on how fond you are of her.
 
You were right, she was no better this morning so off to the vet we went, she has a tumour, apparently its fairly common in young birds, she may or may not make it (according to the vet) but will never produce eggs and will die young either way. Poor little girl I am so fond of her already. She looks so miserable, the vet has given me some antibiotics as apparently she also has a temperature and told me to keep her comfortable and away from the others in case they go for her. Thanks everyone. Will worm the others anyway. New to this and already lost one of my girlies!!
 
What a horrible experience for you. At least you now know what is wrong ; I hope she makes it and lives some sort of life. Surely the breeder should give you another bird as you only had her a week although I'm not sure whether I would want another bird from this source ( I suppose it could be that she was showing no symptoms when you picked her up?)
 
She seemed fine when we collected her, I have spoken to the breeder who says the vet must have got it wrong (he thinks vets are useless). She has been on her antibiotics and now looks much better. As to the the tumour I don't know what to think, the vet said she could live for a while longer, just one question to the experts, I have been doing some reading, do you think she could have been egg bound and then the egg cracked internally and thats what the lump was and thats what made her sick as it got infected and now she has had the antibiotics its getting better? The breeder did tell me to take her back to him and he would check her over but at the moment I don't want to move her and make her travel.
 
Well a difficult one to answer, some tumours are palpable..meaning they vet may have been able to feel them on examination. Although tumours tend to affect older laying birds it is possible that your young bird has them. Tumours themselves can cause laying problems depending where the are in the body, something quite common in exbatts. Some diseases also can cause tumours in chickens.

Going back to your question, it is possible that an egg has caused peritonitis, if that is the case then the antibiotics will be the best thing for your hen anyway, alongside plenty of supportive care, I think she is probably in the best place with you right now!

I would be inclined to follow the vets advice, after all they have had an enormous amount of training! If she gets worse pop back to them, at least they have seen her for an exam.

Good luck with her and keep us posted! :-)99
 
Well thanks everyone, she really is quite chipper at the moment, she is still coming in twice a day for her antibiotics but seems full of beans. She has certainly got much friendlier with all the handling of her we have been doing. No eggs so who knows. Maybe we have a lovely friendly chicken with a tumour who will live on.. she is quite happily in with all the other girls and there is no more fighting so who knows.
 
I would say the symptoms are too non specific.

Tumours are common in older hens but how did the vet can diagnose this? Usually you cannot tell until post mortem (I think!)

Is her comb red (a sign of being in lay) does she try to lay (a sign of being egg bound) and is her crop full in the morning before being let out to feed (a sign of crop impaction). You can see where the crop is on this diagram of the digestive system of a chicken.

Keep her warm and dry and try to keep her eating / drinking. The antibiotics should kill off most bad bacteria if there is some disease that involves bacteria but it also will kill off some good bacteria - so you can help her recover with her diet by feeding crushed garlic in water or food and make greens available as well as a balanced pellet feed.

It could possibly be worms - check her bottom, it should be clean, not dirty and you can take a poo, examine it and put it in a jam jar of water (shake) to look for some of the larger worms. Often, you can see them. You can treat with Flubenvet as Charlielavin says but it does strip the inside of the gut so unless you are suspicious of worms, I would wait until she has more strength.

Let us know how you get on though..
 
hi everyone

ive lost a few young hens with the same symptoms and everything pointed to mareks i even foned the vet and she said it sounds like mareks my unvaccinated hens died within 48 hours and my one vaccinated hen lasted over aweek and in the end she couldnt stand and wouldnt eat/drink and in the end we had to cull her but there is no cure and once ur hens have it u cant get rid of it it all depends on the bird some die from it and some just carry it i had 10 hens and lost 5 but ive just took in 6 ex batts and two of them had the symptoms but the first week i gave them apple cider vineger in there water and after the week it seemed to help and i havent lossed any since :)

so i would defo say give it ago :) the ex batts have settled in now and living very happy lives roaming the garden and they are all laying from my 11 hens im getting a average of 8 - 9 eggs aday :)
 
Sounds possible egg bound, but the poos would have been green. Our first vet said our Lucy Legbar had a huge tumour and was going to die soon. We gave her antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory anyway. She was so weak and heavy I had to lift her on and off the perch. A few days later there was two dustpans full of wet bedding beneath her. Next morning there was one. She laid 6 days later. Susequently the diagnosis was changed to cyst, whic then burst!
 
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