Overheating chicken emergency.

chrismahon

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It's hot here at 37 degrees. But the humidity is unusually very high as well- thunderstorm weather!

All our chickens have plenty of shade and plenty of water. The soil baths have been watered and so have the runs when we see them panting. The enclosure allows as much breeze through as is available because all the wind break material has been lifted.

6 years ago we lost a Black Orpington to overheating because we didn't spot it soon enough. She was quite fat and two years old. She was panting a lot during a rather hot afternoon in England. Her neck began to twist backwards. In 15 minutes she was looking backwards and upside-down. She went into a panic and was despatched before she seriously injured herself trying to turn her body over to match the way she was looking. I now know this is a condition called 'stargazing'. I have read it is largely irreversible, but if I had it re-occur I would put her in a cold, completely dark place-like a cardboard box filled with freezer blocks. Worth a try because for a moment, when she was presented with a grape, her neck straightened back to normal- obviously she was overriding the heat induced neurological condition somehow.

We've just had a Wyandotte start panicking. Too hot and couldn't cool down. Panting frantically, wings held out and then screeching. She was grabbed immediately which is when I noticed her feet were incredibly hot. So into a cool dark room where I stood her in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes. 10 minutes later and she is flying about trying to get out, so hopefully she will be OK for a while.

But are there any better or established ways of treating an overheating chicken in an emergency? I didn't want to dunk her in water in case she had a heart attack.
 
Hope she is alright Chris, I think dunking in water is fine as long as it is cool rather than ice cold, the only other thing I could think of doing in an emergency would be to pop her in the fridge for 5 minutes which would be at about 5-10 degrees, as soon as the door shuts and the light goes off she should calm down and at that temperature be ok with regards to shock to the system.
 
That's a good idea Dinosaw. Perhaps we should reorganise the fridge so we can clear a large enough space quickly?

She was fine. They obviously lose a lot of heat via their feet in Summer. The water was straight from the cold tap. She got stressed again because the nest boxes were so hot, so I brought her back inside and put her into the 'sick bay' cage where she laid an egg. It's 10 degrees cooler now so no more problems for a while.
 
Our fridge isn't that big BB. Bottom is kept in the cool of the house and only allowed out mornings and late evening. If he did get into the fridge he would eat everything he could see!
 
Standing a hen in cold water sounds like an inspired idea Chris. Only yesterday we were cooling ourselves off by holding glasses of cold water & beer on our upturned wrists. I guess it's the same principle?
 
Funnily enough one of mine, Tricksy is overheating at the mo. She did the same last summer when it got hot. Her lovely feathers are so perfectly smooth, I don't think there is any space to allow the warm air out from her body. She has a pale comb and been panting a lot. I've been watering their run so the ground is nice and damp and leaving to ramp/door down at night ( I have electric bungee round the perimeter). I also have a fabulous thermometer for the garden that lives in the ark. It has a console I keep in the house and shows max and min temp. I use it in the winter to check it doesn't get too cold, but amazed to see the ark was at 30 degrees at its highest today and that's in the shade!
Can you put ice in chickens water ? I know its dangerous to put it in dogs water as twists their insides. Was thinking of that or maybe a cool box block under the water container might help?
 
We've been putting blocks of ice into the drinking water BabyBantam, when the air temperature goes over 30. Many of our green 8L drinkers have disintegrated -the white plastic dome has gone brittle and split. That, coupled with the back problem I had 3 months ago, meant we switched to plastic bowls for water, so it's easy to throw a few ice blocks in. What's really important here is to keep the drinkers out of the sun, because the temperature can be about 20 degrees higher than it is in the shade.

Putting her feet into cold water was a reaction to them being uncharacteristically hot Icemaiden. That's when I realised how much heat they must lose through them and then got to thinking how do they restrict the blood flow in Winter? I've since heard of another idea which is large porous stones in a water trough. The water soaks up into the stone and evaporates, cooling it. The chickens stand on them.
 

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