Chicken farming is getting more emotionally stressful by the day. Five out of six of our chickie babies are doing very well – running amok, eating and pooping, escaping into the garden every time we open the coop door. However, our shyest little chick, one of the Black Cochins, Daisy, seems to have come down with a major case of the chick icks.
She’s been lying around the coop, not wanting to hang out in the run with the other girls and not eating or drinking consistently for about two days. I am, of course, researching every chicken website, message board, and blog obsessively looking for a cure for her mystery illness. Here’s the skinny on our mission to save Daisy chicken so far:
Day 1 of treatment:
We brought Daisy inside in the early afternoon and quarantined her in a rubbermaid container and gave her clean water w/ generic non-flavored Pediatric electrolytes {Pedialyte} and her non-medicated chick starter feed.
By late afternoon, she was still lying around, seemingly growing more lethargic and unwilling to eat. She was eating her starter feed earlier in the day, but by then didn’t seem interested in it at all. I gave her a few drops of the iron-free Enfamil baby vitamins, which she took willingly, and she had a tiny bit of organic plain yogurt off a spoon.
She passed three stools in about an hour’s time, and they appeared normal.
One thing that seems different with her and that I haven’t noticed in the other chicks, is that her butt puckers CONSTANTLY. Here’s the video:
Daisy continued to lie around with her head hanging down, only getting up to walk around for a few seconds, re-position herself, and lie down again. At one point she got a drink of water and just let her head hang over the lip of the bowl. She seemed comfortable lying on my lap, so I held her for a while.
We let her nap when she wanted to, and I woke her up every now and then to make sure she was standing up ok and was able to walk. By 10:00PM she had gotten up a few times to eat on her own and had really taken to drinking from the medicine dropper. Fleishman Turtle pitched in by giving up his heat lamp for the night, so Daisy can be comfortable. I hope that what I’m seeing is improvement and that tomorrow she’ll be all better. I’ll continue to check on her throughout the night and feed her by hand until I see more improvement…
I’ll post updates on her condition as things change.
Plans for Day 2:
- more baby vitamins
- monitor food and water intake
- change bedding to track number of poopies
- mashed hard-boiled eggs and yogurt for protein and digestive help
- lots more cuddles and kisses.
xo
Bekah
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