Friend’s chicken

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by Dottie
(Powell tn USA)

Question

I had just taken a picture of my friend’s chicken. Now, this poor thing has not moved from its spot for 2 days.

When I went to see it, her comb is a dark, dark red. I did look at her back end and did not see anything wrong. This bird was fine the other day. My friend said she is a year old and she has 5 others and a rooster.

I put the water close by so she can drink. I looked her over and there is nothing I can see wrong on the out side of her.

I did wash her back end to get some of the poop off and she let me do it. So what could it be? I can't say much more, just what I was told and saw for my self. Thank you so much.

Answer
It would be so hard to know what has caused this not seeing the chickens and not knowing how they are kept.

Usually when a chicken becomes very ill, something has been wrong for a while. Chickens are good at acting OK, even when they don’t feel well, until they just become to weak.

There are diseases that could cause this and parasites inside their body and outside. This chicken could have eaten something that has made her sick.

The best thing to do is get the chicken to a veterinarian that knows chickens and chicken problems, who can examine her closely and maybe do some tests.

The dark comb may mean she has a fever. If the others aren’t sick, the sick one should be taken out of the coop and pen and kept somewhere warm and safe.

A chicken that hasn’t moved for 2 days is probably dying and would need medical care to save her, if it’s possible.

What this chicken has could be contagious and make her other chickens sick, too.

I wish we could do more to help, but encouraging your friend to find out what this is from a professional in chicken health, who can treat the problems is necessary to save her and possibly prevent the others from getting so sick, too.

Your friend will need to clean her coop well and disinfect it so the others don’t get sick, in-case this is a disease that can spread.

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