My Grand-daughters Banty Hen is sick. PLES HELP?!?!?!

My grand-daughters Banty Hen is sick. She's been just fine. I went to check on the bunch tonite and found her sitting on the edge of her feeding bowl all puffed-out, eyes closed and not responsive to me even entering the cage. I've kept them in our garage thru the winter. If the temp gets too cold, I'll run a heater. I also have a heat lamp for them. She is in with just o e rooster, Nd she's usually sitting under the lamp. I haven't noticed any odd behavior as of late. I picked her up and she was very light feeling. She doesn't weigh as much as the other hens we have. Her breathing seems to be slow, but I don't know the respiration for a chicken. She just seems very weak and not responsive to anything. I warmed her up in the house and did get her to swallow a tiny bit of water. Since warming her up, her eyes will now open if I go near her, but she still seems lethargic to me. I checked to see if she was egg-bound and didn't feel anything. Does this sound familiar to anyone?? I'm worried bcuz it's my grand-daughters baby and I don't want her to lose her. Any info would be appreciated!!

She could be cold. Sometimes all it takes is s chill for a bird to shut down. I would keep her inside where it's warm to see if there is any improvement. I know some people will put a bit of Gatorade in the water as electrolytes can sometimes help. If she isn't eating, try some mashed up boiled eggs or even a little bit of fish flavour tin cat food as it is soft and most chickens like it. All you can really do is watch and wait to see if there is any improvement. All the best.

It's always the pet that get sick, it seems.

In my experience I have learned that closed eyes do not signal sleepiness, it signals pain. Sleepy and sleeping birds often (not always) have their head tucked under a wing. But a hunched, ruffled, off by itself bird with closed eyes is feeling very bad.

What might be causing this is anyone's guess.

If you have noticed that she is alarmngly lighter than she should be, I would first check for an impacted crop. This is where the crop is plugged with something that can't move through into the gizzard. The crop will feel full and hard, but the breast bone sticks out like a knife blade. The bird is starving to death.

A heavy worm load can kill a bird too. As can many other things that are almost impossible to diagnose. I am sorry to not be of much help. Like Toybarons said, all you can do is make her warm, offer food and cross your fingers. Good luck.

Unfortunately, birds can hid symptoms really well. Sometimes, by the time you can tell it's sick, it may already be too late. Sounds like you're covering your bases. Hope she improves.

Unfortunately she has passed on. Right after I had typed this, she just fell over. I believe it was the cold--and the crop problem. I feel so bad about it. I should have paid closer attention. She was so thin. I think she did starve. That's not a good feeling. I always watched when I fed them to make sure everyone was eating. I had NO idea something like this could happen!! Now I will know what to look out for. And I will be checking each one to keep tabs of their weight. It's a hard--and very sad lesson to learn.
My grand-daughter cried this morning. I cried with her. What can I say?? We LOVE critters!! But I have some more to learn about my Banty's.
Thanks, again to all who responded. I will definitely keep this sites address.
God Bless~

Chris*

Don't beat yourself up we all have suffered loses alike and your just have to take a deep breathe and chin up. The hard part is I found that their feathers hide so much.

Condolences purplefox to you and your grand-daughter. Don't beat yourself up too much. Take it as all part of the learning curve. When it comes to birds, chickens, we have each been there. Now that you have found us, you will learn plenty

purplefox wrote:Unfortunately she has passed on. Right after I had typed this, she just fell over. I believe it was the cold--and the crop problem. I feel so bad about it. I should have paid closer attention. She was so thin. I think she did starve. That's not a good feeling. I always watched when I fed them to make sure everyone was eating. I had NO idea something like this could happen!! Now I will know what to look out for. And I will be checking each one to keep tabs of their weight. It's a hard--and very sad lesson to learn.
My grand-daughter cried this morning. I cried with her. What can I say?? We LOVE critters!! But I have some more to learn about my Banty's.
Thanks, again to all who responded. I will definitely keep this sites address.
God Bless~

Chris*

It could have also just been sick and not eating for a while. Like I said, it can be hard to spot early on.

Sorry that you lost your pet, we know what that is like....We had a little white silkie/banty that just kind of got shuffled around with the flock. She used to hang around with another little black banty but we lost her last summer in a hot spell (she was sitting on eggs and as much as we took her off of the nest, she would run right back and sit).Anyway, Big Bird just got overlooked and kept away from the feeders. She used to sit all puffed up and sick looking. We brought her in the house and tried everything from antibiotics to force feeding her. We found out that she had mites on her feet and also on her face (who knew?) We bathed her and treated her for mites and she went from 400 grams to 1.64 kilos (which she is now) She loves to come in for breakfast, loves ham and eggs, hates my oatmeal-cranberry pancakes. We were lucky, we caught her in time. When you have 50 chickens, it is hard to keep an eye on everyone, but we sure try.