About a sick chick

One of the decisions we need to make as chicken keepers is "what do I do if my chicken gets sick?"

We bought our chickens with the intention of keeping them for eggs. They aren't our snuggly companions like our dog or parrots, however, they are still living entities which are our responsibility. Any animal you take into your home (or yard) becomes your responsibility - as we get to enjoy the benefits of keeping chickens, we also have to endure the negatives.

This is where Tallulah comes in - our lemon.

Tallulah, our silver-laced Wyandotte, came into our lives as a downy ball of fluff. And she was just like all the other day-old puff balls until about 2 weeks old.

NOTICING SOMETHING IS WRONG

At 2 weeks, I noticed Tallulah was clumsy. She suddenly started to trip around ... like her legs were weak. She also had a distinctive tremor in her head. She was eating, drinking and otherwise seemed healthy apart from her lack of coordination. None of the other chicks showed any signs of illness.

SELF DIAGNOSING

I took to Google - the frenemy of paranoid people everywhere. Within a few hours I'd self-diagnosed her with a few nerve diseases (most of which were incurable and likely fatal) or a birth defect and decided to play the waiting game. At 2 weeks old a vet visit seemed fairly pointless - how much could really be done? She was so young and small, any major testing seemed unrealistic, like it would be too taxing on such a little creature. Plus, there were no signs of trauma and my best guesses weren't treatable anyway.

TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL?

I scoured chicken forums and most of them seemed to recommend "REMOVE AND CULL BEFORE THE OTHERS GET SICK". I chose to ignore this advice.

Who are we kidding? There is zero chance I'm killing a 2 week old chicken for tripping over. As far as the disease spreading - they've been eating/drinking/sleeping/pooping in the same small space for the past 14 days AND they all came from the same breeder. The exposure ship had sailed. I figured they had already been exposed to whatever she may have, so removing her would just cause further stress and may exacerbate the issue.

As long as she was walking, eating, drinking, pooping - no one was killing Tallulah.

A VISIT TO THE VET

Time passed and Tallulah continued to grow. She continued to eat. She dropped her fuzz and gained feathers. She still had two left feet, but the head tremor seemed almost gone and her legs seemed stronger. Tallulah was more or less thriving.

Fast forward to 8 weeks old. The girls, no longer brooder bound, now lived in the great outdoors. One fateful Thursday, Tallulah emerged from her coop and tripped down the run. I beedy eyed her, and soon noticed she was tipping a lot. She was never properly coordinated, but this just seemed... more. Her right side seemed weak - she'd stumble, trip to the side and sometimes just plop backwards.

I was officially alarmed. I waited another day and when she was still falling over herself on Friday, we went to the vet.

Not just any vet, an avian vet. Brisbane Bird Vet, to be exact.

Birds aren't like dogs or cats. You can just roll in to your every day vet and expect them to have a solution. Having had parrots for years, I was learned of this fact. Avian vets are more expensive, but they are worth it. Regular vets will look at your bird, but unless the issue is blindingly obvious they aren't going to be all that helpful. Birds need special medicine, special equipment - special knowledge.

They also need extra cash, because avian vets are more expensive.

At the vet, Tallulah was examined. The diagnoses was unclear - to be honest it was actually most likely to be one of the original issues I guessed (Marek's disease or a birth defect). There was also a slim chance it was a vitamin deficiency, so we gave her a chicken Berocca shot just in case. I doubted this was the cause because her diet is good... vitamin deficiency tend to result from 'home made' chicken diets that leave the chicks wanting in some serious way. A week down the track, Tallulah still has her issues, so the Berocca didn't do the trick.

WAITING GAME

The resulting advice was to just wait... both Marek's disease and birth defect are untreatable. They are also both potentially survivable. I was advised euthanasia was not needed (hooray!) and as long as Tallulah could stay on her feet, get to food and water, and wasn't being attacked by the other chickens then it was worth waiting it out.

Tallulah continued to cluck around. She is still clumsy, perhaps slightly less so, but I just hope that as she continues to grow her legs continue to bear her weight. Fingers crossed!

Fast foward to about 11 weeks old. At this stage, it came to my attention that the fantastic breeder who sold me a deformed chick, also sold me 2 roosters (great job sexing those hens, champ). I needed to rehome two of my five chickens - and I needed to find good homes.

The thing is, I could hardly rehome my two roosters if Tallulah was getting around with some henious disease. If I found lovely people to take in my roosters, I couldn't disease bomb their flock when they were trying to help me out. Tallulah continued to improve then revert, improve then revert - I needed a diagnosis. So we went back to the vet.

BACK TO THE VET

I was desperatly hoping my little Tallulah was just deformed. Deformed I could live with, that was her (and my) problem. But diseased was essentially a death sentence for her two currently perfectly healthy brothers.

Thankfully, now that she was bigger, the vet could tell her little spine was all wack. The reason she'd get better than worse is because everytime she had a growth spurt the poor little thing had to adjust to her new body. The boys could be rehomed. Thank god.

TALLULAH TODAY

Tallulah is now 23 weeks old. She's still deformed, but she has grown fairly well. She keeps on her feet (with the occassional trip), and now we just pray her deformed little body will be able to lay an egg. She shouldn't be far from laing, so we'll know soon. Once again, fingers crossed. Another shout out to the fantastic breeder who could not have got more wrong.

Update: Tallulah laid! At 24 weeks our sweet little defromed girl laid a tiny pullet egg. She's now laid three - we are so proud :)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Deciding how to treat your chicken is a personal choice. These little vet visit cost us $180. I can not watch a chicken potentially dying and not act, so for us, going to the vet is the right choice. However, the purse strings do have their limits, and while would never allow any of my animals to suffer, I'm not in a position to nurse a chicken. I'm also trying to take more of a 'hard line' on the ladies... no expense is to great when it comes to my other pets at the vets, but with a flock of chickens I have made the decision to be realistic.

I will never allow them to suffer, nor will I kill them for a cold or easily treatable ailments, but I have decided not to spend thousands testing or diagnosing a chicken. I've had many a mystery disease in my parrots - and it takes no more than a day of testing to hit $1k.

A lot of keepers will euthanise their own chickens at a sign of illness. I can't do this myself, but as long as the end is swift and painless, I can understand why people do it. What is not an option is allowing a chicken to suffer and die in pain without taking any action.

My action is the vets. Before getting any pets, this is something you must consider.

#chickens #backyardchicken #freerange