Taking Care of a Sick Chicken: Clostridium Bacteria

Reader Contribution by Faithful Homesteader
Published on June 27, 2019
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My chickens are my babies so when anything happens to them, it is hard on me. I have lost multiple chickens to illness so when our Andalusian chicken, Andie, showed signs of illness, it was a major stressor. 

My husband was the first to notice that she wasn’t herself. We usually give the girls some larvae, but when she didn’t go for the treat, it was definitely a bad sign. Seeing her just lay around while the other chickens were being active was another clue that something was not right.

We first noticed things were bad on a Saturday afternoon. My husband was convinced that she was going to die. I wanted to take her to the vet. Even if we could not save her, I wanted to know what was wrong and if we needed to be concerned about the other chickens.

First thing Monday morning, as soon as the vet office opened, I called for an appointment. We had brought Andie in the night before so we could observe and easily catch her to take her to her appointment. That morning her poo was water and a very disturbing yellow color. I gathered a sample to take with us for our vet visit.

When we made it to our appointment, the sample was analyzed and Andie was examined. She was alert and had some fight in her. Those were positive signs. The vet did mention that she was underweight. Just the week before she was sick, she actually felt a little heavy. The vet said that chickens can lose weight fast. 

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