Chickens are exceptionally good at hiding pain and distress- so much so, that “chickens just drop dead” is a common complaint of poultry owners. This is no more true than for the pet cat or dog, and indeed an apparent “sudden death” was likely suffering for a time, unbeknownst to the owner. For the astute owner who has learned to recognise pain behaviours in birds (once you understand them, they’re not all that stealth at all), a bird may receive early treatment. But for many, the first sign of something going wrong, is actually a sign of a VERY unwell chook indeed- one who likely requires emergency care to survive.

Despite the growing number of backyard chooks in New Zealand, the number of skilled avian vets is not necessarily growing at the same rate. Hence many lifestylers are faced with the reality of needing to offer care to their unwell chook, before a vet can be reached.

If you’ve perhaps just started noticing her behaviour changes, maybe she slowed down, sitting by herself, is maybe a little fluffed up and going off her food, then there are some things you can do at home to help support and stabilise her, keeping her comfortable until a vet can be seen or treatment can kick in.

Let’s run how to offer basic stabilisation to your chook, while waiting for veterinary treatment. Let’s also discuss how far is too far gone, and when she should be humanely euthanized if veterinary care is not immediately available.

1. Protection from further stress

When planning for the vet, place your bird in a dark, quiet box, empty food and water (unless a long drive is expected), place fresh baking paper on the floor of the box, and get her to the vet as quickly as possible. White baking paper will allow the vet to analyse the colour of her urates in the excrement, which can give valuable information.

When stabilising at home, reducing further stress is crucial. Even those who have a great relationship with their chooks, refrain from holding and coddling. Instead do a quick look over to identify any glaring issues, then place her in quiet, dark space, alone. A birds’ small heart may easily give out with even basic handling, and keeping stress as low as possible while she rehydrates and regains some energy is essential.

2. Warmth and humidity

Birds are not only small animals, but also have particularly thin skin compared to mammals, and will lose both body heat and moisture to the air very quickly when in a critical state. As such, you’ll want to keep her in a warm, humid environment when recovering. The air should be at a stable 28-32oC. If you have an environmental thermometer this is great, as overheating also occurs easily. A rectal temperature on the hen should show her between 40.5-41.6 (in chicks you’ll need to rely on an environmental thermometer). Open mouth breathing with erect feathers and wings held away from the body, are key indicators of overheating.

For the enthusiast, small incubators may be purchased or fashioned out of a retired beer fridge. But for the average owner in a pinch, a hot water cupboard can work well, or a polystyrene box with a hot water bottle. A cup of hot water is a quick way to add humidity to the air, but always be sure to keep the bird separate and protected from scalding by either hot water or a hot water bottle.

3. Correction of dehydration

Once your hen is warmed up, we can address fluids. A cold body will neither absorb, nor distribute fluids properly, so warm up first, then give some warm fluids (warmed up to the warmth of a baby bottle). Any of your animal electrolytes are going to be fine, and will contain a sugar source for energy as well. Pediolyte (the baby formula) will also work fine.

If your hen is down, with obvious clinic signs like a floppy comb, she is certainly going to be dehydrated- quite likely, severely. A bird vet will be able to accurately estimate her dehydration level and tailor a plan for at her, but for those of you at home, lets just assume she is severely dehydrated.

As a rule- a 2kg bird should need about 6mL/hr just to maintain herself. Aiming for 7-8mL/hr for the first 12 hours will help to correct her dehydration. If she has diarrhoea, she may need a little more, and if she’s in shock then the vet is an absolutely necessity to save her life.

A chickens crop will usually hold about 30-50mL. While you’re vet can use a crop tube to give large amount of oral fluids, at home this wont be an option. Instead you’ll need to entice her to drink by giving a yummy electrolyte solution.

Beware, if she has a pendulous crop that is not emptying, is vomiting, or is recumbent and cannot stand, then forcing oral fluids is downright dangerous and she will instead need an IV line placed by a bird vet to save her life. If, however, she is upright, and pooing, then offer her oral fluids. Beware, using a syringe to administer oral fluids, while possible, requires some training to do safely. Watch this video to learn more about this technique.

4. High protein, high energy food

Once your chook has responded to warmth, fluids, and a little R&R, she’ll need some proper sustenance. You may be able to buy a ‘Critical Care’ diet from your vet clinic or pet store, but if not then a hand-rearing mix is usually available and can do the trick short-term. We are looking for high protein and high energy. Add a little water to make it into a mash and offer it to her to eat on her own. You may need to play with mixing in bits of pellets, wet cat food or meal worms, to encourage her. Some birds are really stuck on what they know and will only eat their usual diet, in which case go with that- better something than nothing.

If you’re confident syringe feeding safely (be sure to watch the link above), then you can add more water to make it into a slurry and have a little go with this. Again, your bird vet will be able to crop tube a big belly full of warm food safely, so if you have access to one, get them on board.

5. Treatment

If you’ve made it this far- congratulations, she’s a fighter. But don’t forget she needs the underlying issue addressed. Perhaps you’ve landed on something obvious that you know how to deal with (such as coccidiosis), but otherwise you will need to get to the bottom of it and get her treatment to avoid a relapse.

6. Pain relief

Pain relief is always going to be needed (don’t forget to re-hydrate along with pain relief, to protect the kidneys), and can be the make-or-break to get an animal eating and drinking on their own. The go-to in vet clinics will often be meloxicam, which is usually dispensed in an oral form for cats and dogs, or at home baby suspensions of ibuprofen also work well. These are off-label for birds. The dose and duration used for chickens are very different to that in humans or other mammals, and side effects can be a real risk depending on the individual case, so try to glean some veterinary guidance if you can. PoultryDVM.com is a valuable resource for further information.

Have a watch of this video to learn how to do a full-body examination, which may point you in the right direction

7. Monitoring of progress

Don’t go forward blind. You’ll want to get a weight on your chook, then monitor daily going forward. A gentle way to do this is quietly wrap her in a towel, baking sure to cover the head and wrap the legs under the body (like a burrito). Place her on the scales, then subtract the weight of the towel. We would expect to see a drastic increase of about 200g in weight as her body re-hydrates, as well as whatever food she’s getting in. This helps you gauge if you're going forwards or backwards.

When to call quits

A bird in shock will not be brought back from the brink with the above measures. If she is open mouth breathing, fluffed up, purple/blue/back discolouration of the comb, and cannot stand, then please consider a humane euthenasia rather than prolonging her suffering.

Want to know more? 

Understand how chickens see the world

More articles on keeping poultry
For a deep-dive, enroll on our What You Need to Know to Keep Chickens online course.