Lethargic, puffed up, white poop! Is this chicken going to make it?

I have a 2.5 year old Golden Comet who seems to be in declining health. Since she was a day old, she's always been at the bottom of the pecking order, and always a bit smaller than the others. She's always been picked on, and often has feathers out of place from that. But in the past week, she's really gone downhill.

Troubling symptoms:
-Seems to have lost weight. Keel is prominent, her neck looks very thin, wings stick out from her body
-Looks very ragged, feather picking has escalated and has bare patches along her wings
-Has had 2 soft eggs in the past week but also 1-2 normal eggs
-Was in the coop about 2 hours earlier than normal last night, no interest in free ranging with the flock
-This morning, didn't want to leave the roost. When I picked her up and brought her out, she just closed her eyes and huddled down in my arms. Again, no interest in free ranging with the group
-Making a weird beak smacking sound
-Feathers on belly seem to be pulled out in spots/ragged
-Had a messy bottom earlier in the week, I cleaned her feathers around it and it has stayed neat since then.

However, she is still very interested in food and water. Her poop is normal. Vent looks normal. Belly is not swollen, hard, distended, red, etc. No sneezing, coughing, discharge from eyes or beak.

I don't know if she is getting bullied off food and that's leading to weight loss/lethargy, or if this is just the beginning of the end for her. I separated her this morning in a crate in my garage, bedded down with straw. I brought her a big bowl of mash with all her favorite things. She was excited to see that and dug in, but after a minute of eating laid down again and closed her eyes. I can't tell if, because of the straw in the crate, she thinks it's actually just a giant nest- she was making the little purring nesting noise and busy arranging the straw around her when I left this morning.

I guess my question for you all is what can I do to try to help, given her symptoms are so vague. So far, I gave her the high protein mash and water with electrolytes. I've checked her for the past several days for signs of lice or mites, but don't see any signs. None of the others have signs.

What would you do for her? I certainly don't want to see her suffer but just don't know what to do.

I'm sorry to hear that.


It sounds like she is sick. She could be molting, could just be stressed from being bullied, but the symptoms seem slightly more than that. Older laying hens can sometimes get weaker, since they put so much into laying in the past. She may be genetically weaker, and so more prone to problems.

Keep her warm and calm, give her plenty of protein to help her regrow her feathers, and make sure she is getting plenty to eat and drink. Check for signs of respiratory problems (is she clicking while breathing? Does she have discharge at all?).

It sounds like you are taking good care of her.

Best of luck! I do hope she gets better soon.

Thanks @GitaBooks . It's been a weird day with her so far. I came home at lunch to check on her, and found her standing up in the crate with a GIANT egg- almost twice as big as usual. So I started thinking maybe she was just feeling strained by getting ready to lay such a big egg.

Thinking this, I decided to let her out of the crate. As soon as I walked her out into the daylight, she closed her eyes again, like the light hurt. I set her down, and she just immediately laid down, eyes closed, looking pale. She stayed like that for several minutes, even when other chickens came over to investigate what she was doing. Since she was looking so bad, I picked her up and moved her back to the crate, and she just looked awful. She laid down, eyes closed, fluffed up. I started thinking she wasn't going to make it.

A couple of hours later, I could hear her in the crate, making a lot of noise. She was eating from the mash bowl hungrily, and I could see she drank some water. Soon after that, she was trying to escape from the crate; worried she would hurt herself, I let her out. As soon as I got her out, she went running out to the grass where the others were foraging, and started scratching around.

That's what she's doing right now- she's alert, active, better color in her face/comb, looking like nothing is wrong?! When 30 minutes ago I was pretty convinced she wouldn't make it through the afternoon. Not much else to do but continue to watch her and see what happens next...

My guess is that huge egg just hurt really bad! OUCH!
Egg binding can lead to lethargic hens and leg problems, since the egg may press on nerves.

I'm so glad she's feeling better.

Do you have a rooster in your flock, sorties Roos can be mean and the hens can get depressed. I've had chickens get weird diseases from out of the blue but your hen doesn't seem to have any of my mystery disease symptoms, isolate her from the flock if she has a blue comb and wattles(dehydration) runny poo, lack of eating and or drinking, if she seems underweight and isn't active. However you seem to be doing just fine with your hen, just keep a close eye in her. If she gets worse send pics, it's easier to see what's wrong with a picture.

Living4birds said:

Do you have a rooster in your flock, sorties Roos can be mean and the hens can get depressed. I've had chickens get weird diseases from out of the blue but your hen doesn't seem to have any of my mystery disease symptoms, isolate her from the flock if she has a blue comb and wattles(dehydration) runny poo, lack of eating and or drinking, if she seems underweight and isn't active. However you seem to be doing just fine with your hen, just keep a close eye in her. If she gets worse send pics, it's easier to see what's wrong with a picture.

Click to expand...

Sometime s Roos can be mean

That's really weird, deacons - to be so lethargic one minute and full of beans the next - maybe Gitabooks is right and it was just a really large egg that hurt a lot! I hope that she's over whatever it was, and is on the mend. Please keep us updated and let us know what happens.

KayTee said:

That's really weird, deacons - to be so lethargic one minute and full of beans the next - maybe Gitabooks is right and it was just a really large egg that hurt a lot! I hope that she's over whatever it was, and is on the mend.  Please keep us updated and let us know what happens.

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The rest of the day got weirder. She seemed to be fine for about an hour, then just totally crash, ie get all hunched up, eyes closed, sound asleep, then another hour later, begging to go out again. We went through that kind of cycle the rest afternoon. She is eating, drinking, pooping (seems a little runny). Right now, she is out enthusiastically foraging with the flock-this time last night, she was looking sad on the roost alone.

I'm not a vet and no expert, but this has thrown me for a loop. Around lunchtime, I was thinking my first stop tomorrow would be at a vet to have her put to sleep (I know I'm a wimp, but I can't do it myself-but also can't watch an animal suffer. I was ready to accept that Golden Comets are just bred to be egg machines, and eventually their poor little bodies just give out on them). As of right now, if she's still alert and active tomorrow, as long as she's eating and drinking, I'll just continue to keep an eye on her.

Anyone have any thoughts on what's going on here?

Living4birds said:

Sometime s Roos can be mean

Click to expand...

No rooster here, but thanks for the suggestion.

I can share a picture if she's looking bad again, though honestly I'm a little embarrassed to post a picture because the pecking has really left her raggedy. She is definitely not looking her best...

If the egg was really hard to lay could it have injured her internally?