Buff Polish Hen - Tail down (hot/broody/egg bound?)

HippieAtHeart

Peace, Love & Chickens ✌️
Mar 22, 2020
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Southeastern Pennsylvania
My 1.5 year old buff polish hen Cheesepuff has been off for about a week. I sprayed my chickens for mites since my rooster had some with elector psp. I noticed the next day or day after that my hen seemed off with her tail down and that she hadn’t laid in a few days.
She ate a good bit of oyster shell that I refilled so I thought maybe egg bound but then she was fine and totally normal.
I saw her in the nesting box sitting before I sprayed for mites and she made that broody squawk at me and pecked. That coupled with seeing her sit in the top part of our coop in a make shift nest since my other hen who is broody is in the main nesting box area made me think maybe she is an inexperienced broody hen?
Now today she had her tail down again - not walking funny and eating and drinking like normal. She did lay down and put her head on the ground which is abnormal. Now I’m wondering if she isn’t just hot? Do buff polish hens have problems with heat? We’ve had a hot and humid week here in SE Pennsylvania high 80’s low 90’s. I saw her poop just a bit ago. It was soft yellow green ish with white gel - not hard and not totally liquid.
I’m going to try and make sure I keep the water as cold as I can tomorrow - I moved it so it’s more in the shade and add ice cubes throughout the day if i can.

Any ideas or suggestions for her?
 

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I just gave her 1 mL of Durvet Calcium Gluconate since she has now been under the coop which is odd behavior for her so thinking now she may actually be egg bound?

I’m going to give her another dose in the morning. I did feel her abdomen and can’t say for certain there is an egg and her vent looks totally fine.
 

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