I've had my first 'flock' of two bantam chickens for about 4 months now, and they'd be about 8 months old - so I'm still very much a newbie.
One of them starting looking a bit lethargic four days ago, and hadn't laid an egg in about 4 days before that (they usually lay every other day), with no abnormalities in her eggs previously. Since then she's been getting more lethargic, and not coming out of the coop in the morning until much later in the day.
On day two of the lethargy I inspected her, and I noticed she had some moderate scaly leg so gave her an epsom salt bath and applied vaseline, as I thought that this might be contributing. Quite a lot of built-up 'stuff' has come off her legs over the past few days, and during the last vaseline administration some of the larger chunks came off and there was some very minor bleeding which I applied Leucillin (antiseptic) to before the vaseline. Since then she's been favouring one leg when standing, so I believe her feet might be tender from the large chunks sloughing off, but I thought that as her legs healed and I treated her and the coop with mite dust she might start improving.
Yesterday I noticed one of her eyes had very minor bubbles, and this morning when I came to let them out of the coop, I noticed one of her eyes wouldn't open. It opened on its own after about half an hour, and was slightly inflamed and crusty, so at this stage I separated her from the other hen as now I am suspecting some sort of respiratory illness.
She drank water as normal this morning and still had quite an appetite, and on top of normal feed (layers pellets - which she won't really touch) I've been feeding her scrambled egg with mealworms and corn which she's been eating with no problem (about 1 egg scrambled per day). Her crop was empty when I checked before she started eating. Her poops are not watery, but they are mustard yellow with a normal small amount of urine salts and no foaming or signs of worms or blood, and do not smell different. She is also losing a few feathers here and there, and given the time of year (UK, autumn) might be going through a moult but I thought she might be too young?
Currently she is very lethargic and fluffed up under a bush with her eyes half closed, only getting up to forage for a few minutes before going back down. She looks very sick. I've tried all I can think of for now without stressing her out any more and am even hand feeding her a few times a day, so which way it goes might be up to her from here on in.
I'm hoping someone might be able to give some advice as to what is going on and how else to help her? Have you experienced anything similar, maybe even with any success? She's such a sweet little chicken and I'm really hoping she pulls through, but realistically I am preparing for the worst if it happens.
One of them starting looking a bit lethargic four days ago, and hadn't laid an egg in about 4 days before that (they usually lay every other day), with no abnormalities in her eggs previously. Since then she's been getting more lethargic, and not coming out of the coop in the morning until much later in the day.
On day two of the lethargy I inspected her, and I noticed she had some moderate scaly leg so gave her an epsom salt bath and applied vaseline, as I thought that this might be contributing. Quite a lot of built-up 'stuff' has come off her legs over the past few days, and during the last vaseline administration some of the larger chunks came off and there was some very minor bleeding which I applied Leucillin (antiseptic) to before the vaseline. Since then she's been favouring one leg when standing, so I believe her feet might be tender from the large chunks sloughing off, but I thought that as her legs healed and I treated her and the coop with mite dust she might start improving.
Yesterday I noticed one of her eyes had very minor bubbles, and this morning when I came to let them out of the coop, I noticed one of her eyes wouldn't open. It opened on its own after about half an hour, and was slightly inflamed and crusty, so at this stage I separated her from the other hen as now I am suspecting some sort of respiratory illness.
She drank water as normal this morning and still had quite an appetite, and on top of normal feed (layers pellets - which she won't really touch) I've been feeding her scrambled egg with mealworms and corn which she's been eating with no problem (about 1 egg scrambled per day). Her crop was empty when I checked before she started eating. Her poops are not watery, but they are mustard yellow with a normal small amount of urine salts and no foaming or signs of worms or blood, and do not smell different. She is also losing a few feathers here and there, and given the time of year (UK, autumn) might be going through a moult but I thought she might be too young?
Currently she is very lethargic and fluffed up under a bush with her eyes half closed, only getting up to forage for a few minutes before going back down. She looks very sick. I've tried all I can think of for now without stressing her out any more and am even hand feeding her a few times a day, so which way it goes might be up to her from here on in.
I'm hoping someone might be able to give some advice as to what is going on and how else to help her? Have you experienced anything similar, maybe even with any success? She's such a sweet little chicken and I'm really hoping she pulls through, but realistically I am preparing for the worst if it happens.