Underweight chicken not eating pellets

[starchicky]

I recently noticed my oldest laying hen had a "I'm sick" posture. She is in the middle of molting, so I thought she might just be uncomfortable but when I caught her I realized she was very underweight! I've never felt one of my chickens to be so thin.

By interacting with her, she seems very hungry, but doesn't want to eat the pellet feed. I've had issues lately with mice getting into the feeder and am in the process of getting grandpa feeders set up. So I think this is why she doesn't want to eat the feed.

But she ravenously eats up meal worms, seed and quinoa that I cooked for her. So I'm trying to think of what I can feed her to get her weight back up. Or ways I can prepare/present the feed to get her interested in it again-If I get 20% protein feed she still might not eat it. The only other thing I've done before is scrambled eggs for them.

I'm also wondering about worming, if that wouldn't be a good idea since she's not that healthy at the moment. Or will that only help and not be harmful? I'm assuming I should worm all the chickens.

I have her inside the house right house in a kennel. Thanks for any ideas!

 

[junebuggena]

I had a similar issue with one of my molting hens this year. She was spending most of her time hiding from the flock. That meant that she wasn't eating regularly throughout the day, and ended up very thin. After a few days inside a crate with unlimited feed, she gained back enough weight and was feathered in well enough to head back outside.

 

[starchicky]

An update. She is doing much better and back to being plump after feeding fermented feed and fresh pellets everyday. I think sour crop was a likely culprit. Fermented feed is great and I'm so glad she is back to normal!