10 month old ISA lethargic, not eating/pooing much, not herself

Lizkoalita

In the Brooder
Sep 7, 2021
7
29
39
Hi everyone,
Hoping I can get some help from the BYC community.
My 10 month old ISA Brown, Hermione, doesn't seem herself at the moment. She's normally sociable and gregarious, running up to me for food, flying onto the top of her henhouse and generally being an active hen.
This morning, she was very lethargic and spent most of the morning sitting on the ground. She would eat a little bit of her grain mix when I fed it to her by hand, but only the sunflower seeds. I haven't seen her drink water today.
I wondered if she could be egg bound and checked her vent with a glove and some KY. I couldn't feel an egg and her abdomen didn't seem hard or soft, just normal as far as I could tell. We isolated her with food and water and monitored her through the day.
She seemed to perk up this evening, and was keenly eating some watermelon (hopefully that'll help her water intake at least) and some peas and corn. She was scratching around with the other hens but just now seems to have flagged again, and is off on her own away from the flock, scrabbling around a bit, but some of the time just standing there, sometimes with her eyes closed.
I've seen her do two poos this evening, but both were very small.
Any idea what is going on?
Thanks!
 
I should also mention that we're in Australia, it's summer here and we've had several days of 30°C+ heat. It was 34° today. We've been trying to keep all the hens cool with ice in their water, shade, and frozen peas.
 
Egg bound or some other reproductive issue would be my first guess. Out of my original 12 I ended up loosing 2 due to it in the first year. Known problem with production breeds.
 

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