3 yr old Welsummer hen with dirty butt, hasn't layed in a couple of months, seems to be waddling.

[Froggy with chickens now!]

My Welsummer hen is almost 3 yrs old. She stopped laying a couple of months ago and lately has had poop stuff 'running' down her back end feathers. Today she seemed to be waddling. Other than that, she seems to be ok. She eats scratch from my hand daily like some of my other hens. I have noticed a few weeks ago some worms in a pile of poop, so I did the garlic mixture in their water. Have not seen worms since. Even tho I have had her almost 2 years, I still feel too new to chickens to know what to do. I have one rooster and 5 other hens. They all seem fine. Any suggestions?

 

[Froggy with chickens now!]

Well, at lunch today, Henny seems to be really bloated! She is still walking around, ate scratch from my hand, but just doesn't look good. She walks rather pigeon toed. Her tail feathers are not hanging down, but are not up as right as the other hens. My hubby is out of town,

, but I will try to catch her tonight and sit her in a warm bath. Any suggestions, please?
I went out this afternoon and sat Henny in a warm bath. I washed her and massaged her back side and got her clean. She is missing lots of feathers on her butt, almost bald. Her vent was 'contracting' while sitting in the water. She is quite swollen under her vent and under her 'tummy'. It is soft and mushy, not hard at all. So, I don't think she could be egg bound. She has not laid in a couple of months. I figure since we 'force' them to lay thru the winter, she might be done laying. She is waddling really badly. I put her in the quarantine area to see if she was pooping. She was out there for about an hour and I didn't notice any new poop at all. I let her out so she could roost in the coop with the others. She can't get up the ladder walk to the roost. I will put her back in to quarantine in the morning and check when I come home at lunch to see if she has pooped at all. Someone, please help me! She is the first chicken I had and she is special to me. I offered her yogurt, but she didn't eat any. I will give it back to her in the morning. She usually likes it.

 

[Froggy with chickens now!]

I am afraid I am losing Henny. From 6:30 this morning to 12:45, there was one little poop and it looks as if it probably just dribbled out. He bottom is not clean again, but not as bad as it was. She is sitting a lot, never did eat the yogurt. She would not eat scratch from my hand like she usually does, but did eat a little off the ground. I soaked some bread pieces in olive oil and offered it to her. She took a few pieces as long as I was holding it up to her. But, she didn't eat all of each piece, just a bit of each piece she took. I left the bread there, I had to come back to work. I will see what is going on with her when I leave work at 3:00. I am going out of town for the weekend. I hope she will be ok. I am going to let her back out with the other hens. My daddy came and got the rooster yesterday. He was too harsh on my hens and I couldn't keep him. Wonder if he caused this trauma to my Henny?

 

[Froggy with chickens now!]

Well, nevermind. My Henny girl died yesterday afternoon. She was just sitting around in the yard. I gave her some olive oil with a syringe, within a minute it came straight thru, so I know she was not constipated. I gave her a warm soaking bath for about 40 minutes. Dried her off and placed her on a new bed area I had made for her. Within minutes she was gone. I will miss my girl so much. I hope there was not something there I should have been aware of and I missed by being 'dumb' to the situation.

 

[Baylen]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Did you ever figure out what made her sick because my Lefty (2 year old leghorn) is exhibiting the same symptoms. I never would have believed how attached we can become to them!

 

[smithfam0908]

I am so sorry for your loss of Henny... Gentle hugs

 

[Froggy with chickens now!]

Thanks Baylen and Smithfam. I miss her much. You really can get attached especially when you are trying to nurse them back to health. I did not find out what was wrong. I wonder if my rooster

could have been too harsh with her, or maybe an egg broke inside and caused an infection. I am going to watch my others real close for any symptons. So far, none. My rooster was so mean to them! He would walk up to them and pull feathers from their backsides! And, was beginning to not let them eat. And, he got to where he would just stare at me when I went in, wouldn't walk away or anything. I already had a bad roo one time that attacked me and I had to get rid of him. So, before Samson realized I was scared of him, my daddy got him and put him in a pot. He didn't want a mean roo with his hens either. And, I didn't want to give him to someone that he would be mean to their hens, either! Daddy said he was the fattest rooster he had ever seen. I guess so! He was a hog! Thanks, again!