Betty Jo is sick! Update in comments

[Chickycammy]

Today, I went to feed my hen Betty Jo and something is wrong. I'm thinking maybe someone fed her something because her coop and run are next to the privacy fence and it would probably be easy for someone just to throw something over it. She's very lethargic, I had to force her to drink water and I got her to eat something. She has cuts on her crown and she has green coming from where she lays.

She was fine yesterday and I'm very worried about her. I put some antibiotic cream on the cuts and I do keep penicillin around in case one of the animals get sick. Should I give her a shot of that? If so how much, I've never given it to her before.

Adding some pics.

 

[RodNTN]

Oh no! I am very sorry about this I'll tag a few experts:

@casportpony @azygous @theoldchick

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

Maybe fowl pox?!

 

[Chickycammy]

Maybe fowl pox?!

I've never heard of that. What is it?

I moved her into a coop and run by herself.

 

[theoldchick]

What I see in the photo is trauma to her comb (what a lovely gal she is). Does she roam free? Could have another chicken pecked her comb? Green fecal matter could be from stress of what happened to her or she ate something very green. If she has bright green feces she might be liver or kidney issues or ate something metal. Difficult to tell by photo. You've done the right thing by isolating her, and if she does not improve I'd call a vet who can do more tests to find out what is going on. Otherwise feed her normal diet and continue to observe her feces (poop). Could be whatever happened to her comb (fight wound) stressed her to the point of getting diarrhea and acting weak. If this is the case, she will improve within 24 hours.

 

[azygous]

The comb appears to be a simple pecking injury, healing nicely.

Her lethargic behavior could be from any one of hundreds of things. Thankfully, most are uncommon. So I like to begin with the most common afflictions and rule them out before jumping right to an antibiotic, unless the hen is declining very fast.

The green poop means she has no appetite so she's pooping bile. So let's rule out crop issues which can produce the symptoms you're seeing. What does her crop feel like? Since she hasn't been eating, it should be empty. If her crop is empty and flat and you feeling nothing in it, then you might go directly to the penicillin.

If you feel something in the crop, is it soft ans squishy or hard? Does it feel like bunched up grass? Or like a water balloon? If this hen has a crop full of something, you will probably need to treat for either impacted crop or sour crop or both. To be certain your hen has a crop disorder, you need to check her crop first think in the morning before she eats or drinks.This article has the treatments all laid out.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Chickycammy]

What I see in the photo is trauma to her comb (what a lovely gal she is). Does she roam free? Could have another chicken pecked her comb? Green fecal matter could be from stress of what happened to her or she ate something very green. If she has bright green feces she might be liver or kidney issues or ate something metal. Difficult to tell by photo. You've done the right thing by isolating her, and if she does not improve I'd call a vet who can do more tests to find out what is going on. Otherwise feed her normal diet and continue to observe her feces (poop). Could be whatever happened to her comb (fight wound) stressed her to the point of getting diarrhea and acting weak. If this is the case, she will improve within 24 hours.

She could've gotten hurt when we added a rooster into her coop/run for a breeding. They seemed to get along very fast so I didn't think anything of leaving him in there. Though, the next door neighbors tend to throw stuff at the fence beside her coop. Could be she got scared and got hurt trying to fly out to get away from them.

 

[Chickycammy]

The comb appears to be a simple pecking injury, healing nicely.

Her lethargic behavior could be from any one of hundreds of things. Thankfully, most are uncommon. So I like to begin with the most common afflictions and rule them out before jumping right to an antibiotic, unless the hen is declining very fast.

The green poop means she has no appetite so she's pooping bile. So let's rule out crop issues which can produce the symptoms you're seeing. What does her crop feel like? Since she hasn't been eating, it should be empty. If her crop is empty and flat and you feeling nothing in it, then you might go directly to the penicillin.

If you feel something in the crop, is it soft ans squishy or hard? Does it feel like bunched up grass? Or like a water balloon? If this hen has a crop full of something, you will probably need to treat for either impacted crop or sour crop or both. To be certain your hen has a crop disorder, you need to check her crop first think in the morning before she eats or drinks.This article has the treatments all laid out.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Before I got her to drink and eat her crop was on the fuller side and was hard when I touched it.

I'll keep a close eye on her and tomorrow I'll check her crop again.

Thank you everyone! She's such a sweetie and I don't want to lose her.

 

[Chickycammy]

Update:
After moving her to a holding coop/run she's doing a lot better. Her crop was flat this morning and I didn't see any green poop anywhere. She ate and is drinking water on her own and she was even dust bathing.

Does this mean she was just overly stressed? If so should I just move her to a new coop/run away from the fence and should I add back the rooster she was living with before?

 

[theoldchick]

Something stressed her. The new rooster or predator (human included) might have have terrified her. Hard to tell if the old rooster will accept her. Most likely will, but remember, when chickens have been separated even just for a day, they will have to resort who is the boss of whom. The resulting behavior can be quite dramatic.