bottom of the pecking order & discoloration of comb

[dickee]

I've got 8 chickens, 7 hens, 1 Tom, and have noticed my one smaller, bottom of the pecking order hen has been really listful lately (just barely moving around), as if she was sick. Her comb has dulled down from the brighter red of the other chickens, to a pinkish-gray color, and has been pecked enough so that it is smaller in size and chopped up into separate pieces.

Has anyone had experience with this sort of behavior and discoloration before? Is this something I need to be concerned about? I feel badly for this sweet little thing, and that she is always being tormented by the others. Hopefully she is physically o.k. Please respond if you know what is happening. Thank you.

dickee

 

[Mrs.Puff]

Sounds like she is sick. Hens will pick on a sick chicken in the flock. Maybe isolate her and get her some meds. That's all I've got so far. I'm not a good expert on illnesses.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

sorry a problem brought you here, but glad to have you.

Separate her from the rest of the flock in a place that is warm and start supplemental support - Poly-vi-sol vitamins (without iron - these are baby/infant vits found in the RX section of stores), scrambled eggs, oatmeal, etc. This will allow you to monitor her, how much is she eating, is she sleeping all the time, what does her poo look like <----- VERY important - once you know please let us know (pictures are wonderful - yes even poo pictures)

Also get some poultry dust or Sevin dust and dust everyone – this kills lice and mites, these will suck the life right out of your chickens. You might not even know you have them – I did not know until I was processing a chicken and I check my chickens weekly.

Have you ever wormed the chickens? What percentage protein is in their feed (the tag on the bag will tell you)?

 

[Kittymomma]

Isolate her so she's not getting picked on and you can monitor her eating/drinking and pooping. Bringing her inside or some other warm place is best so she's not using energy that she doesn't have just to keep warm. More information would help to figure out what is going on. If you could copy and paste the questions from this link into another post that would help a lot.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569