Buff Orp with a dirty butt and low energy

[cmillington]

Hi BYC community! Hoping you can help, I worry I have maybe been missing something important. One of my 7 free ranging chickens, a Buff Orpington, hasn't been making the jump through the 4' tall window into the hen house with the rest of the flock for a couple of months now and I've been wondering why and also lately she's been seeming low on energy and often staying solo. Now today I just got back from a week out of town and I notice she is VERY low on energy, isolating, and her vent was super dirty. I've just finished double soaking with some epsom salt and squirting off the soil from her vent area I got her much cleaner and she seemed to enjoy the soak. What else should I do for her? None of the other birds seems to be having problems.

 

[nuthatched]

What's her crop feel like? Her diet? Have you ever wormed them?

 

[cmillington]

Her crop seems a bit swollen, sagging over, with some purplish mottling. She eats free choice chicken feed plus we give them flies larvae, some scratch in the cold but I cut that off about a month ago. Have never wormed them. I am just noticing she has a lot of tiny black mites on her...

 

[nuthatched]

Her crop seems a bit swollen, sagging over, with some purplish mottling. She eats free choice chicken feed plus we give them flies larvae, some scratch in the cold but I cut that off about a month ago. Have never wormed them. I am just noticing she has a lot of tiny black mites on her...

It could be a crop issue plus anemia from mites.