Can you help me with my medical mystery?

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Hi all.
I’ve posted about this girl before. I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s going on.

The patient is Sparrow, an 8 month old cream Legbar. At the moment her primary issue seems to be under-eating. Her crop is empty or nearly empty in the evenings. For the past couple weeks I’ve been feeding her at night once they go to roost. She is eating. She eats feed with the others and treats when they’re offered. When I feed her at night, she’s happy to eat feed mixed with water, yogurt, or eggs. I don’t know why she’s not eating more. She does seem to lose interest in eating sooner than the others, but she still will eat a decent amount. I have 2 feeders for 11 chickens. She’s not the highest on the pecking order but she’s not the lowest either. I don’t think it’s a bullying issue. She’s been having loose stools, although tonight during feeding time she had a solid healthy stool with 1 small piece of gravel in it.

Her crop seems fine. It’s always empty in the morning, even when I feed her at night. It used to be that her crop just wasn’t very full in the evenings, but now it’s empty.

About 6 weeks ago, I posted here about large amounts of gravel in her stool (with pics). Post. Based on suggestions, I added grit in the coop. The amount of gravel in her stool has slowly decreased and is mostly gone.

A few days before I posted about her stool, I posted about a strange situation of temporary paralysis. Post where she fell off the roost. That continues to happen from time to time (hard to know for certain as it only happens at night). I give her vitamin b but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

She hasn’t laid in about 6 weeks. She’s on Purina Flock Raiser. No other chickens have any similar symptoms. No sign of mites or lice. Wormed in August. Corrid treatment in October. She hasn’t lost weight, but hasn’t gained any since she was 6 months old. I can feel her breast bone. Comb is healthy. Behavior is normal. Her only other symptom is that her feathers look like crap. I can’t tell for sure if she’s molting or not. (See first 2 pics). She has access to oyster shells, egg shells, calcium carbonate, & grit. The past 2 days I’ve noticed her fluffed up, but it’s also gotten cold suddenly so she may just be chilly.

Question #1- I’m in Maryland and it just started to get cold. If she’s not eating, could she freeze? Should I continue to feed her at night? If so, how much and what would you recommend I feed? (I’ve been doing mostly just feed mixed with a little water).

Question #2- What do you think is going on with her? If she was your chicken, what would you look for and how would you treat?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[WingsysRoost]

This really is a tough one.

My first thought would be that I would want to rule out anything like cancer or an infection of some kind, since you mentioned that she's stopped laying. It doesn't seem much like an illness since it hasn't happened to any of the others.

I would check what the poop looked like beyond being loose. Is it green? White or clear? Something else? I would see whether or not she's underweight, and if so, how severely. (I have some chickens who just feel kind of pointy in general when I check their weight. They seem otherwise fine and healthy so my best guess is that it's how they're built, as it hasn't changed in months.)

I wonder if the paralysis and falling could be some sort of nerve issue, or possibly something neurological. I'm not sure if that really explains the rest of what's going on, though, but it could be multiple causes at the same time as well.

Is it at all possible that she might have sour crop or possibly a blockage somewhere? I'm honestly not sure what else would cause a chicken to not want to eat other than illness.

 

[Tonyroo]

Continue to feed her before roosting time she needs food in her crop. The food being digested will keep her warm.

Have you considered giving her fermented foods, yogurt, sunflower seeds and kale on top of her normal foods?

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

This really is a tough one.

My first thought would be that I would want to rule out anything like cancer or an infection of some kind, since you mentioned that she's stopped laying. It doesn't seem much like an illness since it hasn't happened to any of the others.


I would check what the poop looked like beyond being loose. Is it green? White or clear? Something else? I would see whether or not she's underweight, and if so, how severely. (I have some chickens who just feel kind of pointy in general when I check their weight. They seem otherwise fine and healthy so my best guess is that it's how they're built, as it hasn't changed in months.)

I wonder if the paralysis and falling could be some sort of nerve issue, or possibly something neurological. I'm not sure if that really explains the rest of what's going on, though, but it could be multiple causes at the same time as well.

Is it at all possible that she might have sour crop or possibly a blockage somewhere? I'm honestly not sure what else would cause a chicken to not want to eat other than illness.

Thanks for your reply. I will keep an eye on her stools and see what else I notice. Last week she had 2 nights where she had stools that were uniquely smelly. But now they seem to be more normal. In fact the previous 2 nights, it's been more like "loose" than diarhea. Mostly browns and she has's had some cecal poops. She definitely feels underweight. I don't think I'd say severely underweight, but definitely slimmer than she used to feel. She weighs 3.5 lbs. All the others from my 2022 flock have continued to put on weight, but she's been the same since August. I'm stumped, too. Her crop seems okay (based on the fact that it's empty in the mornings, and expands after I feed her at night). I did see a post somewhere about a chicken that had too many stones in their gizzard and they developed a blockage or impaction. I'm currently researching pica in chickens since she used to have gravel in her poo, and tonight during her feeding time, in addition to the food I had out for her, she also grabbed a chunk of fresh poo and ran around with it until I grabbed her and took it. She also grabbed (couldn't tell if she ate) a small piece of pine shaving. This reminded me that as a chick, she used to grab a piece of pine shavings and run around like crazy while the other chicks chased her around the brooder. I always assumed it was mistaken identity and she didn't actually eat it, but maybe she has been eating odd things. Definately a mystery.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Continue to feed her before roosting time she needs food in her crop. The food being digested will keep her warm.

Have you considered giving her fermented foods, yogurt, sunflower seeds and kale on top of her normal foods?

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping the night feedings would help her to not be so cold. Maryland weather had us at 70s last weekend, and this entire week we've had highs in the 30s/40s with some snow. Sheesh! But the last few nights she's been shivering (trembling?) when I've brought her in to feed. I don't think I've ever felt a chicken shiver before from either fear or cold, so that's seemed really strange to me. I've been feeding her the regular feed mixed with some water (making like a thick oatmeal "sticky" texture that I can scoop up on my finger). Since she doesn't drink at night, I wasn't sure if dry crumbled food would dehydrate her or be difficult to digest without water. I currently have some egg whites that I've been giving her at night. Some times I also supplement the feed with scrambled eggs or yogurt, and a few times I've mixed other things into the food such as Nutridrench, garlic, electrolytes, and oregano.

I do feed nonfat plain Greek yogurt as a treat to the flock a few times a week. She always eats some, but doesn't go for it aggressively. I don't think I've ever fed sunflower seeds specifically, although some of my flock blocks are loaded with them. Is there something particularly beneficial about sunflower seeds that you think might help? They get kale occasionally as well, but not regularly. She's not super great about eating her veggies. She's somewhat picky about her treats. We've always called her the diva of the flock.

 

[Tonyroo]

This is what I found:

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I wanted to share an update on my Sparrow for anyone who is interested.

There hasn’t been much change. She still hasn’t laid and she’s still under eating. Her weight has stayed the same. She still has occasional issues with balance and/or coordination, primarily while roosting at night.

I’m still feeding her at night, She likes food but is just not at all aggressive about how she eats it, so other chickens get most of the food. I have to separate her with one of my super passive hens in order for her to have a chance to eat. Even then she seems to get bored quickly and wander away. I’ve been feeding her more scratch, which she eats more of than her feed. I no longer give vitamin b as it didn’t appear to make a difference. I do still give electrolytes in water throughout the week.

She is standing a little penguin-like. Her abdomen is a little puffy, but not a lot. I had a hen a couple years ago with water belly but this seems different. Also it hasn’t really changed. She’s had this slightly puffy abdomen for probably a month now. If it was water belly, I think she’d continue to bloat.

A couple days ago I picked her up and her feet & legs were shockingly cold. I set her in my lap but she couldn’t grip well enough to stay in place. It was cold outside, but I checked 3 other hens and their feet were warm. She was walking around okay, but was clearly not feeling great. It made me wonder if something is impeding her circulation? (I Googled but haven’t found anything about this). Circulatory issues could possibly account for the balance issue, which at least this particular day seemed to be specific to her toes. The next day, she seemed perkier, and her legs felt normal temperature.

And one more thing I noticed… her ear lobes are “hairy.” I’ve done some Google Images searches, and don’t see any other cream Legbars with this. Hormones…?

I had been suspicious of metal toxicity or hardware disease, but now I’m less sure. I’d love to hear other people’s guesses or thoughts.

 

[Perris]

If those photos are recent she's got good colour on comb and wattles so I don't think circulation is an issue. Overall it sounds like something not working properly in her digestive tract to me, probably an imbalance in her microbiome

she also grabbed a chunk of fresh poo and ran around with it until I grabbed her and took it. She also grabbed (couldn't tell if she ate) a small piece of pine shaving

coprophagy (poo eating) is a natural method animals use to self-medicate, which we are just copying in a sanitized form with 'fecal transplants'. If she were mine, I'd let her eat whatever poo she wants; she is trying to get more good bacteria into her gut.

It is also common for chickens to eat shavings, and does not normally do any harm if they are reasonably small, and it probably does some good.

If her gut is inflamed in one or another part, it will probably hurt and depress her appetite. She is eating, so has not given up; I would try different things and let her be the guide, and when you find something she wants to eat, I'd let her have it in whatever quantities she wants.

Does she get access to pasture? if not, I'd give her access to grass, and let her forage in beds and borders for a while.

There are many types of enteritis that can assault a chicken, and commonly they don't recover but just waste away - not always though, and I wish you and Sparrow well. If she pulls through this, she'll have better immunity against the next assault.