Chicken dragging her butt..

[redonthehead]

I have a hen, and frankly I have no idea what variety she is... she was a "rescue" from someone who didn't want their hens anymore. Anyway, shortly after we got her this past summer I noticed her standing wierd. It was almost like she was standing upright and her backside was almost between her feet. She was having great difficulty walking and didn't really seem to want to eat or do much. We kept an eye on her and tried to make her as comfortable as we could (bringing food to her etc...). After a week or so we decided we may need to put her down... shortly after that decision she seemed to be getting better and was completely back to normal within a couple of days. She's been great ever since... laying regularly and being a normal happy chicken.

The night before last I went out to feed them and noticed her starting to get back into the same positon. And as of this morning she's standing almost completely vertical again and again is not really eating or moving around much.

I'm completely at a loss as to what may be wrong. She's alert, she's just in this wierd position and not moving around much. Any ideas what it might be?

Thanks!
Jane

 

[GreenGoddess]

Sounds like she could possibly be eggbound.. She may have finally passed the egg the last time that occured and that's why she got better.. Bring her inside and soak her bottom in some warm water to see if she passes an egg...

Goddess

 

[tinychicky]

definately eggbinding. keep her in a warm, humid room (like the bathroom) and put someolive oil on her vent. if the egg's not out be tomorrow, you may have to take more drastic measures.

 

[coldinnh]

Or she may be passing a soft shelled egg. I have leghorns (all white so never know if it is the same one) who get kinda stand offish and look like they are taking a test and sooner or later the chickens are enjoying an egg if I am not there when it drops.

 

[redonthehead]

Eggbinding was what we thought it was the first time, but when she was better there was no sign of an egg anywhere (at the time the chickens were going through molt and we weren't getting one single egg...). So now I'm wondering maybe if she did pass a shell-less egg and they got to it before we found it. As it is some of the eggs we get are very thin shelled (as in when I pick them up I end up driving my fingers through them) so I suppose it's a possibility. We've got a dish of shells in the pen for them to munch on as they need them, but I think some of them don't eat them.

And on top of it all we're going through a real cold snap right now that has all my ladies cranky.

 

[speckledhen]

Her abdomen may be full of fluid/infection. I've dealt with that. My last one had an abdomen that was huge, almost as large as one of those red rubber kick balls, and she could barely stand up. We drained her numerous times, but finally, her body shut down and she died. It's not the same as egg binding at all--that, you could probably deal with. Internal laying is not curable, not preventable and is genetic/hormonal in nature. I've lost 9 hens to that. We got one of the large syringes with an 18-20 gauge needle and stuck it in at the most rounded part of the abdomen and filled mayo jars full of nasty greenish fluid, full of egg yolk and infection.

Read this thread and you may find what's wrong with your hen: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

This may be what is in your hen's abdomen, along with solid chunks of infection/egg materials: