Chicken drinking tons, excessive weight loss, lethargic

[Crazy4chickens2018]

Drinking tons of water can be a sign of obstruction. The cause of the obstruction, however, probably won't be readily obvious.

Since her crop isn't very expanded, the cause may be a soft egg stuck. Do this - push against her vent and see if she squats and tries to poop.

If she does try to squat and appear to try to poop, give her a calcium tablet. This will help to produce strong contractions to expel a stuck egg. View attachment 2495309

Do offer her grit as @Eggcessive suggested. If her gizzard is impacted, she will crave grit. This may be why she was eating grass. She may also be impacted with the grass if she has been eating it in lieu of food due to a condition called "pica" where a brain disorder causes a chicken or other animal, including humans, to eat weird stuff that isn't food.

I pushed on her vent but she tightened right up and squawked and flapped. I have had chickens in the past with a stuck egg or an egg that broke inside and they always were flapping their tail feathers up and down and their vents would either be opening and closing or protruding. She isn’t flapping her tail and she has her vent closed up tight except to poop

 

[NatJ]

Last week I saw her start to stay back from the flock....I brought her inside about 3 days ago.... She does nothing but eat and drink all day....She sleeps when she is not eating. Her comb and wattles look better but still look floppy. She hasn’t really gotten any better but she hasn’t gotten worse either.

Based on the bits I quoted, I wonder if the other chickens were chasing her away from the feed? (And maybe away from the preferred foraging areas, too.)

Just plain starvation could cause some of what you're seeing.

If bullying/starvation were the only problems, I would expect a big improvement with a few more days of safety and eating as much chicken food as she wants.

(I just wanted to point out the one thing I haven't noticed anyone else mentioning. She certainly might have other problems too, or other problems instead.)

 

[Crazy4chickens2018]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, I tried a few things but sadly Libby passed away last night.

 

[Cazook]

Oh no Sorry to hear this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss. When I lose a hen, I usually do a brief necropsy to open the abdomen and look for yellow fluid of ascites, along with noting anything unusual about the color and appearance of her organs, or lash egg material. If you do one, take pictures and post them for any comments. Of course, if you have already buried her, that is fine.

 

[Rad7912]

Hi all,
I am hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on with my chicken. Libby is a 3 year old barred rock. She, along with the rest of my flock went through a heavy molt back in the fall and stopped laying eggs. Libby hasn’t layed since early October and was laying well before that. My chickens are fed a good quality layer pellet and they also free range all day. I had started to notice her slowing down in early December. She started to have very watery poops with green in them. I noticed she was eating a lot of grass and not the layer pellets. I put ACV in their water and noticed an improvement. Last week I saw her start to stay back from the flock. She would free range on her own and sit quite a bit puffed and with her eyes. I began to notice that her comb and wattles were shrinking and looked almost like paper. I live in Ontario and our winter temps have been sitting at around -5 degrees so I brought her inside about 3 days ago. She has been on a vitamin and electrolyte mix. I have given her yogurt and sunflower seeds as well as mashing her pellets up with water. She does nothing but eat and drink all day. She empties her water dish 3 times a day. Her poop is very runny with scant amounts of solid poop and high amounts of the white uric acid. I did see her vomit twice too. She sleeps when she is not eating. Her comb and wattles look better but still look floppy. She hasn’t really gotten any better but she hasn’t gotten worse either. I can feel her keel bone protruding. Her crop feels fine her, her vent looks fine but her bum is messy from the diarrhea. She has no fluids coming from her eyes or nostrils. Her breathing is slow and easy. I did not see any mites or lice, her feather look pretty good actually. All my other chickens are fine. I feel like this is not something that is contagious. More of an organ failure problem or tumour issue? View attachment 2495273View attachment 2495276View attachment 2495277View attachment 2495278View attachment 2495279 Any thoughts?

Did you figure it out? My Ee is doing the same thing and I think she is dying.

 

[NatJ]

Did you figure it out? My Ee is doing the same thing and I think she is dying.

Probably did not figure it out, considering this post:

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, I tried a few things but sadly Libby passed away last night.