Chicken lethargic, moving strangely, poop on feathers

[HiyokoInNippon]

Unless the worm load is obscene, you will not generally see worms, they are usually microscopic. Also, in the poo one looks for eggs as noted in the second link.

 

[chickenstar]

Hi, I'm sure your hen is suffering from something reproductive while she could have worms I suggest not trying to worm her right now as this could send her over the edge so to speak because worming initself is hard on there systems , concentrate on getting the egg out of your hen if she even has one present? Or if she is suffering from internal layer or eggyolk peritonitis she may need antibiotics at the very least , really the best thing for you to do is get her to a vet as I also have a hen with this condition and she whould have died without a veterinary care. She is now living just fine and gets a implant place into her every 5 months , I am very sure your hen has a internal egg layer problem and peritonitis is slowly setting in she needs powerful antibiotics at the very least, like Baytril injectible or amoxicilin! Then she needs to have her abdomen drained, your hen looks like a production hybrid and they are quite prone to thease conditions because they are egg laying machines so to speak, plaease talk to a very informative member hear on BYC called Speckled Hen if a home procedure is how you want to go about this and please DON'T waite as this is life threatening and VERY painfull for your hen , best wishes

 

[chickenstar]

Hi, also FYI with eggyolk peritonitis or internal layer the egg yolk will not always be present in there poop so looking at there poop dosent tell you all that much sometimes , from what can see her poop dosent look teribly strange, my girl had bright green poop with blood in it from her eggyolk peritonitis and after a few days of her first symptoms she started pooping bits of her reproductive tract out (confirmed buy lab analisis of the tissue)

 

[HiyokoInNippon]

Hi, I'm sure your hen is suffering from something reproductive while she could have worms I suggest not trying to worm her right now as this could send her over the edge so to speak because worming initself is hard on there systems , concentrate on getting the egg out of your hen if she even has one present? Or if she is suffering from internal layer or eggyolk peritonitis she may need antibiotics at the very least , really the best thing for you to do is get her to a vet as I also have a hen with this condition and she whould have died without a veterinary care. She is now living just fine and gets a implant place into her every 5 months , I am very sure your hen has a internal egg layer problem and peritonitis is slowly setting in she needs powerful antibiotics at the very least, like Baytril injectible or amoxicilin! Then she needs to have her abdomen drained, your hen looks like a production hybrid and they are quite prone to thease conditions because they are egg laying machines so to speak, plaease talk to a very informative member hear on BYC called Speckled Hen if a home procedure is how you want to go about this and please DON'T waite as this is life threatening and VERY painfull for your hen , best wishes

x2 ^ Much better source than I!!!

 

[travelingchick]

I want to to thank you all for your help. I brought the hen in and gave her a warm Epsom salt bath; she spent the afternoon in our bathroom and I put a heat lamp on and let the shower steam up, hoping to help her pass an egg. But it became clear from what you said and other sources I was reading online that peritonitis was the likeliest cause. It was very sad to watch her in pain; we have no avian vet in the area and I was not confident in my ability to drain her fluids especially after reading about accounts where the hen died anyway. My husband and I decided it would be most humane to end her suffering. A sad night for us, but thank you again for all of your wonderful advice and help. I have learned a lot and will be monitoring our other hens for this condition on a regular basis.