Chicken sick or just molting?

[Chicken poppy]

Didn’t want to put this under emergencies because i don’t think it is. Just wanted to see if this is normal behavior.
(Just for context, its winter here so she isn’t laying any eggs. Well, it hasn’t full on snowed, its just a bit cold right now.) My 2 year old girl has been molting, and its kinda obvious because i thought she got eaten by a fox. Every morning theres this massive feather pile under her rod. Not a great time to do it, she doesn’t grow back her feathers that well like everyone else, she never grew her breast feathers back from being broody, and you can see some skin between her legs, but now shes REALLY thin underneath. Really makes you gasp, no matter how many chickens of mine that molt, each time it comes as a shock to me because i think “thats a lot of feathers for one chicken!”

Hopefully thats semi-normal, but i really hope she grows hers back in time for winter.


Well, today, i saw her poop. You know how their vent moves up and down afterwards? (Sorry, nasty, i know.) well she stood there, kinda standing a bit more upright, and her vent was doing that for a few minutes. She seemed to be doing the same thing later. She’s less active and standing slightly upright, acting like she needs to poop.
Edit: she still seems less active and is still doing the weird vent thing. Its like shes stopping to try and poop, but i don’t think anythings clogged because she did poop.
Thoughts? Her crop is a bit empty but i think everyone else is aswell. Should i feed her or wait?

 

[Sono]

My chicks are all doing the same, lots of down in the run but they are fully feathered. I thought a coon got in again but they are all there.... odd, as it is cold at night in the teens, warmer during the days 40s-60s, and had snow twice already.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

a couple of my Wyanottes seemed to have a tough time with molt. Definitely behavioral changes but no matter my concerns, said chicken never turned down favorable treats. One ate less but drank more, was withdrawn, very nervous looking, lost weight, runny poops; and i even witnessed her shivering one morning! I kept a close watch and made sure she was eating plenty. I offered her some scrambled egg, few meal worms, sardines.....thinking protein protein protein. Also did some electrolytes in water for a couple days. I have 5 hens, 3 of which stopped laying for now only i hope. I cut their 16% layer feed with 20% chic starters and its been about a month and everyone looks so much better. Feathers are shinier and appear more healthy, colorful in the light. Patient has since made a serious turnaround. Seems overnight she got all sorts of new feathers (on her neck the most), but over all, i was very worried and now i am very happy. It seems if things are weird with a hen....just wait a little bit, they bounce back so quick! Good luck

 

[azygous]

It's hard to say exactly what's going on with this hen, but there are a few possibilities. The most likely is she's starting molt. She's old enough. Check on the back of her head and neck for uniform tiny pin feathers emerging among the older feathers. If you see those, molt has begun.

Molt can go quickly for some chickens and drag out for a couple months in others. In some, it can be interrupted and resume weeks later, taking a long, long time. Extra protein as suggested by @My Very First 6 Chickens does help a lot in these cases.

Another possible issue she may have is nutritional deficiencies due to coming off being broody, which saps nutritional reserves, and then heading into molt before she could recover. She could use some Poultry Nutri-drench for a few days to give her reserves a needed boost.

Lastly, there is an outside chance she's trying to lay an egg as her body recovers from being broody, and since her nutrition has been hammered, the egg may be shell-less and she's having a hard time pushing it out. You can help her by giving her a calcium citrate tablet each day for the next few days. This will help increase the strength of her contractions to help expel the egg. I does no harm if there is no egg, but it will help tremendously if there is.

This is what I recommend. One whole table directly in the beak. She will have no problem swallowing.