Chicken squat-walks, falls over

[azygous]

I agree she has some serious issues, probably too complex for us backyard wanna-be vets. If she has a swollen abdomen, that can tell you she probably has reproductive issues, but there may be other secondary issues as well.

I'll tell you what I've been doing to treat a hen of mine with similar symptoms. First of all, thinking back, this hen (Molly) has been "off" for a month or so. She was quiet and inactive, but presented no real symptoms until a little over a week ago when I noticed her poop overnight was watery and white. She had quit eating for the most part.

Her crop was full in the mornings, though, despite not eating much. I began treatment for a yeast infection, though it seemed it was probably in her gut, not so much her crop. After a week of treatment, she was no better.

I then decided to treat for a reproductive track infection, which can be cured if addressed early on. She's been on amoxicillin for ten days. She has gotten much worse, and now she's suffering from a very, very smelly crop yeast infection.

So I started her on Nystatin and tubed it into her along with some nutrients and yogurt and water. She's only gotten worse. She's now not able to stand for long before she collapses. When she does move, it's with the help of her wings for support, kind of like crutches.

Sadly, she is going to be euthanized in the morning to end the suffering. This is often how it ends for some hens. Molly may have tumors on her organs, a purplish comb is a hint of things becoming pretty crowded somewhere in her body. Bit by bit, her organs have quit functioning as they should, and her crop won't empty probably because her gizzard is also impacted. Her belly is swollen and it could be from a failing liver. The bottom line is that after two different treatments, she has only gotten much worse, so it's time to conclude we've lost this fight.

Your hen may have something quite different going on, but if you try different things such as treating for a stuck egg or crop disorder, etc, and she shows no improvement, you may need to consider ending it.

First, though, I'd try to treat her as if she has a stuck egg and see what happens. One thing I always do when a hen is showing signs of egg problems is to give her a calcium tablet and make her drink some water. Often this alone will cause the stuck egg to move on out. I hope it's something that simple.

 

[micstrachan]

I agree calcium is worth a shot. I’m so sorry about Molly @azygous .

 

[DustBathSpaDay]

Hi All,

One of our six chickens seems to be having some real problems. I think she's about two years old. She seemed lethargic, and appears to be favoring one side over her other. This has been going on a couple of days. We kept her in a box inside the house for 24 hours, then took her out and observed her again, and noticed that she is walking really oddly. She appears to be squatting as she walks. No signs of trauma, other birds are fine, no idea what could have caused this.

Here's video1 and video2

Is anyone familiar with what she's exhibiting? Thanks so much in advance - she's very sweet and we can't tell if she's in pain.

My little Sebright, Audrey, was doing the same thing. No evidence of injury, but she seemed to be in pain, keeping low to the ground, even sitting back on her rump. She and her sister Kate always roosted on top of a high door (they have a bedroom in the house) and had to fly up quite high to roost at night. I thought Audrey was having trouble getting there on the first try and might have hurt herself, so I started putting all three of my girls to bed at night in a good sized roost with padding on the floor and a dog crate they could use as a nesting box. After Audrey slept on top of the nesting box for a few nights, she was back to normal, running around like the others, completely upright.