Chicken with tail down and sitting a lot in the afternoon

[MedusaSnake]

Sometimes driness indicates circulation issues or anemia caused by mites or zinc ingestion. Aw I hope she's ok and wish you well!

Thanks! What are good sources of vitamin c?

 

[EuroChook]

Thanks! What are good sources of vitamin c?

You're welcome! I use a powdered additive of straight up vitamin C, making sure there are no other additives. There is also a liquid variety of vit C plus other minerals and vitamins intended for poultry. In both cases, its just about adding it to their water. Other people go for good food sources of C (but never citrus sources) so there are folks who feed their flocks bell peppers strawberries, broccoli... mine is too fussy for those.

 

[EuroChook]

Also if heat is a factor then sprinkler systems bring some relief to the flock as well. There are people who use sprinkler systems and the chickens sometimes seem to want to play under the sprinklers.

 

[MedusaSnake]

might be normal but here is a recent dropping. It’s sort of greenish I guess?

 

[EuroChook]

And iron requires vit C, hence if vit C is low, iron won't be transported and a form of anemia via malabsorption will set up, leading to flat, dry wattle and comb. Also lethargy therefore is explained through the same mechanism.

Blueberries--- when and where available are also a great vit C source.

 

[MedusaSnake]

Blueberries--- when and where available are also a great vit C source.

I will check if I have any of those fruits or veggies

 

[EuroChook]

might be normal but here is a recent dropping. It’s sort of greenish I guess?

Thank you for the pic. Green poop has many explanations. Greens in diet, chard, etc. Will do it. Can also be a sign of undereating and hence it is bile, can be a sign of infection but usually there will be other key symptoms. She has a good amount of urates in her poop (the white portion) which means she has been eating, it is the end result of protein digestion.

 

[EuroChook]

This is a similarly Green poop from a known healthy chicken.

 

[MedusaSnake]

update- she didn’t seem to eat a lot of food today, I checked her crop and it wasn’t really full at all. She did enjoy the watermelon we gave her though.

 

[MedusaSnake]

Another update-

This is a video from earlier. I notice that her tail is moving up and down more frequently when she sits. She seems to be breathing hard?

When I got closer to her, I also heard sounds coming out when she breathed. It sounded similar to a whistle. This could only be heard when I got very close to her. I wonder if this may be a sign of a respiratory illness? When the other birds sit down, they don’t seem to have this problem. Since there have been problems happening for a while now, it may be an illness I think. She has been eating less too, and her poop has gotten smaller. I saw green droppings a few days ago but there are more today, and she hasn’t eaten anything green. She seems to only respond to certain foods like boiled egg. Other than that, she walks around fine but maybe something can be happening internally, making her want to sit down more. I will continue to monitor her.