Confused and Worried

[Clousic Chicks]

I have a 15 month old Australorp hen who started limping profoundly four days ago. I checked her over --no broken bones, etc. Soaked her in a warm bath for a while and then checked to see if she was egg bound--nope. Her appetite has been healthy and she has been drinking. For the past two days she has been lying on the coop floor all during the day and night. She will readily take food when I give it to her. She just stood up and was at the top of the ramp when she pooped. Her feces looked totally undigested. I have been giving her 1/2 of a baby aspirin each day in case she just strained something.

What can be causing these symptoms? Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a 15 month old Australorp hen who started limping profoundly four days ago. I checked her over --no broken bones, etc. Soaked her in a warm bath for a while and then checked to see if she was egg bound--nope. Her appetite has been healthy and she has been drinking. For the past two days she has been lying on the coop floor all during the day and night. She will readily take food when I give it to her. She just stood up and was at the top of the ramp when she pooped. Her feces looked totally undigested. I have been giving her 1/2 of a baby aspirin each day in case she just strained something.

What can be causing these symptoms? Thank you in advance for your help!

I'm sorry about your hen.
Have you added any chickens to your flock in the last 30 days?
She's eating/drinking if she's able to get to food - can you cage her and provide food/water for her that she can reach? Is her crop empty in the mornings and when you examined her, did you feel the abdomen between the legs below the vent for fluid or bloating?
When's the last time she laid an egg?

 

[Clousic Chicks]

I'm sorry about your hen.
Have you added any chickens to your flock in the last 30 days?
She's eating/drinking if she's able to get to food - can you cage her and provide food/water for her that she can reach? Is her crop empty in the mornings and when you examined her, did you feel the abdomen between the legs below the vent for fluid or bloating?
When's the last time she laid an egg?

Thank you. No new chickens--we have a ton of annoying house sparrows but I close up their run food every night to discourage them. I have been providing her with food and water--yesterday she didn't seem that interested in the water, however. Her crop is quite empty and she feels thin to me. She laid an egg yesterday --actually made her way into the nesting box--we disposed of the egg because I'm not sure what's going on. It was a good egg--maybe a little smaller than usual but it was strong. She actually came out of the coop yesterday after laying the egg. Took all of her energy to go to the blackberry bushes where she loves to lie in the grass (they all do! and I have HUGE berries because of it!). Her poo still had that funny appearance yesterday afternoon. It's firm but almost looks like pellets. AND it had the uric acid cap --so? This morning she came out after the her hatch mates did...I decided not to try to help her because yesterday she tried to fly off the ramp and landed chest first and stayed there...it was obvious that it was the wrong thing to try to help her come down. So I left her this morning to take her time going down the ramp. I put her in the coop last night because it was killing me to watch her try to walk back to the hen house!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It would be a good idea to collect some stool samples to check for worms.

In the meantime I would try getting some poultry vitamins into her to see if that will perk her up.

 

[Clousic Chicks]

It would be a good idea to collect some stool samples to check for worms.

In the meantime I would try getting some poultry vitamins into her to see if that will perk her up.

Thank you! I tried the poultry vitamins yesterday. She definitely did not want those at all. We looked through her poo yesterday--no worms visible at all but I agree we need to check.