Crook chook with a drooping tail

[princessbasia]

My chook (X Australorp with goodness only knows what else) is about 7 months old and has been walking around looking rather glum for the past week. Her tail is down and she spends a lot of time sitting. At first we thought she was just enjoying the sun, but perhaps something more sinister is happening. I don't want to catch her yet as I feel I might cause her undue stress. I wondered whether she might be egg bound. To my knowledge she has not laid her first egg yet, but I could be wrong in that assumption.

Her 'sister' (born at the same time) has been laying for over a month now and had been laying for about a week when one day she could hardly walk and her tail was down, but the next day she laid an egg and she was fine. This is why I'm wondering if my other girl might be egg bound.

I cannot see that her abdomen is swollen or that her vent is enlarged, but then I haven't had a close up look yet. Could this be something other than being egg bound that someone else might have experience with? We live a fair way out of town and I am without a vehicle until tomorrow, and I'd like to do something proactive if at all possible before going to the expense of a vet trip.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time. Oh, and great site btw. Very interesting stuff which has helped us a lot.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Anybody have any ideas to help this chicken in Tasmania? (Sorry, I don't but I'm sure someone will.)

 

[princessbasia]

Hi Buff. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I caught her this afternoon and she's sitting snug in a box in the laundry. She is eating food (I bought her some special stuff in place of the standard layer pellets) and drinking water, but she feels very 'light' - not sure whether or not she's lost any weight, as I haven't touched her since she was a chick. What a lovely little girl she is, though - she makes a beautiful chirruping noise when I go in to see her. She seems to be all feathers - doesn't feel bony, but I'm sure there's more feather than chook there. So, eating and drinking fine, and judging by what I just cleaned out, the other end is working adequately as well! Just a sad little girl with her tail down. I'm going to keep her in overnight and I'll release her tomorrow and see what happens. Meanwhile, if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you for your time.