Depressed Chicken?

[Monsterette]

I have 4 chickens that are about 10 months and I recently added 4 more pullets to our flock. We followed all the suggestions on introducing them. We had a separate run and coop for them, next to the old coop and run and we slowly let them out to free range with the older girls.

This past Sunday it had been about 6 weeks so we put all the girls in the same run and coop for the evening. Right after this introduction one of our new chickens seemed to have gotten sick and she was fine the previous day. There was no sign she was hen pecked or had any injuries.

On Monday we isolated her and have been watching her, she’s eating and drinking very little, she’s a bit hunched over at times and has poop down her back end feathers (not sure if there is a correct term for that). Yesterday I gave her a lukewarm soak in water with a bit of Epsom salt and I did the same thing today along with a bit of olive oil on my pinky gently around and into her vent. (my hand was of course gloved). After I tried the soak, which she was not interested in at all. She got loose and seemed to really want to be with her "sisters". She started pecking at the ground and following them, so at this point I just let her be out. I’m kind of at a loss on what to do.

FYI, yesterday I took her to the vet which didn’t give me many answers at all, but she said that she didn’t feel an egg and had no hard elements in her abdomen, her temp was 105.5 which is within the normal range for a chicken. But I’m not confident she really knew what she was doing

Could my chicken be depressed?

 

[Sally PB]

Besides the integration, have there been any other changes? Even the integration, though it seemed to go well, would be stressful.

Maybe she's more stressed than the other chickens, and this is her way of dealing with it. Perhaps she is sad/depressed.

I hope others will chime in here...

 

[Monsterette]

Besides the integration, have there been any other changes? Even the integration, though it seemed to go well, would be stressful.

Maybe she's more stressed than the other chickens, and this is her way of dealing with it. Perhaps she is sad/depressed.

I hope others will chime in here...

Thank you for replying.

No other changes, besides the vet late yesterday and today she's back to where she was on Monday/Tuesday. But she is overall by herself in her old coop and when i went back outside just now she was just hanging out under a tree by herself. So I put her back in the coop.

Maybe I should let her out with the others and just give it a few days?

I just don't want to get any of the others sick if she has something.

I checked the other chickens poop today and I didn't see any worms and non of them have fleas or lice.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm going to try tagging some members who might know some more. I've never tagged anyone, so I hope I'm doing it correctly.
@Eggcessive, @Folly's place, @azygous , @Wyorp Rock
Any ideas here?

 

[Folly's place]

No doubt that they are all somewhat stressed; new place, new birds, new pecking order to develop. But, make sure she doesn't have any mites or lice too. Have you checked the birds at night when they are roosting, with a small flashlight?
Have a fecal run at the vet's office, in case there's something there.
Sometimes birds just get sick, individually, and don't do well. I hope she's not one of those, but see how things go.
Bringing in birds from other flocks is always a risk, both to your birds, and to the new ones meeting yours. May it be nothing serious!
Mary

 

[azygous]

When they were all out free ranging, what were they eating? Is there any grass clippings, compost, leaves that they may have consumed?

Tonight, take up all food and water and then check her crop frist thing in the morning. It should be flat and empty. If it's full, that would be her problem.

 

[Monsterette]

I'm going to try tagging some members who might know some more. I've never tagged anyone, so I hope I'm doing it correctly.
@Eggcessive, @Folly's place, @azygous , @Wyorp Rock
Any ideas here?

Thank you!

 

[Monsterette]

No doubt that they are all somewhat stressed; new place, new birds, new pecking order to develop. But, make sure she doesn't have any mites or lice too. Have you checked the birds at night when they are roosting, with a small flashlight?
Have a fecal run at the vet's office, in case there's something there.
Sometimes birds just get sick, individually, and don't do well. I hope she's not one of those, but see how things go.
Bringing in birds from other flocks is always a risk, both to your birds, and to the new ones meeting yours. May it be nothing serious!
Mary

Thank you so much.

I got all the birds from the same farm and when she went to the vet she had no lice or fleas. She did a small poop at the vets and they are going to try and run a test but they haven't gotten back to me.

She's currently separated and is not roosting she's just sleeping on the floor. But she has done that since we got her although sometimes she would roost.

The other 3 are in the coop with the older girls and they are on the roost each group on their own side.

I'm just wondering if I should just let her out to be with the flock during the day and see if that perks her up.

 

[Monsterette]

When they were all out free ranging, what were they eating? Is there any grass clippings, compost, leaves that they may have consumed?

Tonight, take up all food and water and then check her crop frist thing in the morning. It should be flat and empty. If it's full, that would be her problem.

Thank you. They eat grass and leaves. But when she was at the vet, although I don't think she was very knowledgable she said she had nothing hard in her belly or crop.

For the past few days she's eaten very little but I did give her some yogurt and she ate a bit of that.

 

[azygous]

Let's be sure about the crop and do the check in the morning. Vets sometimes are wrong, especially if they don't often see chickens.