I would appreciate some help in making my hen feel better. Thanks!
She's a red sex-link. Age about 18 months. She's the only one in my flock of 4 hens exhibiting any symptoms. (The other three are 5.5 months and probably Production Reds.)
She normally lays an egg almost every day, but I have not gotten an egg from her since Monday. Other than that, nothing odd until today. Since I let them out of the coop this morning, her tail has been drooping, almost dragging the ground. She normally is the first hen out of the coop, and the leader in the food hunt. But today she hung back and was the last out, and is just one of the flock in walking around and pecking.
She does appear to be pecking the ground as normal, I gave them all some tomatoes this morning, and I know she ate some of that. I haven't seen her drink today, but I also haven't seen the others drink either.
I was remodeling part of the coop today, so I thought at first she might be just worried/overwhelmed by the noise and unusual things. But four hours after stopping the construction, she was still "off". And the other three hens didn't react at all except to stay on the far side of the run from the work. (She was tail-drooping before the construction began.)
I thought she might be egg bound, but massaging didn't let me feel anything like an egg. I inserted a lubricated finger in her vent to check internally, and found a lot of dry, grassy poop. The poop normally is goopy and pudding-like. So I helped remove as much as I could feel.
I checked her crop, but I don't really know what a healthy or unhealthy crop feels like. It does feel just like the other hen I checked for comparison.
After cleaning out the intestine area I put her back in the coop with the others. They have warm water and yogurt inside the coop tonight. (She does have a pre-existing condition of scaly leg mites, which is getting better with oil treatment, don't know if that's relevant.)
Any other ideas? I want her to feel better. Do let me know if I left out anything that might be important. Thanks!
She's a red sex-link. Age about 18 months. She's the only one in my flock of 4 hens exhibiting any symptoms. (The other three are 5.5 months and probably Production Reds.)
She normally lays an egg almost every day, but I have not gotten an egg from her since Monday. Other than that, nothing odd until today. Since I let them out of the coop this morning, her tail has been drooping, almost dragging the ground. She normally is the first hen out of the coop, and the leader in the food hunt. But today she hung back and was the last out, and is just one of the flock in walking around and pecking.
She does appear to be pecking the ground as normal, I gave them all some tomatoes this morning, and I know she ate some of that. I haven't seen her drink today, but I also haven't seen the others drink either.
I was remodeling part of the coop today, so I thought at first she might be just worried/overwhelmed by the noise and unusual things. But four hours after stopping the construction, she was still "off". And the other three hens didn't react at all except to stay on the far side of the run from the work. (She was tail-drooping before the construction began.)
I thought she might be egg bound, but massaging didn't let me feel anything like an egg. I inserted a lubricated finger in her vent to check internally, and found a lot of dry, grassy poop. The poop normally is goopy and pudding-like. So I helped remove as much as I could feel.
I checked her crop, but I don't really know what a healthy or unhealthy crop feels like. It does feel just like the other hen I checked for comparison.
After cleaning out the intestine area I put her back in the coop with the others. They have warm water and yogurt inside the coop tonight. (She does have a pre-existing condition of scaly leg mites, which is getting better with oil treatment, don't know if that's relevant.)
Any other ideas? I want her to feel better. Do let me know if I left out anything that might be important. Thanks!
