Easter Chicken acting strange

[RI_Chicken]

Hi All!

I have an Easter chicken for about a year now that was giving to me from a friend (not sure of age). Throughout the year she was always the boss of the coop and was the loudest sounding and very active.

Over the past week things have been going south for her. It started with her laying a coin sized egg and then 2 days no eggs followed by 2 days with deformed eggs that were large in size and had almost like premature cracks on them. Upon opening those eggs, they were very watery like. After those 2 deformed eggs she laid about 3 shell less eggs and now just doesn’t lay. She has stopped being loud and making her typical noises, not every social or active. From time to time will drink and eat but not like before and wanders on her own or will just stand and stare out into space alone.

she still tries to go into the nesting box to lay but nothing ever is layer. I’m worried something is very wrong. I’ve been giving her probiotics, electrolytes and now some low fat low sugar yogurt for calcium.

has anyone ever run into this similar issue? Could she just be getting old / depressed she can’t lay anymore? Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

[aart]

She sounds sick to me.
Pretty hard to 'treat' a bird when you don't know what the problems is.

When I have a bird that is acting 'off' I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor
-their intake of food and water,
-crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed),
-and their poops.
Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling.
Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.


Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.