lennonandmaisy
Hatching
- Jul 17, 2016
- 3
- 0
- 7
I wonder if anyone can help as I am at a complete loss as to what is wrong with one of my chickens?
Last year one of my healthiest chickens passed away. She had an extremely swollen abdomen for about a month. I took her to the vet 3 times and we tried a couple of different antibiotics and then when nothing worked we thought it was kinder to let her go. A few weeks later another one of our 'new' flock members passed away. She went down hill rapidly. No swollen abdomen but she was sneezing. We took her to the vet and tried antibiotics but a few days later she passed away over night.
Move on 5 months to frebruary this year and Lennon, our friendly and healthiest chicken, start laying very large pale eggs, watery inside and very thinned shelled nearly every day. This lasted for a few months. Recently she started laying out of the coop nest, literally anywhere (including just stopping as though she was going to poo in the garden and just dropping an egg and then carrying on) and they have been soft shelled (no outer shell at all). The last few weeks I can't find any eggs at all but yesterday I did notice some egg in her poo.
What is most frustrating though is unlike the others who got obviously ill (lethargic, swollen, sneezing etc) she is showing no signs of illness other than the eggs and poo. She does have very watery poos inbetween normal poos and in the nest box in the morning the bedding is quite wet (I'm assuming this is down to her). She has ruffled feathers around her legs and has lost a little weight, although she has always been quite skinny. Other than that she is eating, drinking and running around fine. She is still extremely inquisitive and runs to you as soon as you enter the garden. I can't feel any swelling of her abdomen and there is no sneezing. Her comb and wattle are very bright and healthy and she is the last one to bed every night and first up in the mornings.
I am at a complete loss as what to do and what is wrong with her? They are free range, have access to lots of grit in and out of the coop. Access to good quality layer pellets all day and fed a hand full of corn between 3 in the evenings. I am reluctant to take her to the vet as it didn't work for the other two and just seemed to cause lots of added stress to them. I have added cider vinegar to one water dispenser and poultry tonic to another dispenser in the garden. Any suggestions about what may be wrong and how, if possible, I can make her better would be greatly appreciated as this has been going on for months now and I would like to help her as she is so friendly, she has turned into more of a pet chicken than a chicken for eggs.
Last year one of my healthiest chickens passed away. She had an extremely swollen abdomen for about a month. I took her to the vet 3 times and we tried a couple of different antibiotics and then when nothing worked we thought it was kinder to let her go. A few weeks later another one of our 'new' flock members passed away. She went down hill rapidly. No swollen abdomen but she was sneezing. We took her to the vet and tried antibiotics but a few days later she passed away over night.
Move on 5 months to frebruary this year and Lennon, our friendly and healthiest chicken, start laying very large pale eggs, watery inside and very thinned shelled nearly every day. This lasted for a few months. Recently she started laying out of the coop nest, literally anywhere (including just stopping as though she was going to poo in the garden and just dropping an egg and then carrying on) and they have been soft shelled (no outer shell at all). The last few weeks I can't find any eggs at all but yesterday I did notice some egg in her poo.
What is most frustrating though is unlike the others who got obviously ill (lethargic, swollen, sneezing etc) she is showing no signs of illness other than the eggs and poo. She does have very watery poos inbetween normal poos and in the nest box in the morning the bedding is quite wet (I'm assuming this is down to her). She has ruffled feathers around her legs and has lost a little weight, although she has always been quite skinny. Other than that she is eating, drinking and running around fine. She is still extremely inquisitive and runs to you as soon as you enter the garden. I can't feel any swelling of her abdomen and there is no sneezing. Her comb and wattle are very bright and healthy and she is the last one to bed every night and first up in the mornings.
I am at a complete loss as what to do and what is wrong with her? They are free range, have access to lots of grit in and out of the coop. Access to good quality layer pellets all day and fed a hand full of corn between 3 in the evenings. I am reluctant to take her to the vet as it didn't work for the other two and just seemed to cause lots of added stress to them. I have added cider vinegar to one water dispenser and poultry tonic to another dispenser in the garden. Any suggestions about what may be wrong and how, if possible, I can make her better would be greatly appreciated as this has been going on for months now and I would like to help her as she is so friendly, she has turned into more of a pet chicken than a chicken for eggs.
