Elderly Hen Not Eating and Slow

[DottyHen1]

My almost 7 year old cuckoo maran Dot has recently taken a turn. Last Sunday, I noticed when I let her out to free range she was moving a little slower, kind of just meandering. I didn’t think much of it since she’s an old gal. Then about three days later I noticed she was really struggling and not wanting to leave the coop. She then hopped into the nesting box and settled down and stayed there the rest of the night. She was there the next morning and wouldn’t take food from me. She was all puffed up by her head and definitely ill. Next day, she tried to hop down to greet me but nearly fell over when she hit the ground. I have no clue what is happening to her. I took pictures of her stance and how she doesn’t want to use her toes/feet. Is she just dying from old age or something else? The other hens are all doing well. Thank you everyone.


(^i set her on the roost to see if she would grab on, she didn’t get up there herself)

 

[azygous]

Are you sure the other hen wasn't just testing spots to sun herself? My chickens do this when they're choosing the spot with the best sun to settle down for a sun bath. This is common in winter when the ground is cold. The sun may have been shining longer in some spots and hens can sense this. Cats have nothing over chickens when it comes to being heat seeking missiles.

When basing a health assessment on behavior, it's important to observe over a 24 hour period to be sure there is a definite change.

Do these two hens have diarrhea or is their poop mostly solid?

 

[azygous]

What is your location on this planet?

Had she been molting heavily prior to this?

Have you checked her crop to be sure it's emptying over night?

What does her poop look like?

Have you tried giving her special foods like egg, oats, rice, or applesauce?

Had she been laying regularly up until recently?

 

[Purelychicks]

Could be coccidiosis.. does she have green mucus or blood in her stool? If so, go to tractor supply or Amazon and get some Corid to treat them for coccidiosis

 

[azygous]

Ruling out crop issues and molting issues helps narrow things down to a choice between treatable and untreatable issues.

The curled toes can be a symptom of riboflavin deficiency. This can be treated with two to four weeks of B-complex. Go to where you buy your vitamins for the family. Look for B-100 complex. It's a pill the size of an aspirin. Pop one into her beak once a day. In two weeks you should see improvement. Add a vitamin E400iu to this daily treatment for good measure. Give her a little egg with it or a sliver of a tablet of selenium to aid in absorption.

If no improvement by week four, then she may have a chronic condition that isn't treatable.

 

[azygous]

Vitamin deficiencies do occur seemingly overnight. Or at least, the symptoms will.

No. You cannot treat for a B-vitamin deficiency at the same time as treating for coccidiosis. They cancel out each other.

The B-vitamin that cancels out the effectiveness of Corid is thiamine, vitamin B-1. You can treat coccidiosis at the same time as a B-deficiency by buying indvidual B-vitamins and only giving B-2, 6, and 12. That will likely involve trotting yourself to a health food store to get these three individual B-vitamins, though, and you'll be spending at least three times as much as buying just one bottle of B-complex.

Unless your hen has diarrhea, it's unlikely she has coccidiosis. Even less likely if your weather has been cold and on the dry side.

 

[ChickNanny13]

What feed are you feeding your chickens?
I agree with @azygous about the vitamin deficiency ... Yes it can happen over nite and not all will be affected.

 

[Lilokieescorter]

I wish I had the right answer for your sweet Dot, but I don't. So I offer you this, Hugs from my flock to yours

 

[DottyHen1]

Ruling out crop issues and molting issues helps narrow things down to a choice between treatable and untreatable issues.

The curled toes can be a symptom of riboflavin deficiency. This can be treated with two to four weeks of B-complex. Go to where you buy your vitamins for the family. Look for B-100 complex. It's a pill the size of an aspirin. Pop one into her beak once a day. In two weeks you should see improvement. Add a vitamin E400iu to this daily treatment for good measure. Give her a little egg with it or a sliver of a tablet of selenium to aid in absorption.

If no improvement by week four, then she may have a chronic condition that isn't treatable.

Thank you very much! Could a vitamin deficiency really happen out of nowhere and cause such drastic symptoms like that? I went ahead and got Corid in case she had coccidiosis, can both corid and the vitamins be given at the same time?

 

[DottyHen1]

What is your location on this planet?

Had she been molting heavily prior to this?

Have you checked her crop to be sure it's emptying over night?

What does her poop look like?

Have you tried giving her special foods like egg, oats, rice, or applesauce?

Had she been laying regularly up until recently?

I live in the southeast of the US. She molted normally about 3-4 months ago. She doesn’t seem to want food at all and I can’t get her to eat so she doesn’t have much of anything in her crop. I only saw her poop once in front of me and it was a small amount and a yellowish paste consistency. She hasn’t been interested in food or water. She hasn’t been laying eggs for two years since she’s older.