Hi all,
Scarlet is a Rhode Island Red hen about 1.5 years old. She has acting a little strange for a couple months. She walks slower than the others and her comb is a very dark red, almost purplish. She looks fat and I don't think she has been laying. However, her eyes are bright and she has been eating and drinking normally. I've been watching her, but not overly worried. I just thought she was getting fat.
Today, though, she is acting differently. This morning, when I let the girls out of the coop to run in our backyard, she dropped down to a crouch in front of me with her wings out flat on the ground. I patted her, and she hopped up like nothing happened. I wondered if it was some mating thing (we only have hens). Tonight, though, she didn't go up the ramp into the hen house with the others. She stayed at the base of the ramp. I picked her up to put her with the others, and I felt her very bony chest bone. I've never felt this bone like that before. It felt sharp. I felt around in her stomach, it felt like a regular chubby tummy. I have a fat, bony chicken. That seems concerning to me.
I don't know a lot about chickens, and I would appreciate suggestions. Her eyes are bright. She moves her head around like a normal, healthy chicken. But something is off. Any ideas?
Edit - other hens seem fine. I'm hoping to treat at home. I don't know if any vets around here (city) that treat chickens. I'm not sure about her droppings. I don't know which ones are hers, but all the poos I have seen recently look normal to me. She is not listless. She walks around, just with a purposeful slowness. No injuries or traumas that I am aware of. We have a total of 5 hens, which are kept in a coop / hen house at night and free range in our suburban backyard by day.
Scarlet is a Rhode Island Red hen about 1.5 years old. She has acting a little strange for a couple months. She walks slower than the others and her comb is a very dark red, almost purplish. She looks fat and I don't think she has been laying. However, her eyes are bright and she has been eating and drinking normally. I've been watching her, but not overly worried. I just thought she was getting fat.
Today, though, she is acting differently. This morning, when I let the girls out of the coop to run in our backyard, she dropped down to a crouch in front of me with her wings out flat on the ground. I patted her, and she hopped up like nothing happened. I wondered if it was some mating thing (we only have hens). Tonight, though, she didn't go up the ramp into the hen house with the others. She stayed at the base of the ramp. I picked her up to put her with the others, and I felt her very bony chest bone. I've never felt this bone like that before. It felt sharp. I felt around in her stomach, it felt like a regular chubby tummy. I have a fat, bony chicken. That seems concerning to me.
I don't know a lot about chickens, and I would appreciate suggestions. Her eyes are bright. She moves her head around like a normal, healthy chicken. But something is off. Any ideas?
Edit - other hens seem fine. I'm hoping to treat at home. I don't know if any vets around here (city) that treat chickens. I'm not sure about her droppings. I don't know which ones are hers, but all the poos I have seen recently look normal to me. She is not listless. She walks around, just with a purposeful slowness. No injuries or traumas that I am aware of. We have a total of 5 hens, which are kept in a coop / hen house at night and free range in our suburban backyard by day.
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