One of my chickens started looking poorly on Monday (April 8). Tail down and lethargic. We've had very healthy chickens and no problems for a few years now, so it was definitely a surprise when this one started acting sick. I know chickens are great at hiding illness, so when we notice something, it really must be bad. After my teens got home from school we dosed the whole flock with ivermectin (follow up dose will be given at the 10 days later mark). It was time anyway since we dose every spring and fall. On Tuesday the chicken still wasn't too happy so I mixed some Spirulina with water and put it out for all the chickens. Everyone drank and by Wednesday afternoon (yesterday) it was all gone. I noticed on Wednesday that the sick chicken's comb was flopped over, and there was some discoloration on the back tips. Today the chicken was walking around in the morning with her tail up, yay! But then spent the whole day until about 3:30pm in a nesting box. I added ACV to the chicken's water and gave a separate little dish of ACV water to the sick chicken in the nesting box. She drank a lot of it. While she was in the nesting box I felt around her body and checked her vent. No swelling, hardness, or otherwise weirdness that I could tell. She has not been laying the last few days. Now that she's out and about I've taken a few pics to share with you as her comb still looks weird to me and now she has a bloody spot on the side (now the "top" since her comb has flopped over). Does this look concerning? There is a pic of one of our other chickens too as they also have discoloration on the back tips of their comb. Does our chicken have fowl pox and her acting sick was the fever part of the illness, or does she have favus? We don't have any chicken vets/experts in my area, so I can't really get a diagnosis that way.
