Got a girl not being herself

[jamesdeanreeves]

Howdy, all. I got one that hasn't been herself for a few weeks now. I've noticed her comb seems to have shrunk and lost it's color, and she doesn't hold her tail feathers up like the others. She's not been keeping tight in the flock, but seems to slowly follow and not all that sociable. She's eating, drinking and seems to be keeping herself clean, with the exception of a messy butt like a few others do. So I'm not sure what to do here. Any advise would be much appreciated.

I should add I don't think she's egg bound - she doesn't waddle like I've read egg bound chickens do, and it's been a few weeks - my understanding is they usually die in a matter of days if egg bound - no?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Try to have a fecal sample read. The messy vent indicates there could be something amiss in the digestive tract.
I wouldn't worry about the comb. It doesn't necessarily indicate a health problem.
Any time they go out of production, like with molt, the comb and wattles will shrink and become pale.
I've also had productive hens that never developed large red combs and hens to keep their large bright red combs year-round whether laying or not.

 

[dawg53]

Also inspect her closely for lice/mites, especially around the vent area. What is the color and consistency of her feces? What are you feeding her?

 

[jamesdeanreeves]

Hi, folks, thanks for the replies. I managed to catch her - wasn't very hard and not much struggle - she may be a little thin. Attached are pics of her vent - it kinda looked OK, close inspection didn't show any critters - probing in the vent was somewhat difficult. I couldn't get my finger in far (surgical gloves,no KY) but I did feel something to the side that was round and small - about the size of half-dollar - there was vent-skin between it and my finger, so I wasn't sure if that was an organ or a small egg - I couldn't feel it directly - maybe her vent tube is all twisted inside? But she is pooping - sleeping in the nest as a matter of fact and leaving a mess - see pic. The area under her vent was somewhat void of feathers and appeared to only have the center of the feather remaining (the quill?). One thing I noticed was an area on here back that stretched from her head to her tail - almost like singed feathers - see pic. I noticed something like this on two other girls - both Americana's, but it's only on the back of their head - they are fine - this was their first season to molt, so maybe that? It seemed like the feathers in that area had been clipped off - see pic with hand in it. I didn't see any critters in the feathers or skin.

Do I have multiple problems here?

 

[jamesdeanreeves]

Just to let you all know, we had to say bye to the girl.

Took her into a poultry vet and it didn't take long for him to diagnose her with a tumor - that was the hard round object I could feel thru the vent walls.

He said that at around 2-3 years of age (she was 3) is when chickens can develop these type of problems. He said he's seen many with this same thing and there's not much that can be done. It was highly unlikely that she would live much more than another month or two, and if she did, even more unlikely that she would ever lay again.

The only options were to bring her home with pain medication and let her die naturally or euthanasia.

We chose the latter.

We brought her back, dug a deep hole in the run, lined it with straw and scratch, then laid her in it. Covered her up and spread a little scratch around the area for a send-off by her sisters.

 

[dawg53]

I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for following up with her diagnosis and posting it here, very informative.