Hello. This is my first post as I am quite new to chicken keeping. I have a sick bird and I am having trouble figuring out what is wrong with her. I apologize for the length.
3 days ago when I let my 2 girls out to free range I noticed that one was sticking close to the coop and not doing her normal chicken things, like dust bathing, scratching under the pines, and eating all the seedlings in my vegetable garden like her sister was up to. At first I thought it was fear- we have hawks and after having to chase one off another bird the girls are only allowed out when I'm outside.
But the next day she was still acting off enough that even my husband noticed. I picked her up and she felt very light and bony. (She is not fond of handling so I had not held her in quite awhile but she had been observed eating happily just a few days earlier.) Some water came up from her beak when I lifted her which has never happened before. She also was doing the weird snake-neck thing. After feeling her up I thought she might have had an impacted crop (our grass had been long recently and the girls like to get into everything) since I felt a small lump and it was still early in the day. I dropped some water and olive oil on her beak and locked her up with lots of tempting foods to see if she would try to eat anything. She looked at everything a bit but didn't eat. Later I dropped water mixed with ACV on her beak and she took that.
She's not walking much but also not walking penguin-y or anything and not trying to sit funny, and I felt her up but only felt a small, soft lump, and her vent looks fine so I don't think she's egg bound. Her feathers are a dirty below the vent but the vent itself is clean, pink, and fine. I had noticed a shortage of eggs recently but couldn't be sure who was dropping production since the eggs all look the same and end up in the same nest but now I'm pretty sure it's this one. I'm hoping she didn't have an egg break or something.
Next morning she was still off, and her crop was empty but felt squishy so I tried vomiting her to see what I would get. Very thin brownish water, and it didn't really smell at all. Not sour crop?
She is not VERY lethargic, just stares into space and holds still a lot, tail down, and isn't eating. She is not closing her eyes a lot or anything. She is going outside and was even on one of the stumps I have in their run to stand on. She has been spotted in different parts of the run and even staring at bugs as if she was thinking about eating them. She has jumped up into the coop people door (to get away from me messing with her) which is probably two feet off the ground. But still no eating. I've been making sure she gets water but I haven't tried to force food yet. Tomorrow will be 4 days so I'm thinking I should try to get some food in her.
Any ideas on what I should do next?
3 days ago when I let my 2 girls out to free range I noticed that one was sticking close to the coop and not doing her normal chicken things, like dust bathing, scratching under the pines, and eating all the seedlings in my vegetable garden like her sister was up to. At first I thought it was fear- we have hawks and after having to chase one off another bird the girls are only allowed out when I'm outside.
But the next day she was still acting off enough that even my husband noticed. I picked her up and she felt very light and bony. (She is not fond of handling so I had not held her in quite awhile but she had been observed eating happily just a few days earlier.) Some water came up from her beak when I lifted her which has never happened before. She also was doing the weird snake-neck thing. After feeling her up I thought she might have had an impacted crop (our grass had been long recently and the girls like to get into everything) since I felt a small lump and it was still early in the day. I dropped some water and olive oil on her beak and locked her up with lots of tempting foods to see if she would try to eat anything. She looked at everything a bit but didn't eat. Later I dropped water mixed with ACV on her beak and she took that.
She's not walking much but also not walking penguin-y or anything and not trying to sit funny, and I felt her up but only felt a small, soft lump, and her vent looks fine so I don't think she's egg bound. Her feathers are a dirty below the vent but the vent itself is clean, pink, and fine. I had noticed a shortage of eggs recently but couldn't be sure who was dropping production since the eggs all look the same and end up in the same nest but now I'm pretty sure it's this one. I'm hoping she didn't have an egg break or something.
Next morning she was still off, and her crop was empty but felt squishy so I tried vomiting her to see what I would get. Very thin brownish water, and it didn't really smell at all. Not sour crop?
She is not VERY lethargic, just stares into space and holds still a lot, tail down, and isn't eating. She is not closing her eyes a lot or anything. She is going outside and was even on one of the stumps I have in their run to stand on. She has been spotted in different parts of the run and even staring at bugs as if she was thinking about eating them. She has jumped up into the coop people door (to get away from me messing with her) which is probably two feet off the ground. But still no eating. I've been making sure she gets water but I haven't tried to force food yet. Tomorrow will be 4 days so I'm thinking I should try to get some food in her.
Any ideas on what I should do next?
