HELP.. chicken is skin and bones

[Bogtown Chick]

Give her belly a squeeze. Is it firm like a baseball or is it sort of normal squishable? Firm like a baseball or any size is a sign eggs yolks are dropping into the abdomen. ( internal laying)

 

[lissalischicks]

It's her first molt. She is almost exactly 2 years old.

 

[lissalischicks]

She belly is soft. I'm going to the feed store to get high protein feed but we have been giving her more protein. I didn't know they can have some diarrhea from a molt... learned something new

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Oh yeah. Mine get diarrhea from molting. It’s a bugger for them. I become the sphincter police on their feed during that time too. They get hardly any scratch during the molt. Just their formulated feed and clean water always available. Probiotics at least once a week or acv 3-4 x week. It helps them use the feed more efficiently too. And they all get a can of white albacore once a week maybe twice. The molts have been much easier for us since I’ve gotten stricter in the fall. 18 months is usually the time frame for my birds’ molts. So she’s running a bit behind on her molt you think?

 

[lissalischicks]

I think she is running behind. The other girls which were born at the same time as here have already molted so we thought she was never going to molt when she did.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Well my fingers are crossed that it’s just worms or a needed adjustment for nutrition during the molt.

Just an FYI valbazen and maybe safegaurd can mess with the feather formation creating fretted feathers. It can also be hard on the bird to worm. So maybe think it through on what you need to do here. Could ask your vet for a simple float test to check for signs of worms. Might be a cheap option to get an answer on the worm question. Would just need to bring in her poop.

 

[MLG1900]

@MLG1900 The one that is giving me concern is a Barred Rock too... just saying a weird coincidence. I hope your girl pulls through too. Have you tried NutriDrench? That may help her energy and hopefully eat more.

Well my girl had a little more energy which could be due to the NutriDrench. I checked her about 15 minutes ago and her crop has food in it so she must be eating. I did give her some tuna, she ate a little but she is very wary of me. She did not appreciate me giving me the NutriDrench and Corid..... rather her hate me and be alive ....

I did just buy some nutridrench and gave her a dose. She did not appreciate that at all. Smelled like straight up multivitamin liquid and I hear that tastes awful. Also, I wanted to mention that I was concerned about lice / mites for awhile because all chickens seemed to NOT lay eggs this summer. Every time I checked, I never found anything. But then I took a picture of her swollen toes and someone mentioned she had leg mites and that is how they can break the skin and allow infection in. After looking back at the photo, he was right. And I would never have noticed it because it did not look as bad as most cases I have seen online.

 

[2jzkilla]

I too have a barred rock with the same thing happening right now. It seems everything I've tried just makes her worse. I don't think she will make it through the day.

 

[MLG1900]

Well, today I brought her in and soaked her feet again. I used a sterile needle to poke through the skin and I was able to express a lot more pus and blood from her toes again. It is 100% gross. It is liquid and solid and some parts of it has black specks in it. Re-applied the Prid and bandaged her feet up again. All of this treatment took over an hour and a half because she then has to be blown dry. She had diarrhea twice while inside. I fed her some wet cat food and gave her more water with the nutridrench added. Her weight remains the same.

 

[MLG1900]

I too have a barred rock with the same thing happening right now. It seems everything I've tried just makes her worse. I don't think she will make it through the day.

Wow, so sorry to hear that. How old is your barred rock? Mine is just under 2 years old. about 22 months old. How long has she been sick and what have you been doing to treat her.