Help: Sick Hen? Egg bound?

[RoostinRue]

My hen has been acting strange since yesterday. She laid her first egg last Friday and hasn’t laid since. Yesterday she started to refuse food and hold her tail feathers down. She keeps to herself in the darkest part of coop, so I assumed she was egg bound, I didn’t feel anything on her abdomen though. We ended up giving her an epsom salt bath and she loved it. However she’s been pooping liquid with some reddish brown in it since yesterday morning, but it doesn’t look like blood to me? Not sure if it’s egg bound or a sickness? We did switch their feed to layer since we got our first egg last Friday. Not sure if that has something to do with it. When I let her roam the yard she’s happy and her tail feathers are normal and she walks around fine but doesn’t eat, just pecks. I tried feeding her scrambled eggs and crushed up egg shells with her food, but she refuses to eat that too. She use to get really chatty when I walked into the coop but now she doesn’t say anything

 

[Yah]

From what I've read it seams that its egg bound stuff and you should do something quickly or she might die

 

[azygous]

You have a very good intuitive sense of your chickens. Trust it. Develop it. You noticed her behavior has changed in telling ways. This is valuable.

I'm going to respond with my own experience, and I'm inclined to suspect either a bacterial infection or egg binding, maybe both. When this happens to one of my hens, I cover both bases to save time and to get treatment going for either possibility. Doing this, not knowing for sure what we're dealing with, can do no harm.

Do you have any antibiotics on hand? A leftover people prescription will usually work. Do you have a calcium supplement on hand that is used to prevent osteoporosis? Or Tums?

I would start the hen immediately on both the calcium, at least 600mg, given directly into the beak , and an antibiotic. This will encourage contractions is she is dealing with a stuck egg which may be up in the oviduct too far to feel externally. The antibiotic started immediately could save her life if this is an anaerobic bacteria which can kill in as little as 24 hours.

The brownish runny poop usually means bacteria. She may have picked up something in the yard, contaminated insects if she is prone to digging deep, or something spoiled that is laced with bacteria. Amoxicillin is a very good broad spectrum antibiotic that is useful in treating this. It very often prescribed to people, so often this is in a medicine chest. If not, call around to pet stores, aquarium shops, and feed stores and ask for fish mox or aqua mox. If you can't find it today, you can get it online, and I'll give you that info if needed.

 

[theresalail]

can i get the informatiom for the antibioticts please???? i have a very very sick chicken

 

[Auntiejessi3]

can i get the informatiom for the antibioticts please???? i have a very very sick chicken

If not, call around to pet stores, aquarium shops, and feed stores and ask for fish mox or aqua mox. If you can't find it today, you can get it online, and I'll give you that info if needed It can also be ordered off of chewy.com, https://aquaticsunlimited.com/product/aqua-mox-amoxicillin-100-capsules/, just search Google

 

[azygous]

These fish antibiotics have been pulled by the US government. They are no longer available without a prescription. Unless you live somewhere in Asia, you will need to go through a vet to get them. If you have any leftover human prescriptions on hand, they will work for chickens. We need to know what they are to give you the dosing instructions.