I noticed today that Peanut, our Splash Cochin/Buff Orpington hen, has been acting unusual and I'm worried about it. Hopefully someone can help!
1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Buff Orpington/Splash Cochin hen, weight is unknown, she will be 1 year old on June 12th so she's about 11 months and 21 days old.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
While free ranging, she wasn't following the rest of the flock like she usually does...She often followed our other hen, a black Ameraucana, who is acting normal, but today she wasn't even doing that. She wasn't very fluffed up, but was just acting very slow and not very active like she usually is. She would eat and drink on her own, and went to roost on her own. She hasn't started laying yet so I thought that maybe she needed to lay an egg for the first time, so I placed her in a nest box ad she stayed there until roosting time and the last time I checked that's where she stayed for the night, which is also unusual because she always sleeps on the perch with the black Ameraucana hen.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Just today, in the late afternoon time. She was acting fine this morning and was free ranging outside until late afternoon, when I noticed how she wasn't very actively following her flock around. She just stood under our car unless someone walked up to her...then she would waddle away, which is normal because she is kinda skittish.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
There are no physical injuries that I've seen after looking her over, and nothing has happened recently that could have caused her to act like this. Also, she has a crooked beak that was broken when she was younger and it healed up, but has always been slightly crooked (you can see where it healed over the crack on the side of her beak). She has and can eat and drink perfectly fine on her own, so I know her crooked beak doesn't seem to bother her and it hasn't gotten worse (maybe it has straightened a little from the healing, if anything).
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Nothing that I know of. If anything would have happened I would have noticed because I'm always keeping an eye on all of the chickens while they are free ranging.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She has been drinking water normally. She has also been eating layer pellets for most of her life and anything else, such as bugs, grass, etc. and once in a while will get treats such as leftover bread. She also eats some cracked corn while free ranging, but most of her diet consists of layer pellets.
Also, there's some styrofoam in the garage that the coop is in, which I try to keep away from the chickens as much as possible because they like to eat it, but apparently today Peanut ate some. I don't think this affected her thought because all of the other chickens have found some styrofoam once in a while and it didn't affect them at all, even if they ate quite a bit before I caught them and took it away.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
I haven't had a chance to look at her poop, but I'm guessing it looks normal like all the other chickens. None of the other chickens have anything in their poop, like blood, worms, etc. It all looks normal. So it's likely hers does too...I will check it the next time I see her in the morning.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Nothing really...I've put her in a nest box to help encourage her to lay her egg, which was what I thought she was trying to do at the moment.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I would like to treat her myself if possible.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Sorry, no picture is available at the moment!
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Peanut's coop is in a garage, and like all of the other coops, it has large pine shavings in it for bedding and we have never had a problem with that.
She just has never acted like this before and we don't understand why she is all of the sudden.
When I put her in the nest box today so she could choose whether she needed to lay an egg or not, normally she would have hopped right out and ran back to her flock. But instead she just sat there until roosting time and is sleeping out there right now.
I'm really worried because my dad says he doesn't know if she'll make it tonight because she's acting so unusually slow and lethargic.
Thanks for anything you can help with!

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Buff Orpington/Splash Cochin hen, weight is unknown, she will be 1 year old on June 12th so she's about 11 months and 21 days old.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
While free ranging, she wasn't following the rest of the flock like she usually does...She often followed our other hen, a black Ameraucana, who is acting normal, but today she wasn't even doing that. She wasn't very fluffed up, but was just acting very slow and not very active like she usually is. She would eat and drink on her own, and went to roost on her own. She hasn't started laying yet so I thought that maybe she needed to lay an egg for the first time, so I placed her in a nest box ad she stayed there until roosting time and the last time I checked that's where she stayed for the night, which is also unusual because she always sleeps on the perch with the black Ameraucana hen.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Just today, in the late afternoon time. She was acting fine this morning and was free ranging outside until late afternoon, when I noticed how she wasn't very actively following her flock around. She just stood under our car unless someone walked up to her...then she would waddle away, which is normal because she is kinda skittish.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
There are no physical injuries that I've seen after looking her over, and nothing has happened recently that could have caused her to act like this. Also, she has a crooked beak that was broken when she was younger and it healed up, but has always been slightly crooked (you can see where it healed over the crack on the side of her beak). She has and can eat and drink perfectly fine on her own, so I know her crooked beak doesn't seem to bother her and it hasn't gotten worse (maybe it has straightened a little from the healing, if anything).
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Nothing that I know of. If anything would have happened I would have noticed because I'm always keeping an eye on all of the chickens while they are free ranging.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She has been drinking water normally. She has also been eating layer pellets for most of her life and anything else, such as bugs, grass, etc. and once in a while will get treats such as leftover bread. She also eats some cracked corn while free ranging, but most of her diet consists of layer pellets.
Also, there's some styrofoam in the garage that the coop is in, which I try to keep away from the chickens as much as possible because they like to eat it, but apparently today Peanut ate some. I don't think this affected her thought because all of the other chickens have found some styrofoam once in a while and it didn't affect them at all, even if they ate quite a bit before I caught them and took it away.

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
I haven't had a chance to look at her poop, but I'm guessing it looks normal like all the other chickens. None of the other chickens have anything in their poop, like blood, worms, etc. It all looks normal. So it's likely hers does too...I will check it the next time I see her in the morning.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Nothing really...I've put her in a nest box to help encourage her to lay her egg, which was what I thought she was trying to do at the moment.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I would like to treat her myself if possible.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Sorry, no picture is available at the moment!
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Peanut's coop is in a garage, and like all of the other coops, it has large pine shavings in it for bedding and we have never had a problem with that.
She just has never acted like this before and we don't understand why she is all of the sudden.


Thanks for anything you can help with!
