hen is camped out in a corner

[theresak]

I have one barred rock hen who is sitting in the far corner of the coop, this is day 3. she doesn't want to eat or drink. i am afraid she has gotten ill, rest of the 5 chickens seem ok. I was away last week, and the neighbors were feeding them so i have no idea what it could be, maybe water got stagnant? they were on og feed & grain, but neighbor bought crumbles when she ran out of feed, also they free range on a run during the day, but she right now is not leaving the hen house. should i move her somewhere? they are approx 2 and a half months old, no eggs yet. i am totally new to this chicken business thanks for any help with her.

 

[threehorses]

First, we need to know what the three feeds are. At her age (8 weeks) she should be just starting on 'grower', or staying on starter/grower feed. If she's been eating a good bit of grain, her diet has likely been deficient in a number of things including absorbed calcium, protein, and important vitamins for growth.

Particularly when you're relatively new to poultry, the babies should always have 'starter' crumbles as 95% of their diet for the first 6-8 weeks. The next 6-18 weeks should be a grower feed (one designed for the type of birds they're to be - broiler grower for slaughter, regular grower for laying or breeding or pets). At 18 weeks, you start to watch the combs of the pullets (which are still tight, pale, and dry). When they start to enlarge and redden, then you slowly integrate laying crumbles into the feed. That way they start to get their calcium, don't get too rapid a diet change, but don't come off of grower too fast as obviously they're still growing.

At about that same time, they should start to get calcium supplementation in the form of oyster shell. (Not egg shells, please.) That way the pullets who need a little more calcium than provided in the feed can self-supplement.

SO back to your baby. I'd make sure her feed is a starter/grower or grower. I would put her up in a smaller area and make sure she eats her feed and drinks water. Using a vitamin/mineral/electrolyte supplement for poultry (the silver packages from the feed store) will help her get back into shape. If she's not eating, I would make a damp mash out of crumbles, yogurt, and a little water for her first meal of the day.

The yogurt will help provide nutrients, but most importantly will help provide more living bacteria for her digestive tract. Poultry depend on living bacteria in their intestines, mostly lactobacilli but there are others as well. Those bacteria help to keep the birds healthier but also help them to absorb more nutrients from the food, use their food more efficiently.

Also if these babies aren't in a pen, or have any access to anything other than crumbles, they should be getting chick grit by this age. Chick grit pieces are smaller than normal chicken grit, but just as important. Birds who receive grit are shown to digest their food more efficiently and gain more weight. So you want to provide that in a separate container for them. When they get older, you can put the oyster shell in the same container. They're both important.

Since you have her up, you should take the time to check her carefully. Feel her weight - you should be able to feel her keel bone but there should be meat to either side of it. it shouldn't feel like a spatula. I suspect the change of feed, etc, might have caused her to stop eating. Also check her thoroughly for poultry lice or mites. Look particularly in warm moist places like under the wings, around the vent, and at the back of the neck. Check the feathers' bases for clusters of white eggs, and check the skin for redness or irritation.

Then check her breathing - both with your hand and with your ears. Listen to her breathing around her head, throat, and her chest. Put your hand there as sometimes you can 'feel' rattles more readily than hearing them. Examine her eyes, nares (nostrils), etc for any abnormalities.

Watch and report to us what her droppings are like (another reason to keep her up, that and making her feel more safe so she's ore likely to eat without competition or stress.) Droppings can tell you a lot about what's going on inside your bird.

These are things you should do to all of your birds at least once a month not only so that you become very familiar with them, but also so that you can catch problems ahead of time.

When you put her up, check her feeders/waterers/area carefully for any sign of mildew, mold, stagnant water, etc. If there are droppings or "biofilm" on the waterers or along the insides, clean them with soap and hot water, rinse well, and refill.

If she switched feed, make sure there's not something else she could have tried to eat if she didn't like the new food.

Also while you have her up, you can use boiled and mashed eggs to tempt her to eat and help her gain weight. A damp mash made by mixing yogurt (1t) with water (3 T's), a little boiled egg, and some crumbles - mixed and left to absorb for 10 minutes, can be a great health booster for this bird. It would not hurt, given her current state, to also give her some PolyViSol baby vitamins (not the iron fortified, but the non-iron-fortified) 3 drops in the beak for a week because of her weakness and reluctancy to move.

So for now:

Make sure she's on a proper feed: grower or starter grower, and is eating it.
Give her a daily supplement of yogurt, egg, vitamins for a week.
Keep her up until she's quite vigorous again.
Supplement all the other birds with a vitamin/mineral/electrolyte supplement.
Check to make sure the new food is very fresh.
Check the premises for any mildew/molds, etc.
Reduce grains to less than 10% of her total diet.

Please do let us know how she's doing. If we can do anything further to help, please feel free to ask. Thank you!

p.s. That includes asking for any more care tips for the future. Welcome to chickens!

 

[theresak]

Thank you so much for your response. It really helped me look at the situation to try to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately she did not make it through the nite last nite. So, So sad!!!
I scrubbed the water jar today with soap and water, there was a little slime on the inside, but not bad. I got the oyster shells for them, which they seem to like. They had some yogurt this morning which they also liked. The food they are on now is green mtn organics crumbles. they were on the blue seal "home fresh" pellets, and Blue Seal medicated starter in the beginning. should I keep them on the Home fresh or are the crumbles sufficient. my feed store did not have vitamin supplements for their water. Is there an online source? I have given them some vegetable scraps but now many and definitely none in the last week.

 

[jeanniejayne]

Dear Threehorses,

I read with great interest your very detailed (and obviously steeped in experience and good nutrition) care plan for the sick bird, in which you mentioned droppings. I'd like to ask for a consultation as well!

I have five 5 month-old Welsummer pullets, most of whom are laying and have been for a month, much to my surprise.

1. One of them -- I don't know which, has been having dark tarry stools for months -- perhaps always. I have grown so used to seeing them I stopped noticing. None of the girls seem to be in anything but the most vibrant health.
2. Until yesterday when one of my hens has started hanging out in the nest box for hours. She makes a sort of warning "chattering"when disturbed. Saturday we discovered, and removed, a 4 foot black snake that,I suspect, had a taste for eggs. The day after that the hen spent 6 hours in the next box. I scooped her up, thinking she might be eggbound, and used some mineral oil to check her vent for obstruction, but felt nothing (although I am new to chickens I an an RN with a good deal of experience in the alimentary system, of not the oviduct!) I felt no abdominal mass. I put some more mineral oil around her vent and a bit more about 1/2 inch inside. Afterwards she ate some yogurt with the girls and seemed just as bright and chipper as ever. She grazed on the lawn with the rest of the flock but then had got back in the same nest box and roosted there all night. Today she came out with the rest, but was back in the box this afternoon. I brought her in and gave her bottom half a warm soak in the sink for 10 minutes. She was calm and as sweet as a lamb, and jumped down from the back steps afterwards like she'd just returned from the spa. She ate her yogurt lustily, had a long drink, and grazed for a couple hours, then -- back to the same nest box. I felt again for am obstruction, but her gut is nice and soft. No eggs for 2 days.

What to do? Is she possibly broody?
Dark, tarry stools in people usually indicate blood, digested, from high up in the colon. What does it mean in hens? Even when no hen appears ill?

Thanks for your consideration. It is much appreciated.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Well thank you! Let's see what we have here.

First, the dark tarry stools - would you say that that they're all dark and tarry, or perhaps just one out of four droppings - say her cecal droppings?

(By the way congrats on the laying early - that's a mark of good hens.) It's also good that the target hen is not lethargic, etc. The yogurt is a great idea, and you've done well in checking her since she's been amiss in her eggs after starting to lay.

First, some diet details. Are they all on laying mash now, with oyster shell provided free choice? If so, for how long? No indication of yellow droppings on her feathers, etc? Are you pretty sure she's the one not laying? How about her vent - is it moist, widened, waxy - not scaley, tight, and dry?

I had to really laugh about the chicken spa. Nice!!

On the nest, were there any eggs still in the nest?

If there are eggs on the nest, I'd say she's said "ok that's enough eggs I'm a mom now" and, particularly given the snake situation, has decided to guard the eggs. On snakes, sometimes stress like that will throw laying off for a couple of days, too. But her chattering and hanging around the nest box happily makes it sound a bit like broodiness to me.

To hedge our bets, if she's not eating laying mash (preferably 20% for beginning girls), or IS eating a lot of grains (more than 10% of her diet), or doesn't have oyster shell, I'd suspect a possible glitch in her egg laying. In that case I'd boost her feed to at least 95% laying mash, give the oyster shell, give her a 1/2 a tums tablet in a quickly eaten treat, possibly give her 2 drops of cod liver oil twice within the week, and reduce grains.

On the dark tarry stools, gather one up, put it on white paper, and mix a little water with it. What color does it turn when you dilute it? Are those droppings rather large, or scant? Is it possible that instead of being one hen that is having consistent dark tarry droppings, that what you're seeing are the occassional cecal droppings? In my flock, these droppings dry to a very dark almost black color. Have you noticed that black color in absolutely fresh droppings, not dried to a skin on top? Are they solid or like pudding?

Of course any time anything with the digestive tract is halfway questionable, I always recommend yogurt or another probiotic to help boost the numbers of beneficial bacteria in the gut. Those are the birds' line of defense in their digestive tract. Yogurt (or other probiotics with living bacteria) can benefit all birds, yogurt being particularly helpful to new layers because of a little extra calcium, a tiny bit of protein, and vitamin D fortification. I like to give new layers yogurt weekly anyway just to get them well on their way and particularly as it's a stressful experience for some. So it wouldn't hurt to do that daily for a week and see if you see any change in droppings.

I'd also try to get a good feel for who's doing it. Maybe put this girl up for a day and examine her droppings. See if you see some tarry but about 75% or more regular droppings.

A little story for you about how this can trip up even us so called "experienced" folks. I had a bit fit of fear about some butterscotch very fluid droppings that I know are coming from my turkeys. Previously their cecal droppings had all been quite dark brown. Suddenly, to me, they were what could be desribed as "sulfur" color - on the dark side of it. I called a consultant, ordered more meds, fretted that my turkeys have darkhead (as I recently lost a hen to ?? and was unable to necropsy). I lost a good bit of sleep on it. Then the consultant reminded me that turkey cecal droppings can be butterscotch color normally.

I went out, had a good sit down, and really watched my birds poop. What fun! But I discovered that they were indeed the cecal droppings. THEN I realized they had recently had a switch in feeds and that was likely the cause as the new feed, a different pellet, was about that same color (and they get whole oats - also lighter) while they had been on grower before.

So I'd really take a good look. Take some time, get a lawn chair, and go "poop spotting". Your neighbors (if you have some close enough) will think you're just watching the birds. But it might help you to figure out the sources of the tarry droppings and to catch them when they're very fresh to see what color they are initially.

So there are my thoughts; I'm very interested in your feedback and answers to the questions.

Thanks for giving me the chance to try to solve the mystery with you.