Hen isolating herself from flock - Diagnosis?

[Chickenlady1234567]

Going to try to share as much information as possible:

• 18 month old Buckeye hen
• Stands by herself a lot in corners of our run; Not really hanging around any of the other girls in our flock
• Roosting about an hour earlier than the other hens at night
• Have observed her doing a lot of head shaking, but no appearance of mites or lice.
• Not showing much appetite or interest in food. I put out a flock block and she almost completely ignored it. Did pick at wet feed for a bit. Normally she is spunky and loves finding new grasses and leaves to chew
• Drinking water normally. Currently using Nutridrench in one of the waterers
• Observed a poop - very small, but other than that it didn’t appear abnormal
• Crop feels empty
• Has not laid an egg in over a month
• Doesn’t seem to want to sit or lay down

I recently had another hen pass away, not sure from what, but some of the observed behavior above is similar to when she started to decline, other than the hen that passed was 5 yrs old with severe sour crop and passing green bile and white, milky poop. That hen was/has been separated from the flock for over 3 weeks.

Any thoughts on what might be going on?

 

[Tonyroo]

Did she have any eggshell issues?

 

[Chickenlady1234567]

Did she have any eggshell issues?

She laid 1 fairy egg in early July, maybe 1-2 that were wrinkled, and then this weird thing:

 

[Tonyroo]

I think she might have an infection in her ovaries or she's not getting enough calcium and proper nutrition.

 

[Chickenlady1234567]

Today I’m seeing her have labored breathing and her wings are drooping a bit. Gets picked on by other hens when not isolated.

 

[Perris]

in my experience other flock members turn on a sick bird when they perceive it to be a threat to their own health, which usually means they've got something contagious (the rest of the flock fears is contagious), so isolation is appropriate until she's recovered. Do you have somewhere to serve as such temporarily?

Green bile and white milky poop sounds like it could be clostridium perfringens, which is a normal resident in the gastrointestinal tract but can be problematic if it gets too numerous. Can you post some photos of the bird and her poop?

 

[sbmcqueen]

Going to try to share as much information as possible:

• 18 month old Buckeye hen
• Stands by herself a lot in corners of our run; Not really hanging around any of the other girls in our flock
• Roosting about an hour earlier than the other hens at night
• Have observed her doing a lot of head shaking, but no appearance of mites or lice.
• Not showing much appetite or interest in food. I put out a flock block and she almost completely ignored it. Did pick at wet feed for a bit. Normally she is spunky and loves finding new grasses and leaves to chew
• Drinking water normally. Currently using Nutridrench in one of the waterers
• Observed a poop - very small, but other than that it didn’t appear abnormal
• Crop feels empty
• Has not laid an egg in over a month
• Doesn’t seem to want to sit or lay down

I recently had another hen pass away, not sure from what, but some of the observed behavior above is similar to when she started to decline, other than the hen that passed was 5 yrs old with severe sour crop and passing green bile and white, milky poop. That hen was/has been separated from the flock for over 3 weeks.

Any thoughts on what might be going on?

HI there! There are a lot of things here similar to our little 18 month Buckeye right now. Just following this thread, incase something comes up that also helps.

What has been normal for our hen:

-Hanging out on her own
-Going to the roost early
-She kind of marches to her own drummer
-I don't think she lays frequently.

She also seems to have egg issues. We are treating her for egg binding right now(I'm really worried about her). To be 100% honest though, I'm not sure if this is the issue or not. I'm out of town. My husband could feel a mass he he thinks is an egg, but what is weird is that she is not trying to lay anything.

Some more history:

She was eggbound last July, but resolved with a bath.

In October, she spent about 3 weeks not eating very much. I tried grubs...salmon...tomatoes...all her favorites. Then one day, she just wolfed down a bunch of watered down layers mix, and was on the road to recovery. I still have not really figured out what was wrong.

I am sorry, and I do not know if any of this helps, but wanted to share as much as possible incase any of it helps.

The "weird egg"...is it otherwise like a normal egg with shell and inside, or is it a "lash egg"? What's it made out of?

 

[Chickenlady1234567]

Update on our Buckeye. We took her to the vet and they drained nearly 1 liter of fluid off her abdomen in September. She seemed to turn around and be okay for a while. Back in January she started showing similar symptoms again - this time we drained her ourselves. About a month later, we had to do it again. Neither time did we drain nearly as much as what the vet pulled off.

My concern now is that it’s only been about 2 weeks since we last drained her, and she’s showing some lethargy, then gets energy in spurts randomly. She eats quite a bit, but is losing an incredible amount of weight despite how frequently she eats. When she is lethargic it’s mostly standing around alone

Her poops have a lot of undigested food in them. As of the last two days, she is throwing up liquid and doing a lot of neck movement and severe crop readjustment.

Unsure of if the fluid is building up at an incredible rate or if there are other factors at play like sour crop, an impacted/blocked gizzard, or worms. I’m afraid to deworm her if it’s not worms as that could be too much for her to handle

Any thoughts on what it could be are welcome