Hen lethargic, feathers breaking off.

[Jessie66]

So, I am hoping to get some advice for a sick hen. She is a one year old mixed breed banty. She is limping on one leg, kind of dragging it behind her, she kind of flaps and falls when trying to get somewhere. She just lays quietly with her eyes shut, and she is quite thin. I can feel her breastbone. Up until a few weeks ago had been laying regularly. She is losing a lot of feathers, they are breaking off about a centimeter from the skin, and the part of the shaft that is left in the skin looks like a bluish/grey pin feather (She is black in color) and the rest of the feather looks pretty good, no ragged edges. I have looked for mites/lice and have found nothing, no eggs at the feather base. She is not showing any respiratory symptoms. She is kept with 4 other chickens that seem healthy and 2 healthy ducks.

What should I put her on? I have a few antibiotics, and wormers. Should I try delousing her with powder? She is not interested in eating and have been feeding her honey water my syringe. I am going to get liquid baby vitamins today.

Any advice on what this could be or what I should try would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[pwand]

Delouse her and deworm her. You can get Safe Guard at the local feed store, its horse paste. Start with this.

Her feather breaking would be her or the others birds pecking or eating her feathers. Possibly lice or mites if she is doing this herself.

Bring her in to keep her warm.

Make sure her crop is flat first thing in the morning.

What does her poop look like, diahhrea or normal looking?

 

[Jessie66]

I have given her 0.25 mL of Safeguard for goats, some baby multivitamin, and honey water by syringe (dripping it on her beak) She is still unsteady, not walking at all, just laying in the shavings (in a kennel in downstairs bathroom), but she has started to peck at food in front of her, and drink on her own. I may delouse her tomorrow and offer her some other food. She has only pooped once in the kennel, and it was pretty normal. Hard to tell because it was in the shavings. Her feathers just seem to break off, about a cm from her skin, weird. I'll update tomorrow. Thanks for the reply :0)

 

[Jessie66]

So, just thought I'd update. We put Bella down this morning. I think it was Mereks. What started out as limping, progressed to being unable to stand, and flapping and lack of coordination. I think she had begun to molt (loss of feathers, with pin feathers coming in, don't think they were actually breaking off) Maybe with the molt her immune system was lowered allowing her to become sick. RIP Bella...

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I am sorry for your loss.