Hen listless, not roosting with others

[Dave Z]

I have an Easter-egger that looks mighty sick. Not sure how old she is, got her as an adult in early spring 09. After a couple of days she started laying, then stopped about 2 weeks later. About the time she stopped, I found a couple of empty leathery shells in the nest box. By color, I think they were hers. No eggs from her for the past several months.

The past two days she has been lethargic and has not gone into the coop to roost. Right now, she's just laying on the concrete patio.

She has always been the odd hen out, often not hanging with the others unless Bubba the rooster makes her. But it's gotten worse. Today she just laid under a bush all day (they free-range) then got up for a little bit. When I saw her up and around, I went out and sat down with some mealworms. She came over and ate a few (after I held the other hens off) but seemed unsteady on her feet. I don't think she's eaten much, if anything, on her own for the past couple of days. Her vent is plastered with poop. That's a recurring problem. I cleaned her up a couple of weeks ago, but it comes back pretty quick. They all had lice, but I treated that and they seem to have cleared up.

What should I look for?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

[verlaj]

Dave - Here's a link to my post about one of my 4-5 yr old hens that was feeling pokey.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=221035

There have been a few posts recently about older hens with the leathery or shell-less eggs. It would probably help if you gave more specifics about the hen's condition - weight, color of the poop, what she is fed, etc. Others that have more experience than me will weigh in, I'm sure.

Good luck.

 

[threehorses]

Sounds like she needs her feed adjusted, and her digestive tract is out of whack as they say.

First, she needs to have at least 90% of her feed be a good quality laying pellet - 16 to 20%. (I prefer the latter.) The other 10% can be healthful treats, whole grains, etc. Scratch should be reserved only as a treat thrown out in handfuls.

The eggs you are seeing are evidence of an inability to provide enough calcium to make egg shells. It's the precursor that happens before they stop making shells altogether. If you feed a lot of grains, or don't feed laying feed, the body can get too much phosphorus. Calcium absorbtion and use is a three legged stool: calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D3. Phosphorus is rarely deficient - more often too high. Vitamin D3 deficiencies can happen, but are less common than a hen just needing more calcium.

Laying feeds are designed to havea 6:1 calcium to phos ratio. However many hens need as much as 15:1 in favor of calcium. You can't make the feeds that high in calcium as it would be harmful to the average chicken. So we provide oyster shell for the hens who need more of that 'leg' of the stool. Oyster shell (unlike egg shell supplementation) is an easily dissolved and readily bioavailable source of calcium. For the hens who are good with D3 and phos, it's wonderful for calcium.

Please be sure to provide her some free choice. You can put it in the same container as her granite grit. I put one on one side, the other in the other side. This last time I bought a two-dish cat feeder from the dollar store and used that. It works wonderfully and was very cheap.

If the hen doesn't lay eggs, they can get trapped within her and cause infection. let's hope that she's not to this point. But I would try to boost her calcium immediately, keep it good.

As for her gut, it helps to keep the good beneficial living bacteria that are part of the digestive tract in good shape and numbers. You can do this as simply as providing plain yogurt to her - either alone, or in a quickly eaten small amount of damp mash or mashed egg.

Yogurt contains living bacteria, specifically a lot of lactobacilli, which are the ones that you want your bird to have. Additionally, it will give your birds a calcium and vitamin D boost.

I'd watch her, separate her for now since she's vulnerable, and check her droppings. Tell us what you see. Adjust the diet as listed above and supplement with the yogurt for her gut. You could put vitamins/minerals in the water for a week. And all laying hens should be fed as she is.

If you haven't seen eggs from her, and she's not molting, you could give her a half of a tum's tablet crushed in the same damp mash treat. And another one later this week.

 

[Dave Z]

This hen has always been the shy one, hard to catch, so we have not handled her much. Easy to catch now, she's so weak. Caught her this morning and was shocked. She's always been solid and heavy. Today she is barely there - just a bunch of feathers. Obviously she has not been getting nutrition for some time. But she's hungry. Took a couple of mealworms yesterday and a couple bites of egg this morning. Her crop feels like it has food in it, but her gut feels hard and knotted up. She has no muscle in her breast, the bone sticks way out and is hollow on each side. This doesn't look good.

Her normal diet has been lay crumble and pellets, with some treats and whatever she finds around the yard.

What next?

 

[threehorses]

First, keep her up where you can catch her when she starts to get more healthy. Is she eating now? I'd feed her the yogurt and eggs daily to get her weight up, keep her up til she gains. I'd highly consider worming her if you can't take her feces to a vet to get a 'fecal egg count' done (not a regular 'fecal' where they just look for worms). Because she's so thin, I'd use Wazine in the water for a day. Then in 2 weeks repeat it or, if she's gained a good bit of weight by then, do something like one of the 'zoles/'soles (fenbendazole, abendazole/valbazen, levamisole) or even ivermectin. But I'd go gentle right now.

First things are to get nutrition in her - easily digested, readily available. Vitamins/minerals/electrolytes in the water from a poultry vit/elec package. Keep feeding her an egg a day and some yogurt for a week at least. Check her weight then. Also be sure to check for parasites; they can take a bird's weight down quickly. A couple of drops of polyvisol baby vitamins (the non-iron formula) in the beak would be a great help to her as she's emaciated. I got mine at the vitamin section of walmart.

If there's no bullying, I'd at least suspect worms and possibly something secondary that isn't clear yet - maybe laying issues. But then again, production could have decreased because of a lack of nutrition d.t. worm load as well. I worry a little about her knotted gut; do you think there could be retained/hardened (cooked) shell-less eggs in there?

 

[Dave Z]

Well, came home from work, picked up the hen to examine her and give her some food and water. She was extremely weak and died in my hands. I wish I had caught it sooner.

Thanks for your input anyway.

 

[threehorses]

Oh Dave, I'm so very sorry hon.

Well ok, then there's still work to be done. (You really wanted to hear that don't you? You can slap me later, I promise.)

Tomorrow some time, or at least this weekend, set aside some time and pick all those gals up. Feel their weight, check for parasites, see what's going on with them. I like to move all the birds into one spot (say, the coop) where I catch them, and when I'm done with each I put it into the other spot (say the run) where I know they're done.

This is a good thing to do at least monthly. that way you can catch things ahead of time.

I would also highly consider worming the flock as her symptoms were consistent with worms if you haven't done so in 6 months. Also just take a good look around your bird area and see if they're able to get into anything that you'd rather them not. That way you rule out other things like toxins, etc.

This way hopefully you'll have no more issues or, if you do, catch them early and we'll do our very best to help you manage them.

lots of hugs! I'm very sorry for your loss. Do take care.