Hen not eating or drinking

[Shox820]

I have a 6 month old Black Australorp female who has been acting off the last few days. Today when I let them out she kept having some clear discharge and ended up laying a soft shell egg that had ruptured. She isn’t interested in food or water. I am in Florida and we have had record heat. What do you suggest? Could she have been egg bound? Stress from heat? The rest of the chickens are acting normal. I’ve replaced their water with electrolytes. I don’t think she has been laying regularly since they started laying. I just want to help her if I can. She seems to just stay in one place almost with her vent lower than normal and her head kind of pulled in.

 

[RedHillChicken]

I have a 6 month old Black Australorp female who has been acting off the last few days. Today when I let them out she kept having some clear discharge and ended up laying a soft shell egg that had ruptured. She isn’t interested in food or water. I am in Florida and we have had record heat. What do you suggest? Could she have been egg bound? Stress from heat? The rest of the chickens are acting normal. I’ve replaced their water with electrolytes. I don’t think she has been laying regularly since they started laying. I just want to help her if I can. She seems to just stay in one place almost with her vent lower than normal and her head kind of pulled in.

Is her stomach bloated? Is she pooping, and if so please post pictures. Do you have a picture of the soft shelled egg she passed? And the clear discharge? Is her comb normal? Add some fresh water close to her. Have you seen any lash egg material? Is she eating?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Give her a Calcium Citrate +D3 tablet if you have any, or if not a Tums will do. Just pull down on her wattles to get her to open her beak and pop it in. If Tums you can break it in half. Let her close her beak and she'll swallow it. The calcium citrate is available at any store that sells vitamins/ supplements. Give her this every day for three to seven days. Do you offer calcium in the form of oyster shell (OS) always available?

 

[Shox820]

Is her stomach bloated? Is she pooping, and if so please post picture. Do you have a picture of the soft shelled egg she passed? And the clear discharge? Is her comb normal? Add some fresh water close to her. Have you seen any lash egg material? Is she eating?

Not bloated, comb was a little light. No lash eggs just soft. First pic is the discharge mostly clear little squirts when she was trying to pass the egg. Poop looked normal but they others covered it with dirt already. I replaced their water with electrolytes and she has been chugging water and is eating now within the last hour she is acting totally different, in a good way. Wondering if she was egg bound and hot. Her comb is darker now too. Yesterday we had a record high temp it was miserable.

 

[Shox820]

Give her a Calcium Citrate +D3 tablet if you have any, or if not a Tums will do. Just pull down on her wattles to get her to open her beak and pop it in. If Tums you can break it in half. Let her close her beak and she'll swallow it. The calcium citrate is available at any store that sells vitamins/ supplements. Give her this every day for three to seven days. Do you offer calcium in the form of oyster shell (OS) always available?

They were all on layer feed until about a week ago, because im integrating babies. But they do have shells available. They have only been laying about 2 months.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Some chickens, especially new layers, need more calcium than is in the layer feed, and if there is OS available they will take what they need. Also some need the Vit. D to help their bodies absorb and metabolize the calcium properly.

 

[Shox820]

She is at least acting better today, still drinking and pecking at stuff on the geound, she MAY have even laid a normal egg this morning, but she seems to have some diarrhea and a little on her vent feathers. Any thoughts? I did give her a tums this morning. I have some recover 911 coming tomorrow just to have on hand.

 

[TOMTE]

Make sure you also have regular fresh water available to drink along with the electrolytes, and only offer electrolytes for 1-3 days during heat waves or times of stress.

I'm going to guess that it's a combination of heat and being a new layer (? at 6 months I'm just assuming she hasn't been laying for very long). Suddenly switching feeds can also cause stomach upset which could be where the diarrhea is coming from. A couple of my girls have been laying soft shelled eggs on the hottest days.

With poop on the feathers near her vent, watch for flystrike. Give her booty a wash with warm (not hot) water and dawn dish soap. Or if it isn't too bad, you can use baby wipes or a moist rag. Trim the feathers around her vent really short with safety scissors so poop can't stick to them and invite flies to lay their eggs there. 2 of my girls have lazy cloacas (they don't push the poop out with enough force so it runs down and sticks to their feathers) so I have to clean them up often.

 

[Shox820]

Make sure you also have regular fresh water available to drink along with the electrolytes, and only offer electrolytes for 1-3 days during heat waves or times of stress.

I'm going to guess that it's a combination of heat and being a new layer (? at 6 months I'm just assuming she hasn't been laying for very long). Suddenly switching feeds can also cause stomach upset which could be where the diarrhea is coming from. A couple of my girls have been laying soft shelled eggs on the hottest days.

With poop on the feathers near her vent, watch for flystrike. Give her booty a wash with warm (not hot) water and dawn dish soap. Or if it isn't too bad, you can use baby wipes or a moist rag. Trim the feathers around her vent really short with safety scissors so poop can't stick to them and invite flies to lay their eggs there. 2 of my girls have lazy cloacas (they don't push the poop out with enough force so it runs down and sticks to their feathers) so I have to clean them up often.

Yeah been laying less than two months I think. Im in central florida. They have only had the electrolytes since yesterday night when I noticed her acting off. Just hate seeing them act different than normal and I get paranoid.

 

[TOMTE]

Yeah been laying less than two months I think. Im in central florida. They have only had the electrolytes since yesterday night when I noticed her acting off. Just hate seeing them act different than normal and I get paranoid.

I totally get it. Just keep an eye on her and keep us updated! It's a good sign that she's moving around, eating and drinking and pooping!