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.