- Dec 13, 2016
- 33
- 15
- 99
Hi all,
I have a 3.5 year old BO hen that has been off for almost a month. I have 4 other chickens that are all acting normal. The BO is usually first in line for food and treats, but has been off her feed. She acts like she wants to eat, and even picks up bread or other treats that I throw to the flock but often doesn't actually swallow them. At first I could just separate her from the rest of the flock and she would eat a few bites, but now she will not eat. I check her crop at night and it is empty. Oddly, she acts normally most of the time, I've seen her preening herself, and she will run around scratching when I let them out to free range. At first I thought she might be egg bound, since she stopped laying around the same time that she stopped eating. I did the whole shebang, soaking her in the tub, giving her Tums for calcium. No egg, and clearly not egg bound since she has not gotten better or worse in the months time. Her manure is runny and almost non-existent. Over the past few days, I have brought her in a few times a day and basically force fed her. I tried tempting her with really good treats first, meal worms, cooked spaghetti, scrambled eggs etc but she refuses. We have wormed the flock with Piperazine and also done a round of Corid in their drinking water. Right now I'm syringing her Probios mixed with molasses water. I'm at a loss. She appears normal except the feathers around her head are often fluffed. Her comb is still red. Any help or advice would be appreciated. We recently had another chicken with a comb hematoma that failed conservative management and needed to be removed (I will post pictures of that on another thread as it ended up being quite interesting). Thus, our chicken budget is maxed out at the moment. I asked the vet about the BO, and she shrugged and said it could be cancer due to her age. I refuse to let her starve to death. Thanks for any help.
I have a 3.5 year old BO hen that has been off for almost a month. I have 4 other chickens that are all acting normal. The BO is usually first in line for food and treats, but has been off her feed. She acts like she wants to eat, and even picks up bread or other treats that I throw to the flock but often doesn't actually swallow them. At first I could just separate her from the rest of the flock and she would eat a few bites, but now she will not eat. I check her crop at night and it is empty. Oddly, she acts normally most of the time, I've seen her preening herself, and she will run around scratching when I let them out to free range. At first I thought she might be egg bound, since she stopped laying around the same time that she stopped eating. I did the whole shebang, soaking her in the tub, giving her Tums for calcium. No egg, and clearly not egg bound since she has not gotten better or worse in the months time. Her manure is runny and almost non-existent. Over the past few days, I have brought her in a few times a day and basically force fed her. I tried tempting her with really good treats first, meal worms, cooked spaghetti, scrambled eggs etc but she refuses. We have wormed the flock with Piperazine and also done a round of Corid in their drinking water. Right now I'm syringing her Probios mixed with molasses water. I'm at a loss. She appears normal except the feathers around her head are often fluffed. Her comb is still red. Any help or advice would be appreciated. We recently had another chicken with a comb hematoma that failed conservative management and needed to be removed (I will post pictures of that on another thread as it ended up being quite interesting). Thus, our chicken budget is maxed out at the moment. I asked the vet about the BO, and she shrugged and said it could be cancer due to her age. I refuse to let her starve to death. Thanks for any help.
