Hen suddenly listless; "clenching"; pale.

MegUrk

Songster
6 Years
Apr 16, 2015
63
14
106
Went out to feed our flock this morning and noticed one of our barred rocks "sleeping" (for lack of a better term) facing a corner of the coop. She did not rush to greet me when I approached with the food buckets like she usually does. She didn't move at all, in fact. She was fine when we fed them yesterday.

We removed her from the coop, isolated her and gave her fresh water (we haven't seen her drink any), fresh hay bedding, and some cricket treat (this is a new treat to our flock ... We only gave them their first "cricket party" or whatever the brand is called, over the weekend) which she hasn't eaten.

She has barely moved since we put her in isolation, except to do what my husband has called "ooching"... Kind of squirming and repositioning herself ever so slightly until she got herself right into the water dish. My husband moved her, but she keeps ending up with her wing in the water. The temps were in the mid 80s with low humidity yesterday and today so we didn't suspect overheating.

She's normally very feisty and does not like to be handled, but today, offered no resistance to being picked up and carried across the yard.

She's listless, her tail is drooping, her comb and wattle are slightly pale, and she keeps "clenching" her back end (flexing muscles in her rear end and lowering her tail even further). I'm reluctant to suspect egg binding, though, because she's our winter layer and tends not to lay in the warmer months so we already hadn't seen many eggs from her in the past few weeks.

The rest of the flock, including her coop-mate, all seem normal.

I'm trying to offer as much info as I can without being overly verbose. We're also interested in helping her, if possible, without spending hundreds of dollars at the vet.

A similar thing happened a few years ago to our other barred hen and we never did figure out what was wrong. That hen died. We haven't had any other issues until now.

Any suggestions?
 
I’m heading to bed but I read your post carefully and despite your reluctance to think she may be egg-bound, I think that is a situation worth investigating based on her tail down posture and pale comb and “clenching”.

I’d start by crushing a tums and get her to eat it all.
She may be low in calcium.
You might even smash it to a powder and mix it in a 1/2-1 tsp. of water and administer it to the beak drop by drop or mix it in a tiny bit of canned tuna, scrambled egg or yogurt.

Then I’d lubricate a finger and check *gently* up to a few inches in to see if you feel anything at all such as egg or broken shell.

I’d also soak her up to her sides in a sink of nice warm Epsom salt water for a good half hour and massage her lower belly.

Dry her well after. Sometimes the warmth and drone of a blow dryer on low while sitting on a soft folded bath towel is relaxing to them.
And reapply lubricant liberally inside and out. (even oil will due).

I hope she’s better by morning. I know it is a worry when one of our girls isn’t well. :hugs
 
Thank you. We're just about tucked in for the night, too. I'm writing as our infant son sleeps in my lap, in fact.

If she's still with us in the morning, I'll check for a bound egg. I'd really hate to know there was something we could've done that we didn't try, but we checked for a bound egg on our other gal I mentioned, soaked her in warm water, etc. and she died anyway... I've always felt guilty, feeling that when she got sick we poked her and messed with her until she died, so I wasn't as eager to fuss with our poor Abby.

Thanks again.
 
Checked her vent this morning and didn't find anything other than A TON of mites! We're applying pyrethrin powder to her and the tank she's in as we speak (as well as to the coop and the rest of the flock). Do you think that could be causing the odd behavior?
 
I hope so since I didn't find a bound egg and I'm not sure what else I can do for her :fl
 
Update :

Did not find evidence of bound egg. When I removed my finger, clear fluid came out of the vent. I haven't seen any other excrement in the tank.

Did find mite infestation and applied pyrethrin powder to Abby and the tank.

She has moved from one side of the tank to the other and has eaten a bit of egg and a few small pieces of apple.
 
Great job getting the mite control underway.

But now I’m concerned about the “Clear liquid”.

Was it a tiny amount like just her natural lubrication or a significant amount as in spoonful or more?

If it’s anything remotely like albumin you could have an internal laying situation on your hands or an eggshell broken higher than your reach.

I would definitely administer a calcium tablet daily for the next several days and continue close observation.
 
You could try canned tuna, mackerel, or salmon or plain Greek yogurt for protein
Watermelon or A small amount of grapes diced up for natural sugar and hydration.

Also it certainly wouldn’t hurt to put electrolytes or even a bit of plain table sugar in her water to give her an energy boost.

(Electrolyte powder specifically for chicks, plain unflavored pedialyte, or homemade. *link provided as well as screengrab of recipe

https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2017/02/homemade-electrolyte-recipe-chicks.html

C524BE1B-6897-4DAA-80C7-ACED70A8F5E8.png
 

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