Hen very sluggish in the cold, barely responsive this morning

[Battlepants]

Two of my hens are molting (one of them is the hen in question for this thread). The past couple days, I noticed that she wasn't really keeping up with the flock - would be off on her own getting water, just standing in the corner of the yard, ect. Last night when putting everyone away, I found her in the nest box attempting to sleep. When I touched her to make sure she was still alive, she moved and attempted to get on the roost bars with her flockmates, but failed to make the jump. I think the main reason for this failure is that she was attempting to jump directly to the top bar rather than jumping to the lower bar then to the top bar - two parallel bars, and the lower bar was populated by our newer chickens, kinda blocking her path to her side of the upper bar. This being further complicated by her limited lift due to a molt. Due to the expected cold, I went ahead and grabbed her and placed her on the bar, hoping to keep her warm with her flockmates.

This morning, I went to let everyone out a bit after sunrise and everyone is running around crazy like usual, despite it being 16f out there currently. The hen in question remains on the roost bar right where I put her last night. I see that she is at least somewhat responsive (head moves a bit when she notices me) and hasn't fallen from the roost.

I have placed some water in the coop since the outside water froze solid and will be checking on that throughout the day. Unfortunately it's not in reach of the roost and she will have to get down to get a drink. Food is currently in the "run" which involves leaving the coop, looping around and going under it.

Some info about the hen:
Age: Unknown, she was given to us by the previous owner of the house, but is still young enough to provide a few eggs a week, suspecting 1-2 years *not currently laying due to season and molt
Breed: Barred Rock
Weight: This one is difficult as she never allows us to handle her. The event last night where I grabbed her and put her on the roost was my first time holding her and can say that she felt about normal, at least when compared to the other big chicken that let's us handle her.
Visible injuries: None noticed, although is missing some feathers from a molt
Poop: It's difficult to determine who pooped where, but I haven't found any worrying poop in the yard. And all poop under the upper roost (the three big chickens), seems normal.
Eating/Drinking: I observed her drinking from the downspout of the house yesterday (was a bit rainy and I think they like the moving water). I don't recall if she was eating as I normally drop some food into the bowl and then head back inside - the little chickens usually swarm the food and the big chickens come out of the coop probably 5-10 minutes later. I attempted to get her some treats to test this today and there is no response - appears to be sleeping on the roost, very fluffed up.

I guess my general question here is - since it is 16f outside and she's lost some feathers due to molt, do I attempt to set up a chicken hospital in my house to try to keep her warm? Or just let her tough out the cold and get used to it.

Update: The other two big chickens have rejoined this chicken in the coop. She's still on the roost bar, fluffed up and eyes closed. I can see breathing motions and overall she appears to be sleeping.

 

[coach723]

I would bring her inside where it's warm, a sick bird can become hypothermic. If she's cold you can put some bath towels in the dryer to warm them and put them around her. You need to monitor her to see if she eats or drinks, get a good look at what droppings look like. If you have some poultry nutridrench, give her some of that. I would also give her a super B complex tablet (human ones, regular not time release) once a day. Give her a good going over, look for lice/mites, any injuries hiding in feathers. Check her keel bone to see if it feels well muscled or is very prominent. Feel her abdomen for any bloat below the vent, between the legs, either very firm or water balloon like. Is she wheezing, coughing, sneezing at all, or has any discharge from eyes, nares or beak. Look in her beak and throat for any plaques or lesions. Feel her crop to see if it's empty, full, soft, squishy, hard, etc. Has she ever been wormed or had a fecal test to check for internal parasites?
If she's dehydrated then you will need to get warmed fluids in her.
See post #8 here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ringe-for-sick-chicken.1436803/#post-23791266
And info here, note you *must* get her hydrated before trying to feed : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ding-updated-12-29-2019.805728/#post-11654778
This thread #1 has a link on giving subcutaneous fluids: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-new-tube-feeding-link.944381/#post-14545734
Info on lice/mites: https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/
It's possible that she was not eating well due to molt and has become weak, the nutridrench and vitamins will help with that some and may give her an appetite. It's also possible that it's something else, so getting as much information from observation and examination may help. How her droppings look may provide a clue also.

 

[Battlepants]

Thank you for the reply. I still have most of my parts from my old brooder, so I went ahead and set that up for her. Being in the warm already seems to have perked her up a bit and she is looking around and observing her surroundings, still not walking around yet though (but is standing). Got some food and water in the enclosure with her - on the note of hydrating before attempting to feed, is this only in regards to force feeding? Or should I remove the food from the enclosure until I have observed her drinking a bit?

As for the other steps, I'm going to pause here for a bit and let her rest. Between the molt and this chicken already not enjoying human contact, I want to reduce stress as much as possible. I'll be checking out these other steps in a couple hours after she's back to being warm at least.

As for the nutridrench, unfortunately I don't have any of that on hand, but I will be sure to get some of that in stock. From what I've been reading on other forum posts, this seems like a general thing to apply to most scenarios.

 

[coach723]

I would leave the food and water with her, if she will eat and drink on her own, that is always best. So see how she does. If her crop is empty, you can try some cooked chopped egg or scrambled egg to see if that will tempt her. It's good that she's perked up some from being warmer. The nutridrench is really good for a quick boost when they aren't feeling good. You can also give her a bit of sugar water til you get some. Mix 1 tsp sugar into a cup of warm water, put that in her water dish. When you get the nutridrench you can squirt some of that in the water too, if she's drinking on her own. It will be sweet, so she should like it. Best to only use the nutridrench for a few days, too long and it can cause diarrhea, but it can help get them over the hump sometimes. Just update here, when you have the chance. The B vitamins are always a good idea also, if they aren't eating well then can get low on those and it can cause problems. The B's are very safe, so no worries of too much.

 

[Battlepants]

I did a quick once over on her and found that the crop is spongy, despite not having eaten anything today. This coupled with the lethargy and self-isolation behavior, I'm firmly thinking we have a case of sour crop on our hands. I'm currently doing more research on the best course of action here, but I'm currently seeing a combination of massaging the crop to try to get things moving again and a massage of the crop while the chickens head is down in an attempt to induce vomiting of sorts. I welcome any pointers you may have as well.

Additionally, I have removed food and water to prevent more from being added to the crop for the time being. She's not touching them anyway.

Edit: leaving the water with her since that may help things move through the crop

 

[coach723]

Sour crop can have different underlying causes, these are a good source of information:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
I don't vomit birds, it's very risky. They can aspirate and die, or aspirate and end up with pneumonia.

 

[Battlepants]

Yea, I'm coming to the same conclusion with vomiting being too risky. I went ahead with a crop massage with her sitting upright and it seemed like the crop was getting smaller (although this might just be my imagination). Texture was similar to a loosely filled water balloon.

When she was back in the enclosure, she went right back to the corner laid down shortly after. Came back after a bit and she has rolled a bit and is breathing rather hard. Went ahead and put the heat lamp back on her - it's a fairly big enclosure and she is able to get away from the lamp if she wants.

Plan on heading into town for various shopping needs in a bit here and will pick up a syringe for force watering and see if I can find some nutridrench.

 

[Banana01]

Yea, I'm coming to the same conclusion with vomiting being too risky. I went ahead with a crop massage with her sitting upright and it seemed like the crop was getting smaller (although this might just be my imagination). Texture was similar to a loosely filled water balloon.

When she was back in the enclosure, she went right back to the corner laid down shortly after. Came back after a bit and she has rolled a bit and is breathing rather hard. Went ahead and put the heat lamp back on her - it's a fairly big enclosure and she is able to get away from the lamp if she wants.

Plan on heading into town for various shopping needs in a bit here and will pick up a syringe for force watering and see if I can find some nutridrench.

How is the coop conditions? Is it dry inside and how much ventilation is there?

 

[Battlepants]

Cleaned the coop about a week ago and threw in a fresh batch of hay/woodshavings - took out the particularly soiled bedding to replace with clean. Coop stays really dry although it has been rainy for the past few days and the chickens themselves have been wandering into the rain. No doubt bringing in some moisture with them.

As for the ventilation, there are two screened windows at the top end of the coop. This is slightly above the heads of the chickens standing on the top roost. Main door remains open during the day and is closed at night. Additionally, there is the cleanout door and the nestbox lid - these two doors remain shut, but aren't airtight, but shouldn't offer much in the way of a draft.

Overall, I think the coop is ok, but there is definitely room for improvement. I plan on rebuilding it this spring/summer.


Unfortunate update:
The hen has passed. Apparently she had made it over to the small water dish while I was away and passed out into it. I heard a scuffle from the next room and went in to find her in a shallow puddle of water completely unresponsive. I attempted to move her around to clear the airways but she was no longer attempting to breath. I guess I didn't realize exactly how weak she was getting.


At this point, I'll be signing off for the day to go bury a friend. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your help in these dark times.

 

[Battlepants]

Sorry for the bump on this one, using the same thread in case these instances are connected. For the sake of clarity, I will be referring to the chicken prior in this thread as "P" and the chicken I am diagnosing now as "B".

Unfortunately, I think this issue continues. We had another death (although this one was due to a hawk attack). After securing the remaining girls for a couple hours so the hawk hopefully goes away, I let them out and one of my hens (B) had green diarrhea. In my research this could be a number of things including eating a lot of greenery (very unlikely), some diseases or simply being hungry/dehydrated.

I semi-recently changed food to a lower calcium layer pellet. My thought process was that since they aren't laying, reducing calcium might be a good call. I had noticed that the food dish wasn't in need of as many refills this winter, but I assumed this was due to no egg production and they are often seen scratching around the yard anyway. Additionally, it seems that the two molting hens (P and B) were taking a lot longer to molt than my first one. In an experiment, I opened up a bag of the good layer pellets that I was saving for spring and tossed some out to them. Of note: this particular brand of pellets has been had by my flock prior to this event and is known to work well for them. B and the rest of the crew immediately started eating them. I have emptied the lower calcium pellets into the yard and refilled their dish with the good pellets. I will be monitoring food consumption.

My current theory is that the lower calcium layer pellets were bad or something that my chickens simply didn't like to eat. I am now suspecting that P was given slow/sour crop by this and wasn't eating/getting enough nutrition into her system. My hope now is that I am acting fast enough to save B.

I welcome any other suggestions on things to check as well.