Hiya, this is my first post here so I hope I'm doing this all correctly! I'm just quite concerned regarding one of our hens. We think she's about 3/4 years old and a Blackrock hen. The last time she laid was yesterday.
The main concern is that her abdomen seems to be slightly larger than usual, and is soft to the touch. Her comb is quite limp, however it doesn't seemed to have changed colour apart from veeery faintly purple-ish tips. It's currently summer and 22 degrees/71 fahrenheit, so I'm not sure if that's just dehydration. She's also acting a bit more docile than usual - for example she normally won't let my mom pick her up, but is now allowing her to occasionally. Her breathing seems to be normal however she's been sitting in her cage for a bit instead of her usual roaming. Some of her stools have been watery, but not all.
She lives in an outdoor pen/is free-roaming with her 2 'daughters' (who are both 2 years old and were raised by her), who also don't seem to be eating as much/haven't been laying as frequently. A rat has been managing to get into the cage/hang around for a few days as well, none are injured in any way but I'm not sure if that may be contributing to something. They're currently all huddled together but have been walking around/foraging.
Thank you so much for any advice/insight, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions but nor do I want to overlook things
x
The main concern is that her abdomen seems to be slightly larger than usual, and is soft to the touch. Her comb is quite limp, however it doesn't seemed to have changed colour apart from veeery faintly purple-ish tips. It's currently summer and 22 degrees/71 fahrenheit, so I'm not sure if that's just dehydration. She's also acting a bit more docile than usual - for example she normally won't let my mom pick her up, but is now allowing her to occasionally. Her breathing seems to be normal however she's been sitting in her cage for a bit instead of her usual roaming. Some of her stools have been watery, but not all.
She lives in an outdoor pen/is free-roaming with her 2 'daughters' (who are both 2 years old and were raised by her), who also don't seem to be eating as much/haven't been laying as frequently. A rat has been managing to get into the cage/hang around for a few days as well, none are injured in any way but I'm not sure if that may be contributing to something. They're currently all huddled together but have been walking around/foraging.
Thank you so much for any advice/insight, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions but nor do I want to overlook things
x
