Hen won't eat and is acting sluggish

[Livia Stouffer]

My silkie hen has lost appetite and has been extra slow over the past few days. I have no clue how old she is, she was rehomed to me without any specifics. Every time I go out to the coop she's around a little, but she's constantly taking rests from walking and just kind of sits there. She's very wary of people, and I haven't been able to handle her much, so that might be why I haven't noticed this sooner. Poop is normal from what I can tell. I'm just worried because I don't know if she's sick, or old.

 

[birdlover2]

My silkie hen has lost appetite and has been extra slow over the past few days. I have no clue how old she is, she was rehomed to me without any specifics. Every time I go out to the coop she's around a little, but she's constantly taking rests from walking and just kind of sits there. She's very wary of people, and I haven't been able to handle her much, so that might be why I haven't noticed this sooner. Poop is normal from what I can tell. I'm just worried because I don't know if she's sick, or old.

(How long ago was she rehomed to you? She may be sick, I would seperate her from the others)

 

[lbgreenfield]

Do you have others in your flock that might be bullying her? My Silkie was always picked on and would be off by herself.

I would also recommend a quarantine of at least 1 month from your other flock, it’s good biosecurity practice. Once you catch her, give her a good once over too. Check her vent, wings, head for mites/lice/parasites, check bottoms of feet for bumblefoot/cuts, check eyes, check nostrils, etc. I’d also make sure she is eating and drinking, you can make a wet mash out of her feed or syringe dose some Nutri-Drench and see if that helps her perk up.

Is she laying? I’d also check to make sure she isn’t egg bound too.

 

[Livia Stouffer]

She was rehomed to me almost a year ago, but never acted like this. She's still laying regularly, so she has to be eating something. From as far as I can tell she's not being picked on. She's in a coop with all silkies, and some 4 month old pullets. I already feed my birds fermented feed. She does kind of gather with the rest of the birds around the food, and I'll see her eat maybe 2 bites, but never very much. I'll catch her today and quarantine her for a little bit to observe her.
Thank you!!

 

[Livia Stouffer]

When I catch her today I'll take pictures too!

 

[lbgreenfield]

Great, pictures may help! Give her a very thorough inspection and report back. Once she is by herself, see if she will eat for you (wet mash, plain greek yogurt, scrambled egg, something) and drink water.

My Silkie also was chased away from the food and eventually just sat in a corner until everyone was done, dash in and eat a few bites, run to hide, then repeat.

Things would be so much easier if we could speak chicken!

 

[Livia Stouffer]

She's very alert, and was hard to catch, but once I got her I realized just how underweight she is. She's half the weight of my other silkies. Her vent is clean and normal, no mites, nothing wrong with her eyes, beak, or inside her mouth. I did find a reason to why she isn't walking around much. Her special extra silkie toe has grown into one of the others, but I'm not sure when that happened, I'm thinking maybe when she was a chick, but her claws are very overgrown and I'm not sure how to fix that besides trimming. Which I did, but not much because I was scared of clipping too far.
She still hasn't eaten in front of me, and I don't have any Nutri Drench on hand right now, so she just has some fermented feed and water. I weighed the bowl so I can check later if she's eaten any at all. Would yogurt be ok to feed her to maybe see if she'll be more interested in something that isn't her everyday food?

 

[Livia Stouffer]

I just found some Sav-A-Chick electrolites, I can use that if you think it might help perk her up, but I've never used it on anything but chicks.

 

[Livia Stouffer]

Here are the pictures, they're not the best because I had my sister take them while I held her, oops

 

[Fluffs_flock]

Maybe she's to warm? I would relocate her and quarantine her with food and water.