Henrietta is under the weather...

LittleZ

In the Brooder
7 Years
Apr 23, 2012
19
0
24
Vermont
I have a 6-month old Black Australorp hen who has been acting a little sick, moving slowly, ruffling her feathers, keeping her head tucked in, for the past couple of days. I just brought her inside to the kitchen for some TLC and to check on her eating, drinking and pooping.

Not positive if she is laying yet but my egg count has been down from 3-4 per day to 2-3 since she's been acting under the weather. My other four girls are all acting perfectly perky and happy. After poking around the site, it sounds like it could be a lot of things, not sure how to proceed. I am definitely a novice to chicken husbandry...
 
Thanks, she's been inside a couple hours now. She is not yet eating, drinking or pooping, I offered her some yogurt and oatmeal for starters. I did take her out to do a quick exam (have no idea what I should be looking at or for), and she still has the energy to try to fly off. I did not see anything physically awry on her body, no discharge, discoloring, or foul odors, breathing normal.
 
So I scrambled up an egg, plopped her on my lap, and hand fed her the egg. Took her a little while to respond but eventually she ate up most of it. She seems to have perked up a bit and is even eating some of her regular crumbles in the kennel now. I am sure that she's not out of the woods yet, but nice to see her a little more lively.
 
Well, Henrietta made it through the night. She is about the same, very mellow and no appetite. I took her out of the crate this morning, couldn't get her to eat more than a bite of scrambled egg. There was absolutely no poop in the crate, but she did give a little poop after climbing up on the edge of a basket sitting on the table. It was small but otherwise normal in appearance. Now that she is getting used to being handled I inspected her a little more thoroughly this morning. Her vent looks fine, nice and pick with no signs of any parasites, no lumps or bumps there or around the crop. Feathers all look good and are still nice and shiny. However, she is very thin and underweight. I think that her lethargy is just plain lack of energy from not eating or drinking. I left her with the crate open in a closed lighted bathroom for the day with some egg, yogurt and oatmeal, some of her regular crumble and fresh water with a little ACV. We'll see if she makes it through the day. After a long night reading through the forum I am suspecting some kind of internal parasite, worms, or maybe cocci since we're just coming off of a couple weeks of damp weather here. I am going to stop at TSC on the way home from work and pick up some wormer and Corid. The rest of the flock seemed to be their usual perky selves this morning. Thanks for all the good wishes for Hen!
 

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