Hen's sudden decline: weak legs, can't stand, mouth breathing, disinterest in food/water

[Cinnaminute]

Hello,

One of my hens is suddenly declining fast today. She's about 3 years old, not quite but close to it. Just 6 hours ago, around noon, she was fine in her run. I let everyone out at that time to free range, as I do. This hen is known to hang out in our shed and on the shed porch. I often leave the shed door open so it airs out. I also keep their straw in there. So sometimes they'll pop in to lay an egg.

Today was pretty hot, about 80 degrees and the shed was cool, so several were hanging around in there.

I checked on everyone once around 3 hours after letting everyone out. She was seemingly fine. However, I went to go put everyone back up in their run around 1.5 hours ago and found her laying on the floor in the shed. I thought maybe she was just hot and cooling off. She stood up, but had her tail down.

I've since brought her in. Her crop was mostly empty and she's been known to be bullied by others. I figured maybe the heat got to her - that she didn't eat or drink enough and maybe didn't get enough calcium.

Immediately gave a calcium tablet and have been giving electrolytes, nutridrench... but she doesn't want to drink. I've been gently dipping her beak and getting some fluids down her every 10 minutes or so. She's equally disinterested in food, but did perk up and eat a single piece of tuna when I offered.

But she's just getting worse. She can't stand now. She's closed her eyes and is mouth breathing while laying spread out and feathers fluffed. She doesn't resist me moving her and she crawls around a bit from time to time as if where she's laying gets too hot. Acts like she's falling asleep.

I put some Vaseline on her vent just in case but she doesn't seem eggbound. I'm just at a loss on how to proceed. I worry she might've ate something she shouldn't. Maybe found an old moldy piece of dog food? I'm not sure. But it's proceeding so fast I worry she won't last the day. Or perhaps a soft shell broke in her?

I massaged around her vent area gently. I'm inexperienced, but I don't think I feel an egg? I did feel up inside her vent about an inch in and I don't think I feel an egg? I'm hesitant to bathe her because of how weak in the legs she is. But if you think a bath is worth a try, I'll do that. She keeps falling asleep or seemingly falling asleep in the carrier I have her in. Oh, and I do have amoxicillin if anyone thinks that's worth a try.

Thanks for any help.

Edit to add: she keeps her feet pulled in a bit. Like, when I lift her up, she's not really relaxed and remains in the same laying position. Her feet only dangle a little. When she crawls, her legs are just slipping out from under her, even on carpet.

Also, forgot to mention, I just finished a round of Corid on the 8th and she was last dewormed back in November 2024. Everyone is due for their spring deworming soon.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Important update: got a video after her bath. She groans and poops out dark liquid poop. Looks like she was eating dirt? Doesn't quite look like blood poop but then again, it could be?

video

 

[Eggcessive]

I am sorry about your hen. I would continue to work on getting her to take food and water. Try some scrambled egg bits and wet mushy chicken feed as well as the tuna. Has she lost weight in her breast area, or does she have any enlargement of her lower belly under her vent that might be fluid or internal laying? It is possible that she could have cancer or an infection. Many times we don’ know what exactly until a post mortem necropsy can be done.

 

[Cinnaminute]

@Eggcessive Thank you for the response! It means a lot to me. I can't get any food down her anymore. She just holds it in her mouth if I stick a tiny piece in. She groaned when trying to poop, you can see in the video. I attempted a bath with Epsom salt. Any thoughts on her movements in the video and the dark poop? I'll get a picture as well. Might just be dirt and bile honestly. But it's weird to see her struggle. Unless that's a result of her system just being empty. Her crop is pretty much fully empty.

Her breast bone is a bit prominent but other hens of mine feel the same. It's hard to tell if she's lost weight. I can give her a weigh and see. No ascites. I've got a different hen who I've had to drain twice so thankfully I know what that's like. No mass at all just her little fat pack. I have an internal layer experience so I thankfully know that the hard mass is like.

 

[Eggcessive]

She just looks very weak and it looks like she can’t even use her wings to move around. I wonder if she could have gotten into something outside.

 

[Cinnaminute]

She just looks very weak and it looks like she can’t even use her wings to move around. I wonder if she could have gotten into something outside.

Thank you for your insight. I guess I can't do much else other than trying to keep fluids down her and let her sleep. Maybe I'll look into a flush in case of botulism.

 

[Eggcessive]

Epsom salts can be used as a flush to get rid of a toxin, but if she is dehydrated and hungry, it could push her over the edge. Here is a thread about flushes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/questions-on-epsom-salt-flush.1306896/

 

[BellaMay95]

Hope your girl gets better soon! One of mine is acting similar but she's alert and eating/drinking still just has no strength to push herself up to stand. I posted a thread about her last night.
Ethel's symptoms came on yesterday afternoon after laying an egg and she was up in the nesting box for ~4-5 hours before I got home from work and realized something was wrong (a couple of my girls are princesses and will sit there for like 2-3 hours after laying so her staying up there so long didn't necessarily set off alarm bells).
I got Ethel to take a calcium and some St. John's Wort when I got home from work today as Google made me worried about Mareks...

For your girl, I agree the most important thing is to try to get her eating/drinking again...I'd keep with the electrolyte water and whatever treats you can tempt her to eat but if she's not wanting to eat or drink I fear she's fading fast. Hopefully someone on here has ideas of any medicines to help perk her up more and get her fighting to get better.

 

[Cinnaminute]

@Eggcessive Thank you for the link. Looks like that's one of the threads I found earlier, so that's great. During her every-15-minute dribble of water, I got a little epsom salt down her. Didn't want to force too much. Just dribbled it over her beak alternating with feed soup. She was willingly swallowing as I dribbled it over her beak. Did that until she decided she'd had enough. I figured a little is better than none and better than too much.

When I dried her front off, she finally opened one of her eyes to look at me. Put her back to bed with her favorite cartoons on low and a towel to keep the carrier dark. She's definitely getting hot from being to weak to move, so trying to move her around a bit too to cool off some. Thank you again. Here's hoping she pulls through.

@BellaMay95 Thank you and I wish you luck with your hen as well! I think your girl should pull through. She definitely seems quite alert and it's good she's eating/drinking. I usually try not to stress too much unless they hit the point of refusing food and/or water. I always do a treat test. If someone doesn't want treats, they really aren't feeling well. Just got done nursing a hen who soft shelled and must've gotten an infection from it. She'd lay around all the time and was alert. But she wasn't eating or drinking quite enough and would walk almost in slow motion whenever she did make the effort. A round of amoxicillin for a week cleared her up. Your girl doesn't sound quite that bad. I'm wishing you and her all the luck!

 

[Cinnaminute]

Update: it's about 9am now. She made it through the night.

Around 11:30pm last night I gave her 250mg of amoxicillin. She felt like she was burning up and was panting from being so hot. I assumed she had a fever.

I woke up every hour or so and checked on her. She didn't want anything to drink throughout the night so I didn't force her. She just alternated between being awake and heavily panting to periods of sleeping where her breathing calmed a tad. She did poop some diarrhea throughout the night. Same dirt looking poop until the last one was just urates.

Around 8:30am I tried to give her some water. She actually opened her eyes some for the first time and even had some strength to get her legs under her and crawl/scoot away from me.

I put her back in and left the door to the carrier open, figuring she wouldn't go anywhere. But as I fell back asleep, i heard a scuffle. Found she had walked up next to me in bed and was in the corner... She laid an egg. Had her eyes a little open. So proud of her. I think the antibiotics were the right choice. Got her back in the carrier and she's sleeping some more. Think I'll do the same lol