Hi Elmo,
I don't suspect a problem but one of my Hens is sickly in some way and I thought I'd check her crop to make sure that wasn't it. She eats constantly but is the thinnest of all my girls. She's already been wormed (about a month ago) so unless it's a tape, that's not the problem. Her poops are always either all liquid or mostly liquid with a little bit of solids. When she was a chick her first owner or breeder clipped the tip of her beak making her lower beak about 1/16 of an inch longer than her top one. I watch her free range and she usually has to peck at something a few times before she gets it so that may be why it seems like she's eating all the time... she may not be getting it in her mouth every time she pecks.
When I say she's sickly... she usually has a pale comb, wattles and face (maybe once a week I'll see her face get red/pink), her feathers are a mess (but we suspect a bully hen and have isolated the bully from from the flock), she has poopy butt probably from all the diarhea and her eggs have somewhat thin shells, are rough on one end like sandpaper, and frequently have a "pimple" or two on them (like a dollop of extra shell making a bump). She's been the main target of our bully hen recently and we think it may be a symptom of her being sick in some way.
The last two days I've put honey and ACV in their water but I haven't noticed a change in her. Behavior-wise she seems fine, though.
She did have lice when we first got her and believe we have that under control although we haven't been able to get all of the egg sacs/nits off of her feathers. Those things are stubborn! I'm sure they've all hatched by now, though. We've been dusting her about once a week for a couple of weeks now and will continue to do so for maybe 2 more weeks just to be sure.
I also give her yogurt with active cultures regularly but, again... no change in her that I've noticed from it.
I bought some Valbazen today in case it's tape worm but I'm not sure if I'm going to use it on her now or not... I'm also thinking of trying some antibiotics. I just don't know what's wrong and hate to medicate her blindly in the hopes that it will help. I'm just at a loss as to where to go from here.
She's not on death's door... she doesn't seem to be in any distress of any kind. She just looks bad and her poops are not normal. It's almost like some kind of low-grade fever my kids would get. lolololol
So... her crop is something I've read to check when your chicken is sick so thought I'd give it a try. I checked where you described the other day and felt what seemed like an adam's apple. I'm guessing that's some pebbles she's swallowed to help break up her food. I'll try checking again in the morning to see if I notice it feeling any different than it did the other day. Thanks for your response!
5Leepy!
