I have had chickens for 3 years. They are my pets and I have gotten extremely attached to them. I presently have five Orpington hens ranging in age from one year to three years. I have one that has chronic respiratory infection, that she somehow contacted last year. Now they all have had it. It tends to recur in times of stress such as molting, extreme heat etc. I do not eat their eggs, they are strictly pets. They have had diahrrea for a while now. I treated them with probiotics, but they still have it. The oldest hen who is my favorite, started acting listless, disinterested, not eating quite as well and staying away from the flock about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I put off buying my car tags to take her to the vet. He said she was infested with lice and gave her meds which I also gave to the other 4. He said she had a fever (107) and he gave her an anti inflammatory medicine orally which I continued for 4 more days. He said she had respiratory "issues" and he checked her for avian flu (test was negative) he sent home oral antibiotics which I gave for 7 days. I thought I saw some improvement but in the last few days she has started acting blah again. The 1 year old hens are really aggressive when I give treats and I thought at first something like that could be bothering her but she is the alpha hen but not as dominant as she once was. The other 4 hens seem fine (except for diarrhea) they have good appetites and are active. I clean the coop and run every day and they get fresh water every day. I am getting where I hate to go in the back yard because of fretting over her, that she will die etc. I don't know what else I can do except to have a wait and see attitude because I can't afford another vet bill like this one. I also don't know what to do for the diarrhea in the others. I stopped giving any treats at all today thinking that will help. Just don't know what to do. I hate to give up on this wonderful hobby. I always thought chickens were a hardy nearly indestructible little farm animal
