We rescued Maria about 6 months ago. She’s the top of the pecking order. She’s usually very bossy and vocal. Our chickens also have free range over our backyard and we lock them in the coop each night. I give them fresh water with either, vitamins when they have dioaherra or apple cider vinegar every day and clean the coop daily.
Maria hasn’t laid in a week. She usually lays every day (she may miss a day every 3 weeks or so). When she did lay, they were dinosaur sized eggs, but with thin shells. Sometimes they had a calcium deposit on top that would have a hole.
She has plenty of shells mixed in with her pellets and we mixed dichotomous earth in with the pellets as well. Our other hens lay perfect eggs so we just always assumed she was old and her eggs were just weird. I have no idea how old she is.
She isn’t vocal this past week and I notice she doesn’t move around as much. I’ve kept her inside for the past three days were it is warm (I live in Australia and it is currently winter, although our winters aren’t particularly cold).
She only poo’s about 10 times a day and they are small, and she’s not drinking much, if at all.
She’s still eating. I’ve noticed strange things in her poo twice, that look almost like scallops.
I felt her crop in the morning and it was empty so she's digesting food.
We gave her an epsom bath yesterday to try and assist her to lay.
We noticed her nostrils were black. I don’t know if it was from dirt or something else.
Also I've noticed on three occasions, she standing on one foot. I don't know if that's just me being paranoid or a sign she has hurt her leg.
I've included two pictures of the weird things in her poo, and her beak.
Does anyone have idea what I can do to help? Should I put her back outside with the other hens? My experience with the local vets are the chickens leave worse than when they arrived, so I’m doing my best to avoid them.
Any advice appreciated.
Maria hasn’t laid in a week. She usually lays every day (she may miss a day every 3 weeks or so). When she did lay, they were dinosaur sized eggs, but with thin shells. Sometimes they had a calcium deposit on top that would have a hole.
She has plenty of shells mixed in with her pellets and we mixed dichotomous earth in with the pellets as well. Our other hens lay perfect eggs so we just always assumed she was old and her eggs were just weird. I have no idea how old she is.
She isn’t vocal this past week and I notice she doesn’t move around as much. I’ve kept her inside for the past three days were it is warm (I live in Australia and it is currently winter, although our winters aren’t particularly cold).
She only poo’s about 10 times a day and they are small, and she’s not drinking much, if at all.
She’s still eating. I’ve noticed strange things in her poo twice, that look almost like scallops.
I felt her crop in the morning and it was empty so she's digesting food.
We gave her an epsom bath yesterday to try and assist her to lay.
We noticed her nostrils were black. I don’t know if it was from dirt or something else.
Also I've noticed on three occasions, she standing on one foot. I don't know if that's just me being paranoid or a sign she has hurt her leg.
I've included two pictures of the weird things in her poo, and her beak.
Does anyone have idea what I can do to help? Should I put her back outside with the other hens? My experience with the local vets are the chickens leave worse than when they arrived, so I’m doing my best to avoid them.
Any advice appreciated.
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