Ill chicken, brown + clear liquid??

hollyengland08

Hatching
Apr 9, 2022
2
5
4
My 5 year old ISA brown has been sickly for a while, and has been being picked on by our other hens for it. She's in a bad state, and we have isolated her from them, but she has started coughing up (?), a watery brown liquid. I have almost accepted at this point this it for her and we might need to euthanize, but is there anything I could do to help her in the mean time? After being attacked by the others she has hurt her leg severely, possibly broken it, and is in a lot of pain. She has always had issues with it and it seemed she almost couldn't feel it but now this is much worse and she can't walk on it at all. Is there any way to help her feel less pain while we wait to have her put down??
 

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It sounds like she may have a sour crop. How does her crop feel—empty, full, firm, or puffy? Does it empty overnight? Has she lost weight when you pick her up and feel her ribs? When I have a chicken in pain, or being pecked by other chickens, and having crop problems, I consider putting them down so they do not suffer. It is tough to do, but necessary when owning chickens.
 
I'm sorry about your hen.

If she's in bad shape and in pain and you feel she needs to be put down, then ask a friend, neighbor or family member to help you if you are not able to do it yourself. Don't let her linger.
There's various ways to put a hen our of her misery. I use cervical dislocation.

Coughing up brown liquid sounds like Sour Crop which is often a symptom of another underlying condition. It's not uncommon for a laying hen to have a reproductive disorder like cancer, eyp, salpingitis, etc.

She also looks to have Scaly Leg Mites, but hard to tell. If the leg or foot is broken, then it needs to be splinted and/or wrapped for support.
You can try treating the crop, the leg mites, splint/wrap the leg and she may improve for a period of time, it can be really hard to know. If she's been poorly for a while then she may still continue to decline.
I'm sorry, I know it can be heartbreaking.

Crop treatment
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Scaly Leg Treatment
https://the-chicken-chick.com/scaly-leg-mites-in-chickens/

Splinting
https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

Some reading about euthanasia
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/euthanasia-information.1195265/
https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-humanely-euthanize-chicken-by-dr/
 

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