Injured Road Island Red with Possible Constipation

[The Mother Hen]

I've been taking care of chickens since 2011. I had some dead birds from my first, second, and third flock, as I was an amateur (I still consider myself to be one). Plenty had died from skunk attacks since my coop had holes in them that I couldn't see, and others have died from being either egg-locked or constipated. I know know how some of them died, but I am still learning. I have a RR, the one in my profile pic, that I had to isolate from the flock since I think she's constipated. She has been pooing lately, so hopefully the yogurt in water helped. I had chickens with constipation in the past, and sadly they passed away due to infection and lack of my knowledge on birds. One of my old roadies died from constipation, and as I cleaned her before she died I found these little white worms in her poo. They were about half an inch, and slightly translucent. When I washed the poo away from her vent, the eggs seemed to explode on her butt and worms crawled over the stuck poop. So I am wondering, do you think my other chickens might have/had worms? I live in a very dry area, therefore I place some water in the coop for my girls to place their feet in. Do I need to stop watering their floor and keep it dry (it gets to be 110 out here in the latest). There are flies out here but not many, so I am hoping they won't lay eggs in the poo. I am keeping their food off the dirt floor, so hopefully it will help. Should I place some grit down in case they aren't getting enough of it?

Now, onto the sick chicken. I have taken her inside, placed wood shavings in her box and she's resting (a lot). I "dirtied" her water with yogurt and she drinks it fine, but in little sips. Her poo this morning was dark, and smells HORRID! I checked it this morning, but it was clean of eggs or maggots/worms that I could see. I don't think she is egg locked because I found an egg yesterday in the box she sat in. I did find a malformed egg the same day but later in the evening, but I find those to be considered normal since we only had another malformed egg awhile back. My baby RR also has a strange bump on her left toe in-between the membrane on her foot, and I had another chicken with the same bump (she got over it though). Her left foot, which has the bump, is swollen so I gave her a warm bath and used soap to clean any infected/ possibly infected areas.


My sick chicken, seen in my photo, is 9 months old, and two days ago I found a dead Bard Rock chicken in the coop (from the same flock as the sick RR). I couldn't see any signs of attack on her, nor did she look/act sick (except her comb was shriveled). I am wondering if she might have had worms since we haven't wormed her yet, or if the thunderstorm we had two days before she died scared her to death (literally). I have my suspitions she was egg-locked, but I could never tell because I couldn't find any obstruction in her vent. I don't know how to deworm chickens, and I am afraid I will lose more if I don't. I don't know if there is some type of tool to deworm chickens, or if it's a powder to put in their food/water. I would be appreciative if someone can give me some good solid answers, because I am on my last wing. My chickens have died from predators (taken care of them though), disease, and even for no reason! Thank you so much, and hopefully I can get some answers - TMH

 

[ChickenChat Joy]

We just wormed our flock for the very first time on the advice of a dear friend and long time bird owner. He advised us to get a cow liquid wormer called Safe guard. He recommended 5cc to every 5 gallons of water for 5 days. He withholds water from the birds at night and then gives them a fresh dose in the morning. Our birds were losing most of their feathers, more than a normal molt, so this is what we are trying and the birds seem fine.

 

[The Mother Hen]

Well, sadly this bird mentioned in the thread died. She was too ill from something (no idea what it was) and she passed away. I ended up having to wring her since she died very slowly, and it was very hard since she was my own chicken that I bought.