- Apr 26, 2010
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As the title states my hen Courtney, is lathargic. She hasnt laid properly in months for various reasons which will be covered below. And I'm here looking for advice, but some things to consider first.
1, shes a fancy breed with low laying expectations and she produced WAY more eggs than expected in her first 2 years with us.
2, she has lost 3 companions in the last year. Our budgie died in January, her rooster passed in March, and 2 weeks ago our house cat died of post surgical complications. It's been a rough year for pets in our house.
3, its winter and we are getting about 10 - 11 good hours of direct sunlight.
4, no signs of egg binding, internal laying or parasites.
5 no breathing issues, mouth mucous, snot, or abdominal bloating.
Now what worries me is she has always been a little sickly. She never really filled out, I would call her body condition a 2. And her face never really turned red, pink is normal for her and shes a little pale right now. I have never had a hen stop laying entirely in winter. Even Courtney's first and second winter she only dropped down to 2 or 3 a week instead of her average 4 or 5 a week.
Also shes never been this lathargic. All she wants is to snuggle. Shes still drinking and she ate okay until about 5 days ago. Her poop was pretty normal, right now its watery, but shes on a liquid diet. Her crop was emptying entirely at night until yesterday, she is on ACV and an herb mixture to clear out her crop. Shes on layer feed with grit and oyster shells freely avalible. Normally her water is filtered, I removed the filter and added Rooster booster poultry cell vitamin supplement.
She was lathargic and depressed when our budgie passed, there was a small interrupt in her laying. Just a week or two. When her rooster passed the same thing happened, only her laying interrupt was significantly longer. She wasnt eating good, she layed alot of soft shells and no shell eggs. She also laid at weird times, her usual time is in the after noon but we were finding eggs under her roost in the mornings. This was when we switched her to laying feed, we were providing all flock with grit and oyster shells on the side. It took almost 2 months to get her back on track.
Then she had a HARD molt durning the end of September beginning of October. It was 3 or 4 weeks total and she stopped laying.
In the beginning of November she laid a couple of eggs and I figured she was getting back to normal. Then we noticed the cat not eating and that started a 2 week ordeal of vet visits and late night errands. I noticed she stopped laying again but she was eating and drinking fine. Then 2 weeks ago we found the cat behind the TV, she was gone...
A day or two later Courtney became lathargic, then she stopped eating. We encouraged her to eat, and she did a little. The day before yesterday I started dropper feeding her.
The cats vet bills ate almost all of our extra resources. I would like to treat her at home if at all possible. I suspect it's a combination of winter, depression and maybe coccidiosis. I have Amprol on the way and my husband is going to pick up some medicated chick feed to boost her caloric intake and tide her over til the amprol arrives. It was supposed to be here Monday...
I would like some honest opinions, anything you think I might have missed?
1, shes a fancy breed with low laying expectations and she produced WAY more eggs than expected in her first 2 years with us.
2, she has lost 3 companions in the last year. Our budgie died in January, her rooster passed in March, and 2 weeks ago our house cat died of post surgical complications. It's been a rough year for pets in our house.
3, its winter and we are getting about 10 - 11 good hours of direct sunlight.
4, no signs of egg binding, internal laying or parasites.
5 no breathing issues, mouth mucous, snot, or abdominal bloating.
Now what worries me is she has always been a little sickly. She never really filled out, I would call her body condition a 2. And her face never really turned red, pink is normal for her and shes a little pale right now. I have never had a hen stop laying entirely in winter. Even Courtney's first and second winter she only dropped down to 2 or 3 a week instead of her average 4 or 5 a week.
Also shes never been this lathargic. All she wants is to snuggle. Shes still drinking and she ate okay until about 5 days ago. Her poop was pretty normal, right now its watery, but shes on a liquid diet. Her crop was emptying entirely at night until yesterday, she is on ACV and an herb mixture to clear out her crop. Shes on layer feed with grit and oyster shells freely avalible. Normally her water is filtered, I removed the filter and added Rooster booster poultry cell vitamin supplement.
She was lathargic and depressed when our budgie passed, there was a small interrupt in her laying. Just a week or two. When her rooster passed the same thing happened, only her laying interrupt was significantly longer. She wasnt eating good, she layed alot of soft shells and no shell eggs. She also laid at weird times, her usual time is in the after noon but we were finding eggs under her roost in the mornings. This was when we switched her to laying feed, we were providing all flock with grit and oyster shells on the side. It took almost 2 months to get her back on track.
Then she had a HARD molt durning the end of September beginning of October. It was 3 or 4 weeks total and she stopped laying.
In the beginning of November she laid a couple of eggs and I figured she was getting back to normal. Then we noticed the cat not eating and that started a 2 week ordeal of vet visits and late night errands. I noticed she stopped laying again but she was eating and drinking fine. Then 2 weeks ago we found the cat behind the TV, she was gone...
A day or two later Courtney became lathargic, then she stopped eating. We encouraged her to eat, and she did a little. The day before yesterday I started dropper feeding her.
The cats vet bills ate almost all of our extra resources. I would like to treat her at home if at all possible. I suspect it's a combination of winter, depression and maybe coccidiosis. I have Amprol on the way and my husband is going to pick up some medicated chick feed to boost her caloric intake and tide her over til the amprol arrives. It was supposed to be here Monday...
I would like some honest opinions, anything you think I might have missed?
