Laying Hen weak for several weeks

[Jennibeth]

I have a hen that has been weak for a while and she seems to be getting worse. Her other symptoms are diarrhea, her comb is pale and laying down on her head, her tail is not up and perky, and she has stopped laying. She is still eating and drinking. I have looked at MULTIPLE chicken disease sights and I can not figure out what it is. We bought her from someone and have no clue what the age is. We have other chickens and it did not spread to them. We removed her from the coop into another coop with one other chicken for several weeks now and she has not showed signs of sickness either. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is her crop empty in the mornings? I would suspect sour crop if it is full and feels like it has water in it first thing in the morning. If the crop is empty, I might treat her for cocci with Corid liquid 2 tsp per gallon of water for 5 days. Sometimes an older chicken can get cocci when they come to a new place with different strains of cocci that they aren't immune to. Have you wormed her since you got her? That would be another thing to think about. Be sure to check for lice and mites also.

 

[Jennibeth]

Well we have had our chickens for almost a year so I think that they would have already got used to the environmental diseases here, if there was any. I will check her crop in the morning.

 

[Jennibeth]

I checked her crop and it was empty. I'm going to give her a good dose of wormer.

 

[Eggcessive]

Lice or mites can really zap the strength of chickens. You have to search at the base of the feathers all over, and especially under and around the vent. Not trying to talk you into coccidiosis, but there are 9 strains for chickens, and we can track a strain they aren't immune to into our coops from feedstores and other yards. If you rule out everything else, it's worth a shot to treat.