Lethargic hen

[Mrluoas]

I have a hen who’s been lethargic and puffed out feathers all day, stays her distance from rest of the flock. Although she does seem to be eating and drinkin.

So last night I go to make my rounds before bed when they’re all roosted and I see the hen and it looks like a little length of a turd is dangling from her vent. I’ve never seen intestinal worms before so I was praying it wasn’t that and I went to pull it from her vent. It looks like a tangled mess of fibers almost like hair? And straw.

However it kept going and going I pulled and I kid you not about a 6-8 inch turd All intertwined with what looks like straw and straw fibers. I’m equally horrified and awestruck and just had to know if anyone’s seen or heard of this kind of intestinal impact. I’m sure my hens breathing a huge sigh of relief . Of course I took a picture of the monstrosity but honestly that image is NSFLife

 

[Shezadandy]

We love gross pictures around here. Just make sure the post gives the "graphic pictures" heads up, i.e. start the post with "GRAPHIC POOP PICTURE" so anyone more sensitive to that kind of thing can stop there.

I'm going to guess she's been eating hard to digest but oh-so-fun to eat anyway long fibrous straw, grass and so forth. Many times this results in a crop impaction. Lucky she pushed it through and you helped her the rest of the way.

See if you can track down where she's getting these materials and eliminate them. Think of a chicken's digestive tract like a vacuum cleaner or a shower drain - some long hairs caught in those devices will allow the system to continue working, but once it's clogged things back up and start to stink ... and there's a big mess to clean up. And in my experience the ones that eat that kind of stuff will KEEP eating it- and one of these times she'll cause herself a huge problem- so if you can find a substitute if it's nest box material, for example, you'll save her (and you!) future issues.