Lethargic Hen

[our4chix]

Hey Everyone, We have a sick hen, she is almost one (will be the end of May). She is a speckled sussex with three other "sisters". We let our girls out today to roam the yard (beautiful spring day) and when we went to go put them back in their coop, when we noticed Nutmeg, the (now) sick hen, was really lethargic. She took slow steps and dropped her wings like they were too heavy to hold up. She is normally very energetic and the fastest chicken we own, but today, she was the total opposite. The only thing we noticed was that her vent was slightly prolapsed with a clear fluid bubbling out. Maybe she broke an egg inside?? We don't know what to do and we REALLY NEED HELP / ADVISE!! Does anyone have an alternate diagnosis or a solution to our problem??

Thank you to anyone who responds. You have no idea how much it means to us!!

 

[realsis]

you can give her a warm bath and carefully feel inside the vent to see if the shell is inside if not she could have laid internally. if she did start ANTIBOTIC ASAP to help reduce the infection. does the fluid smell? is it thick? after her bath you can likely know a bit more about whats happened. if you do feel shell broken inside you can very carefully try to get out what you can. if its a internal lay without shell hopefully she can expel the liquid. either way id start some antibotic for infection. if its a yeast infection it would likely smell or be white or chunky if thats the case you can use monostait to help clear that up. take her inside to treat her. i wish you the best and my thoughts are with you. This is what id do if she were mine. hope this is helpful

 

[our4chix]

Thank you for the response. I will try those things and let you know more! I really appreciate it!!

 

[our4chix]

Realsis,

Thank you for your response!! We gave Nutmeg a very warm bath for about an hour and then wrapped her up in some warm towels and snuggled with her. She was very snuggly and REALLY tired. We put her in our infirmery overnight in the warm bathroom (connected to our room) and checked on her periodically all night. At 5am when we checked on her, she was laying down, sound asleep, and woke to the light. When she moved to the side, there was a gorgeous egg laying underneath her and she was eating and drinking normally. We think she had some constipation (20 20 hind sight) and she is our with her sisters again, still a little slow, but MUCH more herself.

Thank you for your advise!!!!