Lethargic, not drinking, swollen hard abdomen, deep breathing

[TalaNSweet]

Help!! My chicken hasn’t been feeling well the last week. She was chased into the neighbours on Sunday night and stayed in the bushes for the night( usually sleeps in the laundry) then come home and I noticed she was perched in the rain when I got home from work (unlike her to be out in the crappy weather.) she manages to stand up and walk a few steps every now and again then just stands for a very long time before she attempts to lie down. Her breathing is quite deep and sometimes has her mouth open as if she’s really struggling to get some air. I’ve also noticed she sometimes looks like she’s gagging? She had diarrhoea and so I cut her dirty feathers back to notice she had quite bad lice to which she’s been treated for and now none. After the diahrrea she ended up constipated so iv been feeding her kiwi fruit and gave her some molasses etc to which she started passing but pasty white with small green lumps. She will eat some yoghurt she had brocolli kiwi fruit lettuce and dog roll yesterday which she doesn’t seem to interested in today. She’s not due for a worm and I didn’t exactly want to worm her if I didn’t have to especially since she’s not well.
She’s never laid an egg since iv had her (8months) so I wasn’t sure if it was possible for her to start out of no where or to become eggbound as I am not very informated when it comes to chickens.
Her abdomen is hard and swollen and she doesn’t seem to want to lie down as much as she usually does. Iv given her 3baths to soak her when she was constipated and was hoping that was the cause of her sickness but she seems to still be swollen and hard in the abdomen even after passing. She’s been sleeping inside in front of the fire all well and still where we started just looking for someone’s advice in case they think I’m dealing with something more than just lice and constipation??? Please help

 

[MandS]

She's had a number of things happen to her which will have had an effect. You sound like you are doing the right thing by keeping her hydrated and warm.

Can you feed her some scrambled egg or tuna (in water only - not brine or oil) and see if she eats it.

As for laying, it's not something that I am confident to answer. However you say she has a swollen abdomen, so it could be a blockage - egg or poop. Are you able to get her to a vet because time isn't kind when things internally go wrong.

Read some of the posts on egg binding. There are checks you can do yourself to see if she has a stuck egg.

Here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/egg-binding-symptoms-treatment-and-prevention.66978/

Good luck!