Lethargic, slow-moving, RIR. What could it be?

Lets Farm!

In the Brooder
10 Years
Mar 31, 2009
20
0
22
Hi Friends,
One of our 1 year old RIR hens has not been herself for almost 2 days. She's slow moving and pretty lethargic. I don't think she's laid in a while, but doesn't seem to be egg bound. I have only been able to observe one dropping, which seemed yellow and had the consistency of egg.
Her tail is not fully down, but she's pretty sad looking. She is moving around the yard but at a slow pace and will rest for quite long periods of time.
I forced her to drink some probiotic water this morning, because I'm concerned she might not be drinking enough.

There are so few symptoms that jump out at me. Would folks please tell me what else to look for? What could this be? It seems so vague that I'm worried I'm missing the bigger clues.

Thank you for any and all help!

General info on the hens: We have 5, 1-year old hens (3 RR, 1 Australorp, 1 PBR). They have a very clean, large coop and a large yard to play in. The coop is full of hay/straw and the yard is covered in leaves and straw. They have free access to a laying ration, clean water, and some sand. They also get some treats, greens, and veggies and roaming in the grass int he afternoons.
 
I have only seen one and it was yellow, runny, and the consistency of egg yolk. There wasn't much of it though.
 
Does it sound like this could be worms or parasites? Is it likely that none of the other hens would show symptoms?
 
Wondering how your chicken is doing and if you figured out what happened.

We have a 6 week old chick who is showing the same signs today. We tried to bribe her into eating with her favorite smooshed peas and put water to her beak to get her to lick it ... she seems mildly interested, but unable to follow through with actually taking anything in.

Her chest sac thingy (I'm new to this chicken raising, so can't remember what that digestive sac with grit is) seems puffed out with either air or water. It's not completely distended to the point of being hard, but it's definitely not feeling like it normally does. I think it's air-y feeling, my wife thinks it's fluid build up.

They've been getting chick feed with a small bit of antibiotic in it, but they did JUST get moved to their outside pen. AND I DID witness her find a good-sized slug a few days ago and swallow the whole thing and wonder if this was too much. (As far as I know, she's the only one who's gotten such a thing so far.) I'm hoping she's just digesting, but worried about obstruction. Is there anything to give them to encourage these things to move through the rest of her tract?

If anyone knows anything or something to help her or save her, we'd appreciate hearing what you have to say.

Thank you!
 
If your chicken stopped laying eggs and passed what had the consistency of an egg, maybe she passed an egg without a shell? That is potentially a pretty serious problem.

We have a chicken with egg yolk peritonitis because she stopped forming shells for some reason (probably a nutritional deficit we're hearing from our vet). When we took her to the vet, the first thing the vet noticed was that she was very swollen underneath and between her legs. Kind of like a water balloon. That is because infection has set in where all the egg yolks are piling up in her abdomen. Our vet drained a couple cups of fluid out of her and we've had her on antibiotics for about 12 days. She's in bad shape and we're not sure she's going to make it.

Good luck!
 

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