Lethargic, tail down, bald vent

[Sylvestor12]

If it's external problems, I'd dust the coop/birds. You can also make an egg yolk "paste" to perk your hen up. Get two hard-boiled egg yolks, mix up the yolks with little bits of water until you can get through a un-needled syringe fairly easily. The other way is to just get raw egg yolk and feed it to her straight if she isn't drinking well. Hope this helps!

 

[NJNick]

If you hen has mites. You will see very small white eggs. And those little pests. Also at or around the vent area. And in worse cases. You would see them all over your chickens body. Only on the skin at the base of the feathers.
She looks like her weight is good. But her hed is drawn back and when ever I see that in a chicken. It is usually not good. It could be chilly from the weather.It could be sick. And could also not be totally molted out. But she appears to be well feathered.
Keep a good eye on her weight. But I hope you find the problem soon.

 

[Lily-Rose]

She seemed alot perkier this morning, so I took her out of the box and put her in the garden...she trotted off and spent the day walking around eating grass and greenery and seemed much better. She's spending the night in her coop with her friend and I'll see how she is in the morning. She's eating a lot better so I'm feeling more at ease about her.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

I've heard of using a syringe to drain fluid if she feels like a water balloon. Should I try that?

Everything I've found on doin' that suggests the use of guiding at least an 18 guage needle using ultrasound, so I'm thinkin' it'd be best to treat for what you can, and hope she absorbs any liquid.

 

[1 percent Farms]

Hi Lily-Rose. I realize your post was a little over a month ago, but I just joined BYC and saw this. I am experiencing the same behavior in one of our hens. Tail down, not wanting to hang out with the others. They are free range except for at night when they go up in the roost in the house. I fear that death is near with her as we have had other hens with similar symptoms. What was the outcome with your hen? Just wondering if there is anything I can do for her to save her. My husband and I really don't know much about chicken anatomy but we did a "physical" last night. The only thing that seemed out of place was a broken claw nail. It doesn't appear to be infected or really even bothering her though. Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.
Leaning Trees Farm

 

[Sylvestor12]

I might not be right, but you could look into Blackhead. I lost one of my chickens to this. She had ruffled feathers, droopy wings, isolated herself, and started to lose weight. Take this as just a possibility because the weather may have something to do about it. I find that when my Aracauna hen gets cold, she fluffs her feathers a little and tilts her face into her beard and ear fluffies. However, she only does that when perching at night. Hope someone comes along with better suggestions...Hope she gets better!

 

[1 percent Farms]

Thank you. I will look into that. She is worse today. She can no longer move her legs. She's eating and drinking well so it's so difficult to make the decision but I think we're going to have to put her down ;-( I should have thought more of it when she changed her position in the roost at night a couple weeks ago. Lessons learned, right?

 

[Chicken Fruit]

*totally changing my post* I love it when I dont realize there's other pages to the thread.

So sorry!

 

[1 percent Farms]

Ha ha! Totally understand. I'm new to all of this and it's been pretty comical trying to learn how it all works.

 

[Sylvestor12]

Sometimes roost position changes occur from social ranking, not always illnesses. Plus, it may depend on the cold. Some hens move into the nestboxes for winter where I am.