Lhicken is sick??! Please help! Emergency!!!

[LhickenChicken]

Not again some of you will say. Yep it's Lhicken again, that same old Lhicken. She is my favorite chicken. Must I wonder why the favorites always get sick and hurt???
Anyway, she is very lethargic, and it seems to be "taxing" just to stand for her. I gave her DE, not sure if it'll help or not. Saturday I took her in here cause I noticed something not so right with her, and she was losing lots of feathers. I made her lay throughout the winter, so she isn't laying right now, she is taking a break. She was very hungry and her crop was empty. Yesterday she wasn't any better. Today I gave her ground limestone. I have to force feed her because her crop is half-full of water not food. I shoved the layer feed down her beak, as well as the DE and limestone. Anything I can do for her because I love her and she seems to be declining. She is two years old and some kind of what you would call "mutt". Also I thought rhubarb leaves weren't bad for her because a website that wasn't BYC said that rhubarb leaves were okay for chickens, but another site said no, but she had already ingested some of it. I am wondering if it is a compounding factor, and before you say anything about crops she has a crop full of water with the occasional piece of feed. And she is not eggbound because she is pooping. She spends most of her day sitting down like she is laying an egg, but never laying an egg. Is the rhubarb leaves catching up to her and if so should I cull her.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

oh gosh, take a big breath and hold on a minute. Give her a little bit of time - a quiet room that is warm and fresh water. You can make a mash of her food and see if she is snacking on it. Rhubarb leaves are toxic, but how much did she eat? She might be stressed from all the treatments. I hope others have advice but give her some calm first and we'll help you get her okay

 

[LhickenChicken]

oh gosh, take a big breath and hold on a minute. Give her a little bit of time - a quiet room that is warm and fresh water. You can make a mash of her food and see if she is snacking on it. Rhubarb leaves are toxic, but how much did she eat? She might be stressed from all the treatments. I hope others have advice but give her some calm first and we'll help you get her okay

She is in my recovery area for my hens, and the only thing she will take a few swipes at is chick-feed mash. Other than that she just sits all day long busy doing nothing. I notice this Monday last week but thought it was just the heat. But yesterday was cool and rainy but she's still doing it. She ate approximately... 1/10 of a medium-size leaf. She ate it like it was candy but I took her away, then searched up is rhubarb safe for chickens. One site said yes and one said no. I decided better be safe than sorry, and put her back in the coop. (She was helping me weed in the garden, she doesn't normally eat the plants, just the weeds, but once she took a swipe of lettuce!) The treatments started just today I thought she would be fine but she's not so I decided to make a thread.

 

[Lillith37]

One of my hens ate the better part of the leaves of a whole rhubarb plant and she showed zero sign of being affected, if that’s any reassurance to you. I did move the rhubarb after that.

Is she getting picked on by your other chickens and could that be why she is losing feathers and not getting enough food? I would check her carefully for lice and mites. DE is a good preventative but isn’t sufficient if the parasites have taken hold. What are her droppings like? You can also feel around her keel bone to check her weight and further down around her belly to see if it’s swollen. Also check the bottoms of her feet for wounds.

I agree with littlecoopnextdoor, just keep her somewhere quiet and calm and see if she perks up a little.

 

[LhickenChicken]

One of my hens ate the better part of the leaves of a whole rhubarb plant and she showed zero sign of being affected, if that’s any reassurance to you. I did move the rhubarb after that.

Is she getting picked on by your other chickens and could that be why she is losing feathers and not getting enough food? I would check her carefully for lice and mites. DE is a good preventative but isn’t sufficient if the parasites have taken hold. What are her droppings like? You can also feel around her keel bone to check her weight and further down around her belly to see if it’s swollen. Also check the bottoms of her feet for wounds.

I agree with littlecoopnextdoor, just keep her somewhere quiet and calm and see if she perks up a little.

She is at the bottom of the pecking order, and was previously not getting enough food. On Saturday I moved her into my recovery area and she went for the food madly but now she is just drinking and not eating at all, unless I force her. What is keel bone? I checked her belly and it is not swollen. I even compared it to my other hens. She started a molt but never finished. So I guess they were just picking even more? Or maybe she didn't start a molt but the other hens were picking her. Her poop is normal but has a bit more cecal poop than normal. Just the normal brown-green-white poop, no watery stuff.
What are lice and mites and how do you check for them?

 

[Lillith37]

Lice and mites are parasites that live on the outside of a chicken.

Lice are 6-legged wingless parasites that usually feed on the feathers/dead skin and you can see them if you check around her vent, under her wings and the back of her neck. Look closely and part the feathers and you would see small light brown insects scurrying for cover. In severe cases the lice build up lice balls at the base of the feather shaft and they look a bit like cotton balls/q-tips.

Mites have 8 legs and are part of the arachnid family and they feed on blood. They are smaller than lice. Sometimes they live on the chicken and sometimes they live under roosts and come out at night to feed. They can cause red skin and a pale comb/wattles from anemia. There are also mites that live under the scales on the legs causing the scales to go crusty and flake up.

A chicken’s keel bone is its breast bone and can be felt underneath her abdomen, between her legs towards her crop. You can feel the muscle either side. It’s good to do this regularly and compare with your other birds to get a sense of what is a normal weight for the individual bird.

What is your set-up like? How many birds do you have? Do you have more than one feeder/watering station and places for the Lhicken to run/get away if the others are bullying her?

 

[Lillith37]

If she is not eating now she might be missing her flock-mates. If there is another hen who she gets along with, you could put her in with Lhicken and give them some food and see if that encourages her to eat.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Lice and mites are parasites that live on the outside of a chicken.

Lice are 6-legged wingless parasites that usually feed on the feathers/dead skin and you can see them if you check around her vent, under her wings and the back of her neck. Look closely and part the feathers and you would see small light brown insects scurrying for cover. In severe cases the lice build up lice balls at the base of the feather shaft and they look a bit like cotton balls/q-tips.

Mites have 8 legs and are part of the arachnid family and they feed on blood. They are smaller than lice. Sometimes they live on the chicken and sometimes they live under roosts and come out at night to feed. They can cause red skin and a pale comb/wattles from anemia. There are also mites that live under the scales on the legs causing the scales to go crusty and flake up.

A chicken’s keel bone is its breast bone and can be felt underneath her abdomen, between her legs towards her crop. You can feel the muscle either side. It’s good to do this regularly and compare with your other birds to get a sense of what is a normal weight for the individual bird.

What is your set-up like? How many birds do you have? Do you have more than one feeder/watering station and places for the Lhicken to run/get away if the others are bullying her?

Thank you, I will look for lice and mites. I notice there is a bone sticking out a bit down her belly, is that her keel bone? I notice the other hens don't really have it sticking out.
I have 18 laying hens, but a few more pullets that got added. I have food outside and inside, so if she is getting bullied outside she can go inside to eat. I have a few high places for Lhicken to get away to. But when they pick her she just goes, "buk, buk, bak, bak, bak!" and runs away a few feet. She doesn't get bullied too much because she is normally out of the way.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Mites have 8 legs and are part of the arachnid family and they feed on blood. They are smaller than lice. Sometimes they live on the chicken and sometimes they live under roosts and come out at night to feed. They can cause red skin and a pale comb/wattles from anemia. There are also mites that live under the scales on the legs causing the scales to go crusty and flake up.

Where do you try to find them?

 

[Lillith37]

You’ll find mites at the base of the feathers and on the skin as well. Usually they feed at night. I would check Lhicken over and keep a close eye for reddened skin or wounds. Then at night time, go into your coop with a torch and check the rest of your birds. They are like chicken bed bugs, they feed at night. You can also run a napkin or a bit of white paper under the roosts early in the morning. The mites that have fed will smear blood and you’ll be able to see it.