Listless Hen

BillM2

Chirping
10 Years
Sep 16, 2010
82
1
94
Mid-Hudson Valley
I have a near three year old Golden Wyandotte hen who is not behaving herself lately. She seems like she doesn't have any energy and today she's all puffed up trying to stay warm, though it's 40 degrees out. I found her standing in a cold, snow melt runoff stream and picked her up and she weighs much less than her 7 sisters, all the same age. I attributed her lack of movement to it just now getting to winter temps here in upstate NY but that doesn't seem like it. Her eyes don't look so good. She's in our run by herself now and I've given her a handful of scratch that she ate most of and some torn up bread. Her bottom is quite messy which I'll clean with warm water when my wife returns.

Any suggestions? She doesn't seem to be laying, but I attributed that to the fact that the others recently molted and stopped mostly but are now back laying sporadically.

) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Golden Wyandotte, 3 years, weight unknown but lighter than usual.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Listless, no energy.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
A few days but has gotten worse.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
No.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Unknown.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Eating lightly and no certain about drinking.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Runny.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
None.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I'd like to take care of this ourselves.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use.
We use pine shavings with diatomaceous earth and ash sprinkled in.
 
Make sure you clean her bottom it could be clogged and be making her poop runny. We had 2 hens behaving like that, I watched them but they seemed to get better after a while. The first hen to have it seemed stressed and wouldn't walk around or eat much. She got better after about a week, but unlike your hen she didn't seem to get worse. Our hens who acted like that were both at the bottom of the pecking order and got bossed around a lot. I made sure she got enough food and got out and about, though she didn't have much energy. I am now feeding the second one dried mealworms to try to get her to gain weight because she is also much lighter than the others. I think you should keep feeding her some bread and pellets/scratch. I hope this helped, good luck!
 
Bring her in for a day or so, and see if she will eat some chopped egg, tuna, liver, or wet chicken feed. Some poultry vitamins added to her water would also be good. Does your brand of feed contain probiotics? Many of them now do, but you can give some plain yogurt or probiotics to help firm up her stools. At her age, if she has not been laying lately, she may be laying internally which can make them feel poorly. If she perks up getting warmer, and having her food in front of her, she could be kept from her food by the others. Worming her with Valbazen or Safeguard liquid goat wormer may be good if she has not been wormed recently.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. Today she's worse. We put her in her own nesting box last night and she didn't move at all. We put a heater fan on her for a few hours, and no change. We just brought her into the house, cleaned her bottom real thoroughly and placed her in the basement with a heater fan on her. She's not moving at all and won't accept any food. It's New Years Day and we don't have any vitamins to give her. She will barely open her eyes and only moved slightly when we cleaned her bottom. She did poop a runny one that didn't look that abnormal other than being runny. Her vent looked pinkish and healthy. We fear she doesn't have long. :(
 
I hope she rests and snaps out of it. Recently one of mine refused food and water for 3 days, and I expected to find her dead in my extra bath tub any time. She finally snapped out of it stood up wanting out, and after I put her back outside, she has lived for 4 more weeks. Sometimes we never know what the problem is, we just give supportive care, and try what we think might help.
 
Well, our hen died. We brought her indoors and kept her warm with a heater. My wife had her in her lap for a half hour stroking her and trying to get her to eat. The hen refused food, could barely keep her eyes opened. I checked on her an hour later, and she was dead. I'm thinking of having a necropsy done to answer our questions as to why.
 
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Sorry for your loss. If you are considering a necropsy by your state vet, you should refrigerate, but not freeze her body in a plastic bag. You could also do a partial necropsy yourself to look for egg peritonitis or internal laying, liver problems, worms in the intestines, or a blockage in her gizzard or digestive tract.
Here is a link for finding your state vet:
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf
 
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