My chicken was acting weird and now can’t stand

[nuthatched]

Thank you! I honestly never heard about any of this. I’ll make sure to start implementing them a better diet! I hope the vitamins help her and this isn’t anything related to my main concern. Thank you so much once more!

You're welcome. They won't like it at first, since chickens hate change and can get spoiled by junk food. Just leave them no choice, theyll eat. Nothing You're giving them is harmful but they're considered treats. Treats should be less than 10% of their diet
The seeding is unnecessary, I'd skip that.

 

[ChickenNugieuwu]

Can you inspect her for mites or lice on her body?

When was her last egg?

When you lift her up, she acts like she's in pain - can you inspect her legs, underneath her and her wings for any breaks?
Look at her skin around her legs/wings and underneath her for any purple or green bruising.

She does have what looks like Scaly Leg Mites. I notice she has BlueKote on one leg, so have you been treating her? I'd rub some vaseline, castor oil or Nu Stock cream into the legs and feet a couple of times a week, making sure to work the oil/cream up underneath the scales.

Where is she being kept? Is it a small cage or pen? Could she have injured herself trying to get out or when startled/stressed? You mention she had to be penned for a few days and seemed to have gotten stuck - so injury is possible??

If possible, feed her and the Silkies a nutritionally balanced poultry feed like Layer Feed, All Flock or even Chick Starter. Provide oyster shell free choice.
Scratch is mainly used a treat, it's low in protein and not a complete feed, neither is corn, so limit these drastically or eliminate them all together if possible.
A small amount of fruit or fresh veggies along with balanced feed would be better than giving a lot of scratch.

I'd work on her drinking really well, see if she will eat poultry feed for you. I'd also start her on vitamins to see if those help. I'd be inclined to give 1/2tablet B-Complex daily, you can find these at stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. on the vitamin aisle.

Hi, thank you so much for your response!

She has neither, usually when my silkies get Mites in the summer she doesn’t get affected. When that happens I treat all of them and clean their pen daily.

I have, she only had poo that she probably dragged herself over that I’ve cleaned off. She doesn’t seem to have any bruising. I saw a bit of red on her stomach, but I believe it’s due to her sitting and trying to move herself when positioning herself.

It’s a medium sized hand made cage. It has space for her to nest and walk around a bit. I’ve been checking for external injuries, but she seems fine and clear from any.

I’m definitely going to change up their diet after reading a few responses, and get her some vitamins again, thank you so much!
I really hope it has nothing to do with my main concern and that she’ll get better throughout time and special care.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

A healthy chicken's crop should feel empty in the morning. If it is not emptying, we worry if she has some kind of blockage. Smell her beak and see if there is any kind of odor coming from her mouth. Does she smell sour or yeasty? Foul, or like vinegar?

 

[ChickenNugieuwu]

A healthy chicken's crop should feel empty in the morning. If it is not emptying, we worry if she has some kind of blockage. Smell her beak and see if there is any kind of odor coming from her mouth. Does she smell sour or yeasty? Foul, or like vinegar?

Hi! Just checked on her today, I don’t really notice any odor on her beak, even if I open her mouth. Is that good or bad?

I touched her crop today as well, it’s slightly smaller than yesterday, yet now it feels somewhat doughy? I believe I can feel a few grit and corn at the bottom part of the crop, but just very few. It’s mostly flat but you can feel a bit of a doughy part and the grit/corn I mentioned at the bottom of it. She also didn’t like me touching her for the most part, but let me check her beak and mouth just fine.

She also seems to be able to sit up a bit more? Legs still up front. Still uses her wings to position herself, sometimes they are left like in the pictures after flapping them. I moved her to my top porch to have better observation of her.

Checked her skin again and it all seems in order. Touched a spot where it’s red (on the near end of her stomach close to the butt area) but it’s all squishy.

I’ll be heading out to buy her the vitamins I’ve been recommended and possibly take her to the vet to get a vitamin boost via injection.

I’ve also been cleaning her pen/cage with detergents just in case. It’ll be a while until I take her back there so I decided it was for the best to keep my mind off of the Marek’s disease (I’m unfortunately a horrible overthinker). Hopefully I can take her back once she’s better.

All of my silkies seem to be fine, they’re always eager for me to take them outside of the coop, but I’m still worried if this is an infective case since I was letting her bask in the sun near the trees they like to dig under and sun bath on the sand. I’m not sure if I’m doing good or bad.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I touched her crop today as well, it’s slightly smaller than yesterday, yet now it feels somewhat doughy? I believe I can feel a few grit and corn at the bottom part of the crop, but just very few. It’s mostly flat

Check the crop first thing before she's had anything to eat/drink overnight. If it's emptying, then that's good.

Breath should smell like fresh feed or no really no smell at all. A sour crop will have a distinct Sour odor. Perhaps like sour milk or a yeasty stinky smell.

If she's staying like that all the time, I'm sure she's getting soiled, so you'll want to clean her up at least daily.
You can try placing her in a sling to help keep her upright and her body supported. She would need to be monitored while in a sling.

 

[ChickenNugieuwu]

Check the crop first thing before she's had anything to eat/drink overnight. If it's emptying, then that's good.

Breath should smell like fresh feed or no really no smell at all. A sour crop will have a distinct Sour odor. Perhaps like sour milk or a yeasty stinky smell.

If she's staying like that all the time, I'm sure she's getting soiled, so you'll want to clean her up at least daily.
You can try placing her in a sling to help keep her upright and her body supported. She would need to be monitored while in a sling.

Thank you!
I’ll be checking it later throughout the day in hopes to feel it emptying.

She has no smell on her beak/mouth, thankfully. I only smelt a faint smell of yolk when opening her mouth, it wasn’t strong, just super super faint. I did give her yolk yesterday afternoon though. Around maybe 3:00 pm? Aside from that, no sour or bad odors at all.

Yes! I’m cleaning her bottom/stomach. I try not to do it too much because I once read wet feathers can stress them out, but I try drying her off best I can whenever I do. I have seen her prooning (I think that’s how you spell it) at her neck, but I doubt she can really dry herself off in her state. So I try to do so occasionally. Some feathers fell out last night that I washed her up, but I suppose this is normal. I do see new feathers starting to grow out too.


Okay! Are there any hazard behaviors she may do on the sling that signal me to get her off of it by any chance?

 

[ChickenNugieuwu]

Check the crop first thing before she's had anything to eat/drink overnight. If it's emptying, then that's good.

Breath should smell like fresh feed or no really no smell at all. A sour crop will have a distinct Sour odor. Perhaps like sour milk or a yeasty stinky smell.

If she's staying like that all the time, I'm sure she's getting soiled, so you'll want to clean her up at least daily.
You can try placing her in a sling to help keep her upright and her body supported. She would need to be monitored while in a sling.

Sorry to bother you again, but I flipped her over to make a more throughout and better skin examination and I noticed her sternum is rather, crooked? And I found a scab along with two lumps, the skin one is rather squishy and closest to the scab and I think I can see blood through the skin when probing at it, and there’s a very hard round yet small black one. She doesn’t do any noise when I touch them or push against them.

I tried doing some research, especially if these are signs of Merek’s (cancer), but I couldn’t find anything… Do you think it may have broken and the two lumps are naturally there due to the fracture or is there something much more worse going on? These are the only two I see on her body.

 

[Tonyroo]

That looks like lesions.

 

[ChickenNugieuwu]

That looks like lesions.

Thank you Tonyroo, is there anything I can do to help her? I imagine she’s in a lot of pain. Or do you think the vitamins help her?

She likes to bully my silkies a lot, so my rooster is very aggressive towards her (another reason why I separated her, I don’t like how rough he pecks and kicks her)

I recall the day I noticed her limp she was perfectly fine up until I heard my rooster chase after her after she pecked one of my silkies near some stairs. Perhaps she injured herself trying to get away from him? I didn’t think too much of it given this is their usual behavior around each other, but did search her body for any blood/wounds and found nothing. Up until now at least.

 

[Tonyroo]

I don't think there's anyway to save her based on her condition.