My hen is dying...

[TLHloveschicks]

Can anyone tell me what these pictures might indicate? The red feathers are are literally falling off of her...it makes me so sad. She has stopped eating and has very messy poop and is only drinking a little water now...we just gave her a bath and I took these pictures. Thank you for any comments......

 

[Pentatonchix]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive

 

[azygous]

Is her skin crusty with lesions? If so, it's likely skin cancer.

Not much more can be determined from just photos. Maybe if you give us some background on your chicken, age,history,behavior, etc.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can anyone tell me what these pictures might indicate? The red feathers are are literally falling off of her...it makes me so sad. She has stopped eating and has very messy poop and is only drinking a little water now...we just gave her a bath and I took these pictures. Thank you for any comments......

How old is this hen?

I see a lot of feather sheaths - new feather growth on the neck.
What do you mean stopped eating - is her crop emptying overnight?
Is she laying eggs?

If she's molting, then she may not eat very well, molting birds usually don't. I would give her a direct dose of poultry vitamins a couple of times a week and a little extra protein once a day.

Photos of the poop may be helpful and some more of her and the feathers too so we can see them more clearly.

 

[TLHloveschicks]

How old is this hen?

I see a lot of feather sheaths - new feather growth on the neck.
What do you mean stopped eating - is her crop emptying overnight?
Is she laying eggs?

If she's molting, then she may not eat very well, molting birds usually don't. I would give her a direct dose of poultry vitamins a couple of times a week and a little extra protein once a day.

Photos of the poop may be helpful and some more of her and the feathers too so we can see them more clearly.

Thank you Wyorp Rock for responding I know my message was so vague but she was only 2 yrs old she died that night. Her crop was empty because she wasn't eating and I don't know when she last ate or laid but she was drinking I saw her drink that morning. She was basically just sitting alone by herself all day in different places but she was alert. This had been going on for a while I don't exactly know the number of days. Her bottom was very messy so that is why we gave her a bath. I have 14 chickens (now) that I raised from babies. I get so overwhelmed when they appear to be sick because there is so many different things it could be. Where do you start? She didn't have any symptons of being egg bound and I didn't see any mites on her skin so I just prayed that she would pull out of it but she didn't.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you Wyorp Rock for responding I know my message was so vague but she was only 2 yrs old she died that night. Her crop was empty because she wasn't eating and I don't know when she last ate or laid but she was drinking I saw her drink that morning. She was basically just sitting alone by herself all day in different places but she was alert. This had been going on for a while I don't exactly know the number of days. Her bottom was very messy so that is why we gave her a bath. I have 14 chickens (now) that I raised from babies. I get so overwhelmed when they appear to be sick because there is so many different things it could be. Where do you start? She didn't have any symptons of being egg bound and I didn't see any mites on her skin so I just prayed that she would pull out of it but she didn't.

I'm sorry that she died.

There can be a lot of things that go wrong with laying hens, but I still feel the majority of issues that they have are reproductive.

The only way to know what happened would be to either have a necropsy performed by your state lab or to do your own informal one. I understand that may be difficult, but I've found that it can also give more information and if I find something, I learn something. I can also correlate symptoms to certain conditions in the future - this helps me to determine whether it's best to treat or to put the bird out of their misery. Doing a necropsy is not for everyone but while I don't understand it all, I also have a better appreciation of my hens and how they were designed - it's quite amazing.