Need advice on ill chicken

[Rhody]

I have a molting RRR that is pooping VERY watery poop, (why do they molt at the beginning of winter???) It got down to 29 degrees last night, so I cleaned the coop yesterday to decrease humidity, and put a tarp over ithe coop to decrease drafts and help insulate. It's a small coop. The other 2 chickens that are not molting were fine, but the RRR has few feathers and she got frost bite on her comb. I brought her in the house, and I can hear her breathing faintly, though not labored, so I'm thinking she may have a respiratory infection as well. I'm not sure what kind of illness she has that her poop is all water, and the molting sure doesn't help her abitity to keep warm. I bought a bunch of meal worms to help give her energy and protein last week and she is not interested, although the others love them. She is not listless, but clearly is not very healthy. I'm not sure if I should seek out a vet, but last time I checked they would charge hundreds of dollars. Any advice??

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

To get her started on the road to recovery, I would try to feed her scrambled egg or mashed boiled egg, and maybe some plain yogurt. Make sure she is drinking water. Keep her warm.

For the diarrhea, I don't know what to say. Is she laying ok? Is her abdomen swollen? Could she be eggbound? Oh wait you said she was moulting- then she probably isn't laying. She might not be eating enough for anything to come out but water?

If she does have a respiratory ailment, I don't really know how to advise you further. I have bookmarked links for studying if you want them.

The other thing is- have you wormed them lately? Dusted them for mites and lice? Those things can drain a hen's energy.

I would try to get some protein into her and unfortunately I don't know what to say about antibiotics- if they are to be helpful or not.

How is the hen doing now?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
Agreed. I also want to add that when I had a similar situation last year I was able to get my hen eating by offering her canned kitten food. The canned cat food is not a good thing to give them for an extended period of time, but my girl wouldn't even touch scrambled eggs and I was desperate. I also ended up having to treat her for cocci which is pretty unusual in an adult bird. I believe that she was so run down by her excepetionaly hard molt that it made her vulnerable to the cocci overload. The loose stools may just be a result of not having enough food in her system, but I'm pasting a link to the poo page for you to check out, hopefully it will help you narrow things down.

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0