Need help diagnosing a sick chicken

[YaharaGeo]

Hello peeps,
I have an Australorp that has been acting odd for about 6 days now. The main behaviors that I noticed is that walking seems to be difficult for her, and she sits nearly all the time. She seems to eat and drink well, preens herself as robustly as ever, but her steps seem strained, like how I imagine an arthritic chicken would walk. Her back is curved and tail tucked down. I also noticed that her poop is green.

Her legs are not splayed (my birds were given Mareks vaccine as day old chicks), her breathing doesn't appear to be labored, no mucus from her nose. She is not laying, whereas the other two are. Also, one of the other chickens just started acting similar today, so it seems to be spreading now. Any thoughts?

*I'm editing this original post to add that my chickens are 3-years old, and to describe the walk a bit more. The typical way a chicken walks is to lift up a foot, fold the toes together a bit, then bring the leg forward, unfold and spread the toes, then set the foot down. The abnormal chicken sort of brings her foot straight up, leaves the toes spread, and sort of stomps the foot straight down for each step, so forward motion is slower since she doesn't reach her leg forward significantly for each step.

 

[azygous]

You've done a great job giving us details, but the most important is age. How old is this hen and the other one beginning to act sick?

The tail held low is a sign of pain and extreme discomfort. That poop isn't too abnormal, but the sulfur color may indicate infection.

Two main issues affect hens. One is crop problems. The other is reproductive problems. For the first, feel her crop for fullness, lumps. A normal crop has about a fourth of a cup of food in it during the day. In the morning it should be flat and empty.

When was the last time she produced an egg? Was it a normal egg? Feel her underside just below her vent. Do you feel a hard object that could be an egg? Or do you feel a very swollen abdomen?

 

[YaharaGeo]

All three of my chickens are nearly three years old. They have all been together from the beginning.

When she first showed signs of odd walking behavior, my first thought was that she might be egg-bound. I used an exam glove and KY to check her vent to a depth of about 2" to feel for an egg, and did not feel anything hard. She has not laid an egg since last fall. My other two just started laying about ten days ago, so I would think she would be ready to start back up as well. Her belly does not feel swollen to me, but I'm not a good judge of this.

Her crop does not feel abnormally full this afternoon, but I haven't done a late-day / early-morning comparison. I'll do this tonight and tomorrow morning, though I really don't think there is an issue with sour crop.

I'm thinking about getting an antibiotic and start treating all of them even though I don't know what exactly is wrong with them.

 

[azygous]

Behavior is the best indication of the health of a chicken. You can't go too wrong by trusting that an active, bright-eyed hen with normal appetite and poop is in good health.

When a normally active, talkative hen suddenly stops being active and goes mute and she hangs around the edges with her tail held low and flat, you can be very sure something is wrong and you need to figure out what it is and treat it if you can.

If the other hen you suspect may be getting sick is worse in the morning, then you might go ahead and start the two of them on the antibiotic. What is it, by the way?

If the third hen is behaving normally, there's no good reason to treat her unless she suddenly shows signs of also becoming ill. There are nasty bacteria out there, and especially in spring, chickens seem very adept at locating them. But reproductive infections also occur out of the seeming blue. The sooner you treat, the better the outcome.

 

[YaharaGeo]

@azygous - That's another good point that you bring up. The chickens are normally talkative, but the two sick birds are now quiet.

I don't have an antibiotic yet. I went to Fleet Farm just now to look for one, but they didn't have anything that was specifically labeled as for chickens. They had oxytetracycline, but the package only mentioned that its use was for cattle and swine. They also didn't have wormer or dusting powder for chickens, so probably won't go back there again.

 

[azygous]

Feed stores have very few meds labeled for chickens, but most of us use people antibiotics or fish or pigeon antibiotics. Worming meds are labeled for goats or cattle but they work for chickens such as Safeguard which kills all sorts of worms.

You can get antibiotics at Petsmart or online here. https://pet-healthcare.revivalanimal.com/search?p=Q&ts=custom&w=fish antibiotics If you are searching online use "pigeon" in your search phrase. Seems there are lots more stuff out there for pigeons than chickens. They all work pretty much the same, but come back here if you have questions about dose or egg withdrawal periods.

There is little likelihood that your chickens have worms. It really isn't necessary to worm on a regular schedule unless you know your soil has lots of them. In the dozen years I've been keeping chickens, they've never once had worms in spite of digging up juicy earth worms. I've had their poop tested for them, and it was always negative.

Just gather a random fresh sample and seal it in a sandwich baggie and take it to your nearest vet and ask them to do a fecal float test. It's not expensive and will tell you if and what kind of worms your chickens have, including coccidia. I recommend you do that while you wait for the antibiotic to come. They ship same day. I always keep an assortment on hand just in case I need to treat a chicken fast.