Need help

[Cooper68]

My alpha hen hasn’t been herself the last couple of days. She has always been the first one out of the coop and the boss hen of the other ladies. The last couple of days she’s the last one out of the coop and constantly laying down away from the others. She does eat and drink. She is laying age but as far as I know she hasn’t laid yet. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[3DFowlFarm]

My alpha hen hasn’t been herself the last couple of days. She has always been the first one out of the coop and the boss hen of the other ladies. The last couple of days she’s the last one out of the coop and constantly laying down away from the others. She does eat and drink. She is laying age but as far as I know she hasn’t laid yet. Any ideas?

Thanks

Butt check, see if she's eggbound. If not, keep her quarantined like she's already doing until you can diagnose. Good luck

 

[frostypenn]

My alpha hen hasn’t been herself the last couple of days. She has always been the first one out of the coop and the boss hen of the other ladies. The last couple of days she’s the last one out of the coop and constantly laying down away from the others. She does eat and drink. She is laying age but as far as I know she hasn’t laid yet. Any ideas?

Thanks

Is she broody? Have you done the usual health check: eating and drinking well? no lumpy neck, cocked head, warty or infected spots? If the only symptom is resting in the nest, maybe she has designated herself the mother of all these eggs she is seeing and wants to sit on them.

 

[Cooper68]

Butt check, see if she's eggbound. If not, keep her quarantined like she's already doing until you can diagnose. Good luck

I will see if I can figure that out. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Cooper68]

Is she broody? Have you done the usual health check: eating and drinking well? no lumpy neck, cocked head, warty or infected spots? If the only symptom is resting in the nest, maybe she has designated herself the mother of all these eggs she is seeing and wants to sit on them.

She hasn’t laid yet and not laying in nests. She’s eating and drinking but I can tell she’s not her normal self. I’ve checked her over but so far haven’t seen anything. Going to do the butt check as suggested by another user. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Cooper68]

Update…she doesn’t appear to be egg bound but after watching her today her poop is a runny milky white. Has done nothing but lay around the yard by herself all day.

 

[3DFowlFarm]

Update…she doesn’t appear to be egg bound but after watching her today her poop is a runny milky white. Has done nothing but lay around the yard by herself all day.

I recommend you isolate her in a pen where you can definitely monitor intake. Dehydration can kill a chicken quickly, I suspect she is having trouble forming that first shelled egg. It may or may not resolve, cross fingers. Offer fresh water, layer feed and watch her.

 

[aart]

I recommend you isolate her in a pen where you can definitely monitor intake.

Yes.

I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor:
-their intake of food and water,
-crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed),
-and their poops.
Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling.
Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.


Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

 

[Cooper68]

Update 2: took her to vet this evening (we really don’t have a vet in our area that knows a lot about chickens). They tested her poop and said she had a lot of worms. They put her on 3 days of Panacur and Ponazuril. We’ll see how it goes. She’s still eating and drinking good so maybe nothing serious.

 

[3DFowlFarm]

Wondering how's she doing