No eggs and one looks lazy

[mendozer]

In the last two weeks my 4 haven't produced eggs. I attributed this to the heat. But now one of them looks lethargic and isn't as verocious with snacks. What's going on? They have good food, grit, calcium in the run with fresh water. Shavings with DE in the coop. I have some old safe guard dewormer from 2015

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How hot? Chickens don't do well in hot weather.

 

[mendozer]

Well it was in the 80s and high 70s around memorial day. I wouldn't consider that too hot. This is seattle so it doesn't normally get up there until August though. Now it's calmer in the low 70s to high 60s. The one that's acting lazy just sits there in the run with her head "scrunched" or tucked into her feathers. She did eat snacks this morning, which is an improvement.

My wife told me she put food out in the run in a container and they all ran aggressively towards it like they're starving, but the feeder has a ton and while the trigger seemed to be a bit stuck, I wiggled it and food came out. (it's a homemade trigger style feeder)

 

[Eggcessive]

You might want to check her crop to see if it is empty, partly full, hard, or puffy. Try to get her to drink some fluids, eat a little chopped egg, and some watery feed in a bowl. If the feed was not coming out of the feeder, it's possible that she is weak from that or the heat. But many other problems can occur. When I have a bird acting that way, besides checking the crop, I pick them up to feel for any weight loss in the breast bone area, look at the vent for signs of diarrhea, lice, or mites, and try to get them eating and drinking. Electrolytes and vitamins for chickens added to the water may help. With birds 2 and older, they can sometimes suffer from internal laying or egg yolk peritonitis. This, or a digestive problem, or intestinal infection such as coccidiosis can make them weak.

 

[mendozer]

I had an internal layer once but that was obvious with her abdomen. I'll check these things. I guess first I'll feel the healthy ones since I don't check these things often.

 

[mendozer]

Well her crop seems ok. I don't really know but it felt the same as another one. Vent seemed ok, not dirty. I wasn't able to really expose a lot. I think I'm gonna go get some Corid and just treat them all just in case. But other than that, I cleaned their coop yesterday and their calcium is still full.

 

[mendozer]

My mistake, I wasn't feeling her crop. It's smaller and basically empty from what I can feel in comparison with others. She does feel skinnier than the others but her vents clean.

 

[mendozer]

I gave them all dollop of fenbendazole 10% and gave them boiled egg this morning. I also scooped out some feed from the feeder onto a tray just in case it wasn't working when I'm not there. I dosed their water with ACV and electrolytes. I normally just do a tiny bit of bleach. I'll be giving them some yogurt soon too. What else can I do? I noticed a weird poop pile this morning, like orangey brown apple sauce color

 

[mendozer]

What I don't get is even if one is visibly sick, why all eggs stopped at the start of June. Weird

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The one sounds sick, could be anything. I wouldn't necessarily do so many things at once. I would make sure you offer them fresh clean water with nothing in it, some will not drink it with stuff in.

Have you been refilling the feeder? If they went some times without easy access to feed it will definitely cause them to stop laying. Have you looked around for secondary hidden nests?

Another idea is that they all are dealing with some illness but only one is showing symptoms, the rest could have better immune systems. They should eventually start laying again.

Being as all have quit I would suspect hidden nests, some slight illness, or stress or disturbances, not getting enough feed or water will cause them to stop too.