Odd behavior, pale small comb.

[Chicken poppy]

So i’ll start this off by saying Darling has been acting weird for a while now. Shes a female, serama, 1 1/2 or so years old.

I see nothing visually wrong with her other then her behavior and her comb. I looked around for a minute for more visual problems, and saw nothing. Even in her mouth, i saw nothing there either.

She really first started acting like this when i got rid of Vanilla, a silkie. She was so darn attached to that boy but unfortunately we had to give him away due to his excessive crowing. Now, i will say, i will not miss his crowing. But it did hurt my heart to see Darling so upset.

Now, i do know that chickens tend to get sad when something happens to some of their flockmates. She was lonely for almost her entire life, really. We couldn’t find her a friend because she was so bossy, but she loved him. Anyway, i think this was like 2 months ago, Its been a while. She can’t possibly STILL be depressed over his disappearance, could she?

I had a similar situation, 2 very very attached chickens, more attached then these to, and i had to get rid of one. You could tell the other one was extremely sad, but that lasted for about a day, and she carried on to her chicken behaviors. We got her 2 friends around 5 months, but still she seems so off.

Her behavior is depressed. She kinda just sits there in front of the mirror all day. She doesn’t eat to much, but then again, she never ate a ton.
She just seems so, so sad. And sleepy, very very sleepy all day. You pick her up and she will usually just fall asleep.

Her comb is smaller then when i first got her, and much much paler, yellowish.

I will get a picture if needed, help is appreciated.

 

[Zoologist]

How is your chicken doing? Could she be egg bound?

 

[ChickadeeBee]

Sorry to hear about your girl's troubles. This may not be it since you say it's been going on around 2 months, but since she's not laying eggs I'll share my thought if it helps. I wonder if it's something internal, possibly egg related. Whether she's laying internally or not I don't know.
I had one hen suddenly act like yours- looked normal but pale/shrunk comb, standing in the corner away from the others eating little. Went on for a few days. Then she was back to normal. Fast forward a few weeks and she's "sick" again. Turns out when she's feeling sick it was because she's laying very soft (like water balloon soft) eggs. She's on organic layer feed, has access to a whole bucket of egg shells/oyster shells. But for some reason this still happened and the shell membrane was staying stuck inside her. (not visible at her bum hole though). Once she got it out she was perky again but has rarely been laying eggs.
Have you seen any splats in the coop of a wet egg being laid? Mine was laying wet eggs at night. Hope she can bounce back!

 

[ChickadeeBee]

Ah, if she's doing lots of water balloon eggs that may be the issue like it was for mine. Mine started a couple months ago as well. Sadly I have yet to figure out how to treat it, I tried liquid calcium, a little squirt of water in her bum to get it out, etc. and nothing. Poor thing will be miserable for a day and then when I check the next morning she's normal! Thankfully mine has been better more often now but still no normal eggs from her (just a yolk splat overnight every couple weeks). I'm even starting to wonder if there is something new being put in the feed as nothing else has changed in my situation... I wonder if it would be worth trying new food for yours? Wish I could offer a fix! Hopefully she can work it out herself if it's an egg issue. Best of luck.

 

[ChickadeeBee]

aw, breathing issue would be separate form the soft egg issue I think, so she may have a few things going on. Question- does she have a large/saggy bum? like if you feel behind her keel and below her vent? I wonder if she could be internally laying as well. Not experienced with that, just thinking out loud

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I see what you mean about her color

What's her poop like?
The lethargy is concerning, does she still lay eggs? Her crop emptying overnight?

I'd work on getting her hydrated. Then see if she will eat a little something.
Is getting a fecal float an option for you to see if she has worms?

 

[Chicken poppy]

I see what you mean about her color

What's her poop like?
The lethargy is concerning, does she still lay eggs? Her crop emptying overnight?

I'd work on getting her hydrated. Then see if she will eat a little something.
Is getting a fecal float an option for you to see if she has worms?

No eggs.

As far as i can tell, yes, her crop is. It feels normal but i’ll check again. Always better to be 100%.

Most likely not, but i did give her de worming medicine because i was worried it was possible she got some. Poop looks normal to.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What did you give her?

 

[Chicken poppy]

What did you give her?

Safegaurd.

I forgot the worms one of my chickens had (they run in the same yard, so i figured she would have picked it up already and just did her aswell.)

I know safeguard treats the worm that one of the chickens had, just not sure the name of the worm. I forget.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Going to check for lice and mites. If thats whats causing this, i really hope its not to late.