Oh gross! Same hen still sick, new symptom

[mandelyn]

I posted about two weeks ago about Chipmunk. She laid two weird eggs, quit laying after that, and was acting lethargic and not eating as much. I tried to catch her to seperate her, but she hates me, and will use her dying breath to escape my clutches.

So, I left her instead of adding that much stress to her. (this is why I make them as good a pets as possible, so that catching is easy and low stress... but she won't cooperate!)

The past two weeks... still no eggs, still acting kinda weak. But eating, drinking, free ranging, not as tired as before.

Last night when I put them to bed, her entire beard was dripping wet, in a pattern that leads me to believe it came out of mouth and was not a trip into the water bowl. There was clear slime streaks on the wall where she typically hangs out before roosting.

I thought she was going to die last night... that's never good. I mean, it must have been a lot of fluid with how wet she was and how the wall looked. I have no idea what the fluid was?

This morning she was acting totally normal, wasn't dead at all. Ate lightly, but still chasing the others from the food, being her typical hateful self.

So she's been off for a total of a little over a month now. None of the others are showing any signs of anything. No one is sniffling, sneezing... nothing like that.

But all my online searching has not given any indication as to what Chipmunk has going on... and that fluid stuff... what the heck was that about? And why didn't it kill her?

Poops are normal.

Water in take normal.

Food intake slightly below normal.

Behaviors slightly below normal.

Roosts fine, moves around fine.

Clear eyes.

Some nasal discharge, but not enough to make crusties around the nostrils or make her gasp for air.

Eyes are not half-closed... she's either sleeping or alert... no inbetween "I feel like poo" behavior.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Is she egg bound? was the goop egg white? Maybe she laid a soft shelled egg and ate some of it? If that is the case, up her calcium alot . either crushed up egg shell in yogurt (with bacterial culture) or oyster shell in yogurt. When I get a soft shelled egg, I mix 1 tbsp feed, 1tbsp egg shell, 2 tbsp yogurt, and keep her isolated until she eats it all, and I do this for a coupla days.

 

[mandelyn]

Oh, forgot to specify that it came out of her mouth, not her butt. Her whole beard was soaking wet with slime. Nothing egg like anywhere, and none of them are egg eaters.

The diet is fine, yogurt every couple of days, layer pellets with some oyster shell added in. Cracked sunflower seeds, fresh veggies, free range time in a safe environment... nothing in the yard that could harm them. I've watched her eat and watched what she was eating... still a pig, just not as big a pig as she was before.

She acted normal all day today... maybe the slime stuff was something going on in her crop and it dislodged itself? Anyone hear of anything like that?