Older Hen Is Looking Odd

[MarshyRooster]

Hi. I'm not sure if this is actually something to worry about, but one of the pair of old hens of my flock is looking weird. Her head looks like the neck is barely there, and her face is grayish, her tail feathers look messy and there's a bit of blood on her comb. She's also been in the coop for most of today, even when I gave the birds grass with my dad. Does she sound like she's okay?

 

[LaFleche]

A greyish face is not normal, so you better get a closer look in case she is suffering from an injury or poultry mites (bloodsucking kind) or lice.

Some more information would be helpful:

• How old is she?
• When did you last deworm your chickens?
• What exactly do you feed them?
• Do you have a rooster/cockerel?
• How does her crop feel (hard or rather soft and squishy or inflated like a balloon)?
• How does her poop look?
• When did she last lay an egg?

 

[Mutchi]

Can we see pictures?

 

[MarshyRooster]

I'm not sure if I can get pictures on here. I can try on my mom's computer, but it still probably won't work . I'll try though. Does it sound like my hen is in trouble?

 

[Mutchi]

I don't know but I does sound odd...

 

[LaFleche]

Does it sound like my hen is in trouble?

Together we can try to find out.

Does she eat and drink?
And where in the coop did she spent her day, in a nesting box?
Does she make clucking sounds?

 

[MarshyRooster]

I haven't seen her leave the coop at all today. I haven't been checking on her specially before I noticed, which was today, so I don't really know when/if she's been leaving lately.

In the nesting box, probably. She stopped laying a while ago, but she sits on the eggs a lot.

And I don't think she was clucking, but when I noticed all the birds were being pretty loud, because they were all eating grass out in the run, including the other older hen. But the hen that looks odd just poked her head out and went back in the coop. Is that worrying?

Thank you, I'm going to do the pictures in a few minutes. I want to make sure she's okay. She's very special.

 

[MarshyRooster]

Sorry, I can't answer all of these, but I'll try.

She's very old. I don't know how old, but the age is why I'm worried. I'm scared she's on her last legs.

We've never worried about worms much before, because no chickens in our coop have really shown many symptoms of sickness.

An extra calcium feed. I don't remember the name. I'll go check soon.

Two roosters. One is a small Silkie, very harmless, while the other is a big Rhode Island Red. He can be aggressive with humans, but he's very gentle with his hens and tends to leave all the others alone.

Her crop looked rough and gray. We didn't touch it, we were just at the coop to check on the ducklings, who'd just moved to it.

I haven't specially seen her poop. Also, it's probably in the coop. Again, when I noticed what she looked like, we were just watching the ducklings.

A while ago. My dad found one last broken, mushy-shelled egg. Nearly a year ago now.

Please tell me if any of that seems like something is wrong!

 

[MarshyRooster]

I got the picture in. How does she look?

 

[Mutchi]

Not that good