Older hen with purple comb acting lethargic

[Sparkleyhead]

I have a rescue hen that I am guessing to be between 4-6 years of age whose comb has started turning a purple red. I have also noticed that she is getting more lethargic and not acting like a typical spunky chicken. She came out of the coop this morning slowly, had some water and a little food and then wandered away to go stand by herself against a planter bed. I have also noticed her sitting down more outside and sometimes her breathing looked a little labored. Now her going off and doing her own thing isn't abnormal.She is very independent as far as chickens go, but this morning she just seemed off. I know she is old (and could actually be older than what I think) and could just be slowing down, but I want to make sure there is no underlying issue and if there is I want to try and fix it. She is my first chicken and she holds a special place in my heart.


These are pictures of Chica from this morning. Normally she is hell bent on trying to escape, but not today which worries me.


I am not sure of her breed either. I thought she might be a NH Red or a RI Red, but her comb bigger than the hens of those breeds. In fact her comb and wattles are larger than my rooster's. Granted he is an EE so that's not really hard.

 

[dawg53]

She might be a production Red but I'm not sure. There are normally 3 basic things to start looking for; eggbound, lice/mites, worms.
Do you know when she last laid an egg? Inspect her closely for lice/mites. Mites suck blood and cause anemia, then death. This could be why her comb is off color. Especially check her vent area for external parasites. Worms can cause birds to be lethargic, they basically starve chickens to death. They can have worms even without seeing them in feces.
However since you believe she is an older hen, it might be her time. There could be a heart or heart valve problem. You can put your ear directly on either side of her body under a wing and listen for a "clicking" sound. Ignore gut noises. If you hear clicking, it could be a heart valve gone bad.

 

[Sparkleyhead]

Thank you so much for you helpful advice! I don't believe she is egg bound because I have been noticing the change in her comb color for at least a week. I was away for 4 days, with my parents taking care of the chickens for me, and when I let them out this morning (after getting back last night) is when I noticed that she had gotten worse since I last saw her. I just did a natural wormer with them about 2ish weeks ago with raw spaghetti squash seeds, garlic, dandelion greens, oats and molasses all ground up. And tonight I just bought diatomaceous earth and gave her a dust bath along with spreading it around the coop and in the dust bath area. Cleaning her vent is the next thing on my list. Her comb just keeps getting darker and she is getting less active and it is really worrying me. I checked her heart and I thought I heard a clicking, but that might have just been me being paranoid.

 

[dawg53]

Thank you so much for you helpful advice! I don't believe she is egg bound because I have been noticing the change in her comb color for at least a week. I was away for 4 days, with my parents taking care of the chickens for me, and when I let them out this morning (after getting back last night) is when I noticed that she had gotten worse since I last saw her. I just did a natural wormer with them about 2ish weeks ago with raw spaghetti squash seeds, garlic, dandelion greens, oats and molasses all ground up. And tonight I just bought diatomaceous earth and gave her a dust bath along with spreading it around the coop and in the dust bath area. Cleaning her vent is the next thing on my list. Her comb just keeps getting darker and she is getting less active and it is really worrying me. I checked her heart and I thought I heard a clicking, but that might have just been me being paranoid.

That natural wormer stuff is worthless and ineffective as your probably finding out why your hen is at deaths doorstep. Use a chemical wormer such as Safeguard or Valbazen and do it right. Before you applied DE, did you physically pick the hen up and visually inspect her closely front to rear looking for external parasites like I mentioned in my previous post?

 

[Sparkleyhead]

I was skeptical of the natural wormer, but I figured since it was free it was worth a try. Now I know to add it to the list of useless things like all natural fly spray. And I did pick up my hen and inspect her vet and all around and didn't feel or see anything. I even cleaned out the coop just for good measure even though I pick out the poop every morning. It's easy to do because there are only 4 of them in there at the moment. I will call my farm stores in the morning to see if they have Valbazan. I am looking at other forums and a lot of people seem to favor that one.

 

[Sparkleyhead]

And it's a good thing I bought that D.E. today. It the 4 days I was absent apparently ants had started to form a home in a few of the nesting boxes. I had just stripped the coop before I left and they weren't there then. But now they are dead. If I didn't squish them all, or shop vac them up, then the D.E. will get them.

 

[dawg53]

I doubt your feed store carries valbazen, most people have to order it online. Most likely you WILL find Safeguard equine paste or Safeguard liquid goat wormer. If you buy the paste, give your hen a "pea" size amount orally. You can put it on a piece of bread and give it to her to eat if you wish.
If you buy the liquid goat wormer, use a syringe without a needle and dose her orally 1/2cc undiluted.
If she's still alive in 10 days, redose her one more time.

 

[Sparkleyhead]

This is what she looked like when I came home from work.

 

[Sparkleyhead]

Thank you a TON. I will be going to the store tomorrow to see what I can find. Hopefully Chica can hold out until then.

 

[dawg53]

While your at the feed store and you purchase the Safeguard, see if they have Gallimycin soluable powder or Gallimycin injectable and purchase one or the other as well. Here's what it looks like:



Once you worm Chica, wait 24 hours and give her the gallimycin. Here's a link to the dosages for either the soluable powder or the injectable:
http://ultimatefowl.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gallimycin