This will be a little long-winded, so I apologize ahead of time.
TLDR our largest hen, Vendetta, suddenly stopped laying eggs, wouldn't jump up to the roost, and looked like she might have been egg-bound, but she can poop. It has been 4 days since I noticed her looking off; she was quarantined in the house for 3 days and is now back with the rest of the chickens and doing very well. I am worried something is still wrong, though, since she has not laid an egg in the past 4 days. She has what appears to be a minor scaly leg mite infestation, which may be contributing, but it is under control. I also suspect that she may have injured one or both of her legs, but I can't tell which one or how she would have done it.
We have a year-and-a-half-old Cookoo Moran named Vendetta who stopped jumping up to the roost to sleep with the rest of the flock. The first two times it happened, I thought maybe it was a fluke, and I just scooped her up and set her on the roost.
When I picked her up, I did a quick once-over to see if she had any signs of distress or illness. She has been molting, so there was some minor feather loss, and I thought her belly might have looked a little big, but she is our beefy hen and has always had a big belly, so I did not really think much of it. She settled in with the rest of the flock, and they didn't mind her presence.
When I saw she was not roosting on the third night, I decided something was wrong, so I brought her inside for a closer inspection. I still could not identify what was wrong, but I thought maybe she was egg-bound since her belly did look quite large. We had her soak in warm water and then very gently massaged her belly for a bit, and then we quarantined her inside so that, in case she was sick, she would not spread it to the other hens. Having her inside also makes it easier to monitor her closely.
She stayed inside for two nights and almost three days. Over that time, she did not lay an egg, but her condition did appear to improve. I noticed that she didn't really want to move around and would stand on one foot at a time, so one or both of her legs may have gotten injured, but I do not know how. She gradually became perkier, her feathers looked less droopy, she started moving around more, and she began to peck and scratch at her bedding and the apple slices we gave her. This morning, I reintegrated her with the rest of the flock. I have moved the water to the ground level temporarily to ensure she has access to it if she continues to refuse to use the upper level where the roost is. She is not giving any sign of illness and is happily socializing with the rest of the flock.
I noticed that a couple of the hens looked like they may have a minor scaly leg mite infestation, so we smothered their legs with coconut oil and added some more diatomaceous earth to the coop. We clean it regularly and add diatomaceous earth to it weekly, so I was a little surprised to see the scales on their legs a little dried out and slightly enlarged. Only 3 of the 6 had signs of the mites. I am not sure if the mites would cause Vendetta to stop laying when she is not showing signs of anemia.
Does anyone have similar experiences or any tips for figuring out what is going on with Vendetta? All of our hens have reduced their laying, so I am a little worried there is a flock-wide issue that is sitting right under my nose, but my husband said that they reduced production at the same time last year as the weather gets colder and the sun sets sooner.
TLDR our largest hen, Vendetta, suddenly stopped laying eggs, wouldn't jump up to the roost, and looked like she might have been egg-bound, but she can poop. It has been 4 days since I noticed her looking off; she was quarantined in the house for 3 days and is now back with the rest of the chickens and doing very well. I am worried something is still wrong, though, since she has not laid an egg in the past 4 days. She has what appears to be a minor scaly leg mite infestation, which may be contributing, but it is under control. I also suspect that she may have injured one or both of her legs, but I can't tell which one or how she would have done it.
We have a year-and-a-half-old Cookoo Moran named Vendetta who stopped jumping up to the roost to sleep with the rest of the flock. The first two times it happened, I thought maybe it was a fluke, and I just scooped her up and set her on the roost.
When I picked her up, I did a quick once-over to see if she had any signs of distress or illness. She has been molting, so there was some minor feather loss, and I thought her belly might have looked a little big, but she is our beefy hen and has always had a big belly, so I did not really think much of it. She settled in with the rest of the flock, and they didn't mind her presence.
When I saw she was not roosting on the third night, I decided something was wrong, so I brought her inside for a closer inspection. I still could not identify what was wrong, but I thought maybe she was egg-bound since her belly did look quite large. We had her soak in warm water and then very gently massaged her belly for a bit, and then we quarantined her inside so that, in case she was sick, she would not spread it to the other hens. Having her inside also makes it easier to monitor her closely.
She stayed inside for two nights and almost three days. Over that time, she did not lay an egg, but her condition did appear to improve. I noticed that she didn't really want to move around and would stand on one foot at a time, so one or both of her legs may have gotten injured, but I do not know how. She gradually became perkier, her feathers looked less droopy, she started moving around more, and she began to peck and scratch at her bedding and the apple slices we gave her. This morning, I reintegrated her with the rest of the flock. I have moved the water to the ground level temporarily to ensure she has access to it if she continues to refuse to use the upper level where the roost is. She is not giving any sign of illness and is happily socializing with the rest of the flock.
I noticed that a couple of the hens looked like they may have a minor scaly leg mite infestation, so we smothered their legs with coconut oil and added some more diatomaceous earth to the coop. We clean it regularly and add diatomaceous earth to it weekly, so I was a little surprised to see the scales on their legs a little dried out and slightly enlarged. Only 3 of the 6 had signs of the mites. I am not sure if the mites would cause Vendetta to stop laying when she is not showing signs of anemia.
Does anyone have similar experiences or any tips for figuring out what is going on with Vendetta? All of our hens have reduced their laying, so I am a little worried there is a flock-wide issue that is sitting right under my nose, but my husband said that they reduced production at the same time last year as the weather gets colder and the sun sets sooner.