Pale comb and mouth slightly open

[SpeckledPullet]

My 2 year old hen has a very pale comb. She also seems to keep her mouth slightly open most of the time that I watched her today. However, she is moulting. Is she just weak from moulting or should I be concerned? I do plan to worm her tomorrow and will be worming with Safe-guard in the water .... just in case it is gape worm. Any thoughts on this? The rest of my flock looks/acts fine and no one else seems to be moulting.

 

[AngelzFyre]

If it's very hot and humid there what you are seeing can be stress from that. Mine are panting daily when the humidity is high and the temps here have been in high 90's all week.
Is there any way you can separate her and put her where she's with a fan or it's cooler and see if that helps?
I know I've lost several this summer due to heat, saved 2 that I brought up and put into a separate hutch for a week with fans and started Nutri Poultry Drench and added scrambled eggs, watermelon and such to their menu. After they got over the stress and perked back up they did great.
I also started dumping waters and refilling with cold water and adding frozen bottled water bottles to their waterers in the afternoons between noon and 2pm. This helped more than anything and they quit getting so stressed.
They still pant and get paler at high humidity but they stay hydrated and look so much better now.

During a molt it's a good idea to give more protein and I give probiotics also to keep their immune systems and digestive systems built up.

 

[SpeckledPullet]

Thanks! I will add some protein and will try the frozen water bottles. While they do have shade, it's very hot here. I never thought about it being heat stress possibly

 

[AngelzFyre]

This year is the very first year I've ever had any trouble with heat/heat stress! I didn't know what it was either until loosing 2 hens in a row and then coming on BYC and seeing that others were having trouble too.

The cooler water and a place to get out of the sun and heat did the trick though.

Lemme know how your girl does!! I'm hoping this will fix her right up

.