Parasite issue?

[Alyssa Jarrett]

Last week my black astrolarp Luna was just not acting herself. I noticed she was hanging back in the yard and didn’t want a treat. (Not like her at all) her comb and wattle were very pale. I took her immediately to quarantine and scoped her out. After extensive research I felt it was possible she had a parasite issue. I treated her for internal parasites, a dust bath, and some electrolytes.
Next morning her color was much better and she seemed almost back to normal. It’s been a week and she is like her old self eating/ drinking normal. Poop is normal. No eggs in a week.
My question is that normal? What’s the timing for girls to begin laying after an illness?
She also has some small white marks on her wattle that has me anxious. I think I’m relying on websites too much and thinking the absolute worst and stressing out. We have no chicken vets here.
Thank you for any advise.

 

[azygous]

It's very possible you hit on the reason for her lethargy, and worming her restored her to health. Or it could have been coincidental that she returned to her old self and it had nothing to do with the worming. It's impossible to know without science. In this instance, a prior fecal float test would have identified worm eggs in her poop, and then after worming improved her over-all health, you can be reasonably certain it was responsible.

As for how soon she will feel like laying again, that's up to Luna. She's an individual, and her egg laying patterns are strictly her own. Unless you live at the bottom of the planet, though, the days are getting shorter, and that is triggering a vacation from laying in a lot of hens. If Luna is not in her first year of laying, she may also be going into molt (if you're in the top half of the planet) and that often causes the sort of symptoms you were seeing in Luna. If the symptoms return, Luna may simply be molting.

 

[Alyssa Jarrett]

She is under a year. I thought a molt as well. I’m going to just keep a close eye on her. Thank you so much for the advice. So lucky to have this space to talk about it.

 

[ronott1]

You need to treat for worms again after 7 to 10 days from the first treatment to kill worms that hatch from eggs. Wormers do not kill the eggs so you have to kill any that hatch before they lay more eggs. You also need to treat the entire flock.

Egg laying will come back for her in a couple of weeks or she may molt from the stress. That will add 4 weeks or so fro no eggs. BAs are winter layers so she should start back up but will lay less egg during the winter