I need some experienced advice. One of my black copper marans hens that I've had separated and waiting for eggs to be infertile so I can breed is suddenly having problems. She was fine yesterday but today, when checking for eggs, she was laying on her side in the nest, breathing raspy and heavy. I picked her up and brought her in immediately. She was weak, keeps falling asleep, and spit up some clear fluid a couple times. At first, she seemed to not be able to even hold herself up. Hubby and I gave her a 1/2 cc of penicillin. Now, she's wrapped in a towl on my lap. She keeps dropping in and out of sleep but she's holding her head up on her own right now, her breathing seems almost back to normal. She seems a bit pale on her face but her comb looks fairly normal (it looked slightly blue tinged when I first found her like that). Any clues what this could be? Is penicillin a good choice of treatment? I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing. This is a new one for me.
Update: not 10 minutes after writing this, she went into convulsions and passed away![]()
So sorry you lost her!

I didn't find much though I've never opened up a hen before. We've butchered plenty of roosters. Her abdomen was filled with clear water. Heart looked normal. Liver seemed large and so did the gallbladder. The ceca were both full and kinda greenish. I'd never even noticed the ceca in any butchered roosters but they were very obvious in her. Is that normal? Other than that, I didn't see anything else. Her crop was normal besides being almost empty, no sour smell.
Almost sounds like congestive heart failure. I'll have to look up the acistes and read bout so I know for the future.