PLEASE HELP! Hen keeps walking backwards

mylabdogs

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Today I was outside and noticed my white leghorn walking backwards. She will then walk forward and then backwards again. My concern is based on the fact that we have had 1 year old chickens die in the past 6 months. 1 every 2 months or so. They all had no symptoms before they died. I spend a lot of time with them and didn't notice any oddness in them before death. Wondering what this could possibly be. I don't want any more chickens dying. Please help.
 
I don't know about the walking backwards (except that it happens with wry neck or crookneck- but you haven't said anything about an abnormal neck).

But seeing as that these are one year old hens, have they been wormed and dusted for mites lately? Those things can cause deaths for no apparent reason.

Be aware that if you do administer medications to the hens there is often an "egg withdrawal time" whereby you toss the eggs for a specified period of time.
 
I have not wormed them but I did check them for mites and didn't see any signs of them. It is making me nervous. Would I notice if they had worms? Would they be in their poop?
 
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I have no experience with worms (other than worming my chickens by killing the mites with a medication that kills both).

However, I have read here on BYC that a chicken can have worms and you never see them in the poo. You CAN take poo to a vet and have a fecal done. Worming medications are hard on chickens.

It is a judgement call- many on here have never wormed their chickens, while others regularly worm them every year or more.

When my chickens had mites (the northern fowl mite), I only noticed when I found them on ME. I now regularly dust so I don't have to endure that again.
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Also- please note that when my chickens had mites, they shook their heads every 5-15 seconds or so. I had been inspecting for mites every DAY or two as a routine before that and NEVER saw them!!!
 
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She stopped walking backwards but is now opening her mouth and doing this gulping thing and then doing it again. Arrgh, I can't stand the not knowing how to help them.
 
For gapeworm, would I give them the normal worming medicine or something different. The more I think about it, they do all free range and I have never wormed them, so it probably is that. Thanks for the advice, I SO appreciate it. I just love them so much.
 
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I hope someone answers your question. But you might want to type "gapeworm" into the BYC search bar and find some additional helpful threads on it to find out more.

I have learned a lot by reading old threads.
 
Sometimes, it's just something on their eyeball they're trying to get away from, like a cobweb on the cornea. Had a hen do that and realized she thought something was in front of her.
 

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