Poorly hunched over chicken

[lisa.1988]

My chickens are now three years old and have caused me no problems until now! We have a Black Star, Gold Star and Amber Star. The Black Star is laying very wrinkled eggs and today laid a soft one. The Gold Star seems to also have been laying soft eggs and the Amber star is acting very unwell with drooping tail and walking funny. Reading up on this it seems she may be an internal layer - she has been laying soft eggs for a number of weeks - or she may be egg bound. We have given her a warm bath and some olive oil but she seems very uncomfortable and has a big belly.
I have bought some Flubenvet and will try worming them tomorrow although I have been using Vermx regularly for about a year. Any suggestions as to what might be wrong with them? I was wondering if it could be viral?

 

[Judy]

Worms is one possibility. Lice/mites are another. Are they getting enough calcium? Do you offer oyster shell or feed their egg shells back to them? What about your feed, are they getting enough protein? Just some thoughts --

BTW, welcome to BYC!

 

[lisa.1988]

Thank you!
We had a case of mites last year and now always dust coop with DE when cleaning out and I have checked them over and can't see any lice or mites. I feed them layers pellets in the morning and mash in the afternoon. They were having scraps including pasta but I have cut this out in the last week and they just get a sprinkling of corn late afternoon instead. I have been mixing oyster shell in with the mash and sometimes some crushed egg shell and sprinkling grit and oyster shell in the run every couple of days. I will try the worming stuff tomorrow. The poorly chicken has just eaten some bread with added milk powder as I read she could be deficient in vitamin D! She ate it all up but is still not right and keeping her tail down.