possibly sick chicken? Or not.

[emorling]

Howdy!
A chicken health query from a chicken dummy!
I have a small mixed breed flock, I just got in the spring (my first chickens). I have an EEger, about 9 months old who hasn't wanted to leave the next box for about a day or two. Just sitting in there with her butt up in the air, wings out a little and feathers all puffed up. Glaring at me with her beady eye. I read some about terrible egg-bound chicken illness and internal eggs stuck on the forums and got all worked up in a tizzy about her. Finally got up the nerve to haul her out of her comfy next box and try to examine her. Which is pretty worthless, since I don't know what I'm looking or feeling for. But got her out of the box, all she wanted was back in. Up on her feet, and her vent looked normal, no poopy mess or blood or swelling. As I was turning her around to try and feel in her belly was swollen, out pops an egg. She seemed surprised, as did I - assuming she was egg bound. I guess not. She took advantage of my surprise and crawled back in the next box and pulled the wooden egg under her belly.

Is she just broody? Or is she actually sick? All in all, I don't see anything wrong with her besides her "must be in the next box" behavior. I haven't ever dewormed them - is that something I should do regularly?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[bigbuddha09]

that sounds like a broody hen if ive heard it lol. they like to give you the evil eye and puff up and look mean, also they wont want to eat or drink or move much. Did you want her to go broody?

 

[justplainbatty]

Howdy!
A chicken health query from a chicken dummy!
I have a small mixed breed flock, I just got in the spring (my first chickens). I have an EEger, about 9 months old who hasn't wanted to leave the next box for about a day or two. Just sitting in there with her butt up in the air, wings out a little and feathers all puffed up. Glaring at me with her beady eye. I read some about terrible egg-bound chicken illness and internal eggs stuck on the forums and got all worked up in a tizzy about her. Finally got up the nerve to haul her out of her comfy next box and try to examine her. Which is pretty worthless, since I don't know what I'm looking or feeling for. But got her out of the box, all she wanted was back in. Up on her feet, and her vent looked normal, no poopy mess or blood or swelling. As I was turning her around to try and feel in her belly was swollen, out pops an egg. She seemed surprised, as did I - assuming she was egg bound. I guess not. She took advantage of my surprise and crawled back in the next box and pulled the wooden egg under her belly.

Is she just broody? Or is she actually sick? All in all, I don't see anything wrong with her besides her "must be in the next box" behavior. I haven't ever dewormed them - is that something I should do regularly?

Thanks for your advice!

Cute story

I hope you have a sexually mature roo or her brooding will be for nothing!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Sounds broody.

They usually will stop laying when they are really serious about brooding from my experience. So you might not get many more eggs out of her LOL.

I worm twice a year because I have to. I wouldn't do it unless I had to. Some vets will do a fecal float test for worms if you bring them the poo but false negatives are possible.

Things to look for with worms are loss of weight with diarrhea (thin hens). Sometimes you will see a worm in the poo. But there are different kinds of worms and you can't see them necessarily even if they are sick.

Your hen just sounds broody to me, not sick.