Quiet Chicken

[BJ677]

Today I have an 11 month old chicken who seems to be not as active as the others. She just stands around and moves around from time to time. Her comb goes pale then pink again and her stomach seems to be growling a lot. She takes a few bites of food and drinks some water. What can it be?

 

[MrsBachbach]

Today I have an 11 month old chicken who seems to be not as active as the others. She just stands around and moves around from time to time. Her comb goes pale then pink again and her stomach seems to be growling a lot. She takes a few bites of food and drinks some water. What can it be?

Has she ever been wormed? How does her poop look?

If you have a cage or crate it would be good to bring her inside with some food and water and monitor her more. See if she really is eating. Try some scrambled egg, or cooked rice, grapes. Hard for a chicken to turn down that. If she turns down that, she is ill. Best to keep her warm and get some poultry vitamins for her water and see if she comes around. Once she is eating or feeling a little better, I would worm her if she has never been wormed. They sell chicken worming medicines in feed stores. Have to follow instructions carefully. Other possibility of her illness could be coccidiosis. You will need to pick up some Corid at the feed store for that also and you can search Corid here at this site to find the dosage and how to treat for that. A 11 month old chicken should have built immunity to that by now, but if she is new to your flock or on ground never on before it's possible she picked up a new strain. Paleness and diarrhea and lethargy are signs of it. It can kill them, but tends to affect chicks worse than full grown hens.
One other thing could be, she just doesn't get enough to eat. You may have a bossy hen or two in your flock and this one is at bottom of pecking order and just won't go to the feeder because she has been run off a few times. It happens. Best to add another feeding station in that case. If that is what is going on, when you bring her in, she will eat that egg or cooked rice or what you give her once she settles in. Best to put her in a quiet private place, put a towel over part of cage to make her feel secure.

 

[azygous]

Has this behavior come on suddenly? When was she last acting active and normal?

Have you checked her crop? Check in the morning first thing - normal is for it to be empty. Check it again in the evening. Normal is full and firm.

If the crop is full and squishy in the morning, you may be looking at sour crop. If the crop is empty or has a small hard rock lump, it may be impacted.

If she's being kept from the feeder, her crop will be empty, her keel bone may be evident, and her poop may be greenish. Watch the other chickens. Are they bullying her. Does she try to eat at all?

Has she been laying? When was the last time she produced an egg? Has she been spending extended periods on a nest without producing anything? She could be egg bound. Is she holding her tail down as she stands immobile? She may be in pain from a stuck egg.

What was she doing prior to becoming inactive? Was she eating anything different from normal? Do you have a compost pile? If so, what gets put into it?

There are some clues in the things I've mentioned that can help you figure out what could be wrong. You need to do a little investigating.