sherrylb1
Chirping
- Sep 28, 2020
- 8
- 17
- 54
Hi everyone. So sorry if I sound dumb or don’t provide adequate information…I’m learning more about chickens everyday so I am definitely nowhere near an expert and am just going by what I see.
I have a Rhode Island Red hen who will be 3 years old in a month or so. She is the only RIR in my flock right now and she has always been my most consistent layer of the most perfect eggs. I’ve noticed lately (probably 2 months or so) her egg laying is not consistent and when she does lay there is always some kind of deformity with the egg (various things, not one particular thing). I assumed she was probably just coming into the end of her laying period so I wasn’t concerned as everything else seemed perfectly normal with her. But in the last couple of days she acts sick. First day she was staying away from the rest of the flock and just standing kind of hunched over in one spot. I had another chicken (also a RIR) do this a couple years ago and she died within 2 days. Anyway, I thought maybe she was egg bound so I soaked her in a warm epson salt bath as I read on the forums to try. She still hasn’t laid an egg (but like I said she has been inconsistent with that anyway) but she does seem to be acting more normal again. She is staying with the flock, walking around but still slower than usual, and she isn’t hunched over like she was. She did go sit in her “usual” egg box for a while yesterday evening but never laid.
BUT she acts like she has difficulty eating, especially if I throw out scraps she acts like she can/will only eat the smaller pieces. She will pick at a bigger (normal) size bite and if she can take a smaller bite of it she will eat it but if not she leaves it. I noticed this and gave some dried oats and she will eat them up. Any ideas on what could be causing this??
I have checked for external parasites and she doesn’t have anything like that. All my other chickens seem absolutely fine as well. I did notice the chicken in question had diarrhea the first evening she seemed sick but I haven’t personally seen it again to be able to say if she still does. She isn’t the tamest chicken so even catching her to soak her even when she acted really sick wasn’t the easiest task!
Thanks so much and sorry for writing so much. Just trying to explain the best I could what I’ve noticed.
I have a Rhode Island Red hen who will be 3 years old in a month or so. She is the only RIR in my flock right now and she has always been my most consistent layer of the most perfect eggs. I’ve noticed lately (probably 2 months or so) her egg laying is not consistent and when she does lay there is always some kind of deformity with the egg (various things, not one particular thing). I assumed she was probably just coming into the end of her laying period so I wasn’t concerned as everything else seemed perfectly normal with her. But in the last couple of days she acts sick. First day she was staying away from the rest of the flock and just standing kind of hunched over in one spot. I had another chicken (also a RIR) do this a couple years ago and she died within 2 days. Anyway, I thought maybe she was egg bound so I soaked her in a warm epson salt bath as I read on the forums to try. She still hasn’t laid an egg (but like I said she has been inconsistent with that anyway) but she does seem to be acting more normal again. She is staying with the flock, walking around but still slower than usual, and she isn’t hunched over like she was. She did go sit in her “usual” egg box for a while yesterday evening but never laid.
BUT she acts like she has difficulty eating, especially if I throw out scraps she acts like she can/will only eat the smaller pieces. She will pick at a bigger (normal) size bite and if she can take a smaller bite of it she will eat it but if not she leaves it. I noticed this and gave some dried oats and she will eat them up. Any ideas on what could be causing this??
I have checked for external parasites and she doesn’t have anything like that. All my other chickens seem absolutely fine as well. I did notice the chicken in question had diarrhea the first evening she seemed sick but I haven’t personally seen it again to be able to say if she still does. She isn’t the tamest chicken so even catching her to soak her even when she acted really sick wasn’t the easiest task!
Thanks so much and sorry for writing so much. Just trying to explain the best I could what I’ve noticed.
