several hens acting ill, some with a pale comb, others - diarrhea

[pgr]

Today a couple hens looked a bit off, to varying degrees. One was very concerning and seemed to be an isolated problem this AM: pale comb and acting very lethargic. We gave her water, she drank well and hopped up onto a low branch to roost for a good part of the day. She was in the nesting box (not sure if she laid an egg) for a short bit and seemed to perk up as far as activity in the PM. She pooped normally and acted as if she were well the rest of the evening, though still with a pale comb. When we went to close up the coop, there was another hen still in the nesting box, posed like she was going to lay an egg, dozing, which was unusual. I went back about a half hour later, she was walking around the (dark) coop, so I put her up on the roost. I looked in the nest box and there was fairly copious diarrhea...

Any thoughts? Basically two hens, one acting lethargic all morning with a pale comb but pooping normally and perking up in the PM. The other - acting normally all day with a normal comb but with pretty impressive diarrhea in the PM. There was a third hen that looked a bit pale/pokey in the afternoon; if we hadn't been watching super carefully we'd not have seen anything amiss with her at all; she seem entirely OK overall and she may well truly be perfectly fine.

These are healthy 11 month old hens, free-range, living in a large coop. Diet is layer crumbles plus occasional scratch (this, and they're free range). No new members of the flock. The possibly sick ones are Speckled Sussex.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Byrd gal]

if they were mine I would start them on corrid. You can get it at tsc. If no improvement in say three days, call around to find a vet that will do a fecal test for you to see if they have worms. If it is worms switch to safeguard for goats also at tsc. A little cooked rice is good for runny stools. Thats the run down I got from the vet. The corrid cleared them up and saved me a vet bill

 

[azygous]

It's spring. I would bet a dollar American money that these chickens have coccidiosis. They have the symptoms. It's easy enough to treat. Get some Corid liquid at your feed store. It may say it's for pigs and cattle, but ignore that.

Give each sick hen a drench of the Corid liquid undiluted. Give .1ml per pound of body weight directly into the beak for 3 days.

Along with that mix 2 teaspoons of liquid Corid in one gallon of water and give it to the entire flock as their only source of water, even the ones not sick, for five days. Wait a week and treat for another five days, but you can skip the drench the second time.

 

[pgr]

Thank you both!

 

[Myrshine]

Check them over for lice or mites. Have they been dewormed recently? Something is taking their red blood cells which is why they are pale.

 

[pgr]

@Nendei Thank you! The one that looked lethargic and pale yesterday looks almost normal today, only her comb is a tiny bit paler than usual, much redder than yesterday. I, too, was thinking possible anemia, but now I'm wondering if it was a circulation issue? I checked for lice/mites and didn't see any, but they haven't been dewormed.

The one with what looked like diarrhea is also acting fine; I'm wondering if it may have been an egg without a shell? I didn't have good light when I cleaned it up.

 

[LaFleche]

And in addition check the feed, as there have been problems reported lately: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/frustrated-with-buggy-feed.1457510/page-3#post-24276335

 

[pgr]

@LaFleche Yikes. Thank you for the heads up.