I love the wealth of knowledge in this community! We've had our three girls for 2 years now and have learned a ton from these forums. We're very concerned about one though, and hoping the collective mind here can help.
All 3 of the birds have slowed down laying this winter (last winter, they were full speed ahead with nearly consistent daily eggs), but this girl slowed and then seems to have stopped laying altogether for at least a week, possibly longer (it's been really hard to track with 3 hens...2 of which have very similar looking eggs).
This weekend, she started acting really weird. She started walking around with her tail feathers hanging low, instead of proudly in the air, poopy butt, and has been pretty listless (doesn't even move when we come near her right now...usually they try to avoid being handled...she doesn't even flinch right now). Yesterday, she spent much of the day in her roost, while the other two girls had free range of the yard for the day.
From the advice in the forums here, I gave her a warm bath to clean her butt a bit (first time bathing a chicken...and as listless as she was, she didn't put up much of a fight at all). It looks a bit better, but I didn't get everything.
We added apple cider vinegar to their water, and have been hand feeding her scrambled egg with a tablespoon of fresh probiotic yogurt. She ate most of it, but not with the voracious enthusiasm she usually has when eating. It took about 30 minutes to get her to eat a scrambled egg. I don't think she's been eating much more than that. Today's the second day of that diet.
Attached are some pics:
* Her poop
* Her butt
* Her underside while she was wet from the bath. I've never seen a wet chicken before...but is their skin usually that red, or is there some irritation there as well??
Any other suggestions here? It makes us miserable to see her looking so miserable.
Thanks!
All 3 of the birds have slowed down laying this winter (last winter, they were full speed ahead with nearly consistent daily eggs), but this girl slowed and then seems to have stopped laying altogether for at least a week, possibly longer (it's been really hard to track with 3 hens...2 of which have very similar looking eggs).
This weekend, she started acting really weird. She started walking around with her tail feathers hanging low, instead of proudly in the air, poopy butt, and has been pretty listless (doesn't even move when we come near her right now...usually they try to avoid being handled...she doesn't even flinch right now). Yesterday, she spent much of the day in her roost, while the other two girls had free range of the yard for the day.
From the advice in the forums here, I gave her a warm bath to clean her butt a bit (first time bathing a chicken...and as listless as she was, she didn't put up much of a fight at all). It looks a bit better, but I didn't get everything.
We added apple cider vinegar to their water, and have been hand feeding her scrambled egg with a tablespoon of fresh probiotic yogurt. She ate most of it, but not with the voracious enthusiasm she usually has when eating. It took about 30 minutes to get her to eat a scrambled egg. I don't think she's been eating much more than that. Today's the second day of that diet.
Attached are some pics:
* Her poop
* Her butt
* Her underside while she was wet from the bath. I've never seen a wet chicken before...but is their skin usually that red, or is there some irritation there as well??
Any other suggestions here? It makes us miserable to see her looking so miserable.
Thanks!