Sick Bielefelder hen?

[BuddingGardener]

Hi, we have a 7 pound Bielefelder hen who has always been a bit different from the flock. She is our largest chicken, started molting in July in the height of the heat, and hasn't laid an egg since. She suffered a prolapse from vent pecking early in the summer and made a full recovery.

Lately she has been keeping to herself. We'd let the girls out for foraging time and she'd tuck herself under a bush and stay there the whole time. In the run, she'd stay in a corner away from the other girls.

Yesterday we noticed the entire flock bullying her without reprieve, so we separated her. Since then I've noticed some abnormal breathing and she is lethargic. Her gasping is mild, but she would like to sit in one spot and rest. Her crop was mostly empty last night but when I offered her a hard boiled egg she ate the whole thing before bed.

I had thought she was maybe stressed and feeling victimized from being the bottom of the pecking order, but now I'm wondering if she is sick and if there is anything I can do other than observe and wait. We do have a vet we can call up, but it is a Sunday and we would only have emergency hours available to us; finances are also really tight right now and I'm not sure it's wise for us to spend the bill on an emergency vet.

For what it's worth, her poop is a normal texture, but small and green -- I had guessed it's because she isn't eating much but I'm questioning my judgment now. More info below:

1) She is a Bielefelder hen born in late April 2023. She is about 1 year 5 months old.
2) Behaviors: Described above. She keeps to herself, she likes to lay and sit a lot, her breathing is on the heavy side but she isn't constantly gasping.
3) This has been happening a few weeks of keeping to herself, but just yesterday it was coming to a head with bullying and fear of the rest of the flock.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? Nope.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. Not obviously. I checked the back of her neck and there's some missing feathers and minor blood spots from the bullying.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I truly don't have much of a clue. One of my other hens has exhibited ocular marek's for over a year (and she is still doing very well), but the whole flock is vaccinated and there have been no other symptoms in any of my other birds. We keep a closed flock and have tight biosecurity measures.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. 17% Kalmbach layer feed crumble. We offer grit and oyster shell on the side, every other day we supplement with rooster booster electrolytes and vitamins in half the waterers.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Green, normal texture.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Separation from the flock.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Ideally I'd like to treat her myself, but we have access to a veterinarian and hope to call tomorrow.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. No pics right now but she looks physically all right, just lethargic.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use Coop is a pair of omlet eglu cubes in the shade. We clean out the bedding every other day (Nest boxes monthly) and rinse the roosting bars/tray daily. Bedding consists of a layer of sweet PDZ mixed with straw and pine. The run is 108 square feet of floor space for nine hens, covered with tarps, bedding is a mixture of pelleted horse bedding and hemp.

Thanks for the help. I'm flummoxed as to how to proceed, and worried about our finances, if I have to be frank. It's gotten harder for us in the past two years since we started to have chickens and a vet may be too much; I'm worried.

 

[coach723]

For now, I would separate her, if you have a wire crate, that is good. That will make it easier for you to observe everything. In a pinch I will sometimes set them up in the shower (with glass doors) in my spare bathroom. If she is low on the pecking order she may have been kept from feeders and waterers. How is her weight, is the keel bone very prominent or is the breast well muscled? Make sure she's eating and drinking, you can continue to give her an egg a day. I would give her a B complex or super B complex tablet or capsule once daily. Just put it in her beak and push it back a little, she'll swallow it. If she's not been eating well she may be deficient. The B's are very safe, extra will be excreted. Check her crop function in the morning before access to food and water, it should be empty then. Look her over well for any injuries that might be hiding in feathers, make sure no signs of lice/mites. See what droppings look like once she's eating regularly. If this is a case of bullying she may just be undernourished and weak. If she has an underlying illness, that can also draw attacks.
If she prolapsed, she may have had trouble laying an egg, once they prolapse it is not uncommon for the others to peck at it and do damage. Feel her abdomen, below the vent between the legs, for any bloat or firmness, compare with others if you aren't sure.
Then reassess tomorrow, based on how today goes, and on anything you do or don't find out in that time.
Those coop cubes are not very large, so space may be a real issue. No matter how many birds they SAY they will hold, the birds behavior is what matters. Overcrowding causes more problems than anything else. One dominant or aggressive bird can make a space, or coop, too small. When they are overcrowded bullying increases, lower pecking order birds have nowhere to hide or give space. Just another consideration.

 

[BuddingGardener]

For now, I would separate her, if you have a wire crate, that is good. That will make it easier for you to observe everything. In a pinch I will sometimes set them up in the shower (with glass doors) in my spare bathroom. If she is low on the pecking order she may have been kept from feeders and waterers. How is her weight, is the keel bone very prominent or is the breast well muscled? Make sure she's eating and drinking, you can continue to give her an egg a day. I would give her a B complex or super B complex tablet or capsule once daily. Just put it in her beak and push it back a little, she'll swallow it. If she's not been eating well she may be deficient. The B's are very safe, extra will be excreted. Check her crop function in the morning before access to food and water, it should be empty then. Look her over well for any injuries that might be hiding in feathers, make sure no signs of lice/mites. See what droppings look like once she's eating regularly. If this is a case of bullying she may just be undernourished and weak. If she has an underlying illness, that can also draw attacks.
If she prolapsed, she may have had trouble laying an egg, once they prolapse it is not uncommon for the others to peck at it and do damage. Feel her abdomen, below the vent between the legs, for any bloat or firmness, compare with others if you aren't sure.
Then reassess tomorrow, based on how today goes, and on anything you do or don't find out in that time.
Those coop cubes are not very large, so space may be a real issue. No matter how many birds they SAY they will hold, the birds behavior is what matters. Overcrowding causes more problems than anything else. One dominant or aggressive bird can make a space, or coop, too small. When they are overcrowded bullying increases, lower pecking order birds have nowhere to hide or give space. Just another consideration.

Sounds like I'm doing most of what I need to do. Her prolapse has long since been treated and she laid eggs again perfectly well once healed, then went into molt. The prolapse was treated with antibiotics, separation, and extremely attentive care to ensure the tissue stayed inside. She went back to full health after that, foraged as normal. Bullying got worse recently as the top of the pecking order went into molt; we suspected that they are more aggressive right now due to molt discomforts and she got the brunt of it.

I'll get B tablet supplements later today. She's safe and resting right now. I saw her pecking at her food, and will give her an egg to eat later.

 

[BuddingGardener]

@coach723 Just an update: my girl is decompressing, eating, drinking. Her poop has returned to normal. She is still resting a lot. I'm starting to suspect she may have heart problems that cause her to be slow and lumbering and sensitive to warmer temperatures; when we think back, we noticed she is the first to pant even in mild warmth, and she did suffer a scary heat incident that we cooled her down from (by bringing her inside and giving her a cool soak, as well as nutri-drench and syringe-administered water dribbled into her beak) in the height of the heat waves this summer. She's not super exercise tolerant and she was never a very active hen. Aside from the heavier breathing -- no open-mouthed panting, but visibly she breathes with a bit more exertion than the rest -- she looks okay. No injuries, no mucus in the throat or mouth, no rasping or wheezing, no swelling, clear eyes, no evidence of mites or lice.

We are continuing with the separation. She is allowed out during supervised forage time and then placed back into separation within eyesight of her flock.

 

[coach723]

It's certainly possible. Sometimes it's very hard to know exactly what ails them. If the other birds are perceiving her to be frail or weak, and they see things that we do not, that may be why she is getting picked on. It's a normal survival instinct in a flock to try to drive sick or weak members out as they can attract predators. You may need to keep her separate, a parallel run where she can still see the others but is safe, can work. If there are one or two birds she does get along with, maybe they can be together. I have some older and some special needs birds that have their own enclosure so that they can live in peace.
Vet care might be able to tell if she has a heart problem, but that might be expensive to find out, with likely limited or no treatment options. Sadly, we often don't know for sure until they pass and a necropsy is done.

 

[BuddingGardener]

It's certainly possible. Sometimes it's very hard to know exactly what ails them. If the other birds are perceiving her to be frail or weak, and they see things that we do not, that may be why she is getting picked on. It's a normal survival instinct in a flock to try to drive sick or weak members out as they can attract predators. You may need to keep her separate, a parallel run where she can still see the others but is safe, can work. If there are one or two birds she does get along with, maybe they can be together. I have some older and some special needs birds that have their own enclosure so that they can live in peace.
Vet care might be able to tell if she has a heart problem, but that might be expensive to find out, with likely limited or no treatment options. Sadly, we often don't know for sure until they pass and a necropsy is done.

Right now we're observing, and she does have her own sequestered run space where she gets to relax unmolested. She has a friend to keep her company; she is a salmon faverolles who is second-bottom in the pecking order and desperately needs to re-grow her beard and muff without getting feather picked. She's very sweet with her and tends to stick by her side even when out of the run. We also have a Buff Orpington who is great with her.

The expense of a vet is unfortunately what is keeping us from seeking it at the moment (x-rays are expensive, tests are expensive, an exotic vet period is expensive, and finances are not on our side this year), but what we do know is that the slightly heavier breathing has been going on for longer than the past few days. She's as comfortable as she can be and she is eating and not obviously declining, so we are doing what we can to ease her stress and it's not a huge problem to give her a parallel run.

 

[coach723]

I understand. Everything is expensive now, and vets can be horrendous. I have spent $1000's on a cat in the last year due to auto immune problems and specialists. I cringe every time, and honestly I think they have been pretty reasonable. It still pains my wallet. I think you are doing what you can. If things change, let us know.

 

[BuddingGardener]

Well it's been almost a week so I thought I'd update! She really doesn't appear to be sick after all, just weak and timid. She's acting much better after being in separation with a friend for all this time, and she is definitely eating/foraging a bit more freely. We let her out of the run with the rest of the flock when we do our few hours of yard time, then return her to her safe place right after. She's still our lumbering, slow, timid girl and she's not standing up for herself yet, but her friend is definitely taking up the duties of pecking others for insolence. Since she isn't obviously declining and seems to be taking very slow strides toward improvement, we'll just continue what we're doing indefinitely.