Sick Chicken. Nothing obvious but definitely not right.

megabahu

Chirping
Apr 27, 2023
17
80
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Hello!

I need your experience. I have a 2 year old hen who has been lethargic and stopped laying about a week ago. She doesn’t have a runny nose, watery eyes, nor is she sneezing. Breathing just fine. No runny poop, as a matter of fact, barely poops because she’s not eating much. She does tend to wobble a bit when she does walk. She does leave the coop and joins the other girls but mainly sits all day puffed up. Her comb still has some color but not as bright red as it usually is but not pale either. Other 2 girls are just fine and do not share any symptoms.

We did a soak the first day to see if she was egg bound, and nothing. We checked her over for mites and didn’t see anything. We checked her for bumble foot (because of the was she would stumble some times), nothing. Took what little poop she did make to a fecal float test and came back negative for parasites. Her beak was a bit over grown and we trimmed it back so she could eat better, still little interest in food. I’ve added Rooster Booster vitamins to the water (she is drinking) and alternate after a couple days with electrolytes and probiotics.

She doesn’t match symptoms of egg peritonitis or and common viral issue like mycoplasma. I’m at a loss. Would anyone have some insights to what I may be missing? When I talked to the vet clinic it was common advise like add ACV or do a broad spectrum dewormer, but I don’t want to deworm just to deworm, especially if the tests came back negative.

Any guidance is appreciated.
 
I have a 2 year old hen who has been lethargic and stopped laying about a week ago.
She's not laid eggs in a while, I'd start her on Extra Calcium for a week. You can find Calcium Citrate with D3 in the vitamin aisle of stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily, just pull down on her wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

Check to make sure her crop is emptying overnight. If it's not, then address that symptom. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

She may very well indeed be having some reproductive problems, it's hard to know.
 
Thanks; I’ll give that a try. I do have oyster shell out free choice but she shows no interest. So maybe making her take some calcium will help.

She was my most consistent layer with nice hard shells and there was no change in quality but she stopped laying altogether one day.

Her crop is emptying and nothing looks/feels impacted. I did some scrambled eggs mixed with oregano, cayenne pepper, and sunflower seeds. She showed interest in that. There was a small normal looking poop this morning.
 

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