Sick Chicken--What do I do?

[HealingJoy]

Hi All,

I am attaching some pictures of the poop. The hen is about 1.5 years old, and while it is winter, she has continued to lay eggs up until about a week ago. Slowly I saw her decline and didn't think much of it until she started eating very little and stopped being energetic. Now she is losing feathers considerably so I'm keeping her in the house in a cage for fear that she will be too cole out there. I am keeping her separate from the other birds at this point, by putting her in a cage, however, I still let her free roam, as she still likes to do that for a bit, just really slow and doesn't scratch the ground as much. When I put her outside, there is one other bird who kind of hangs around her, but the others don't. I started to rehome other flocks, and the one that is sick is the only one left of her flock.

I haven't seen worms in her poop, but am attaching pictures. I couldn't attach a photo of her, but will do so when I can. She is eating blueberries --when she eats, some grass, but doesn't hardly eat the peas (that she used to devour), or the dried meal worms (which she was eating yesterday). I have a 5 grain scratch mix (sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, milo, meal worms, and something else), but she just picks out the meal worms, until today when she wasn't even interested in that. I haven't seen her drink water since this morning, but put some garlic and lab serum in it. She used to eat the curds from the lab serum, but doesn't seem to gravitate towards that. I kept her inside with me at night last night, and plan to do that until she gets better. All I see her eat are blueberries and grass. Any help? I don't plan on paying for a vet bill, and really would like to figure this out, if possible.

The first picture, the white, green, and yellowish, is of her poop from last night. The only poop she had that I saw on the cardboard I laid down this morning. The second picture, the one that looks splattered and green, is of her poop this afternoon after eating a few blueberries. Thoughts? Thank you.

 

[nuthatched]

She could be molting, she feels awful from it. Does she eat any chicken feed? She really needs it, especially now that's she needs extra nutrition.

 

[HealingJoy]

I usually just feed them sunflower seeds, peas, watermelon, --i stay away from commercial feed. However, my neighbor bought the 5 grain chicken scratch, that I described above, and she used to just pick out the meal worms, but now, nothing of that interests her. she is not even eating the sunflower seeds, which she used to eat that and peas whenever she was hungry. Now, I'm running out of options that I can feed her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

I'd try feeding her a nutritionally balanced poultry feed. Chick starter or an all flock feed would be good to give since she's not laying and is in molt.

Check her over for lice/mites and see that her crop is emptying.

If possible, take a sample of her poop to your vet for a fecal float to rule out worms as part of the problem.

 

[nuthatched]

I usually just feed them sunflower seeds, peas, watermelon, --i stay away from commercial feed. However, my neighbor bought the 5 grain chicken scratch, that I described above, and she used to just pick out the meal worms, but now, nothing of that interests her. she is not even eating the sunflower seeds, which she used to eat that and peas whenever she was hungry. Now, I'm running out of options that I can feed her.

You need to find a feed for her, what you're feeding is bad nutrition for chickens and is the cause of her issues.
It's like feeding nothing but candy and cheetos to children, high fat, high carb, low protein and low nutrition. A diet like this quickly causes nutrition deficiency, reproductive issues, fatty liver and death. Symptoms of which, you're seeing. If you don't want "commercial" feed, then find a local mill or a small company online for feed, to continue feeding this mix is planned obsolescence.

 

[HealingJoy]

Welcome To BYC

I'd try feeding her a nutritionally balanced poultry feed. Chick starter or an all flock feed would be good to give since she's not laying and is in molt.

Check her over for lice/mites and see that her crop is emptying.

If possible, take a sample of her poop to your vet for a fecal float to rule out worms as part of the problem.

Thank you for your welcome.

She even picks at the poultry feed--the kind that has the 5 gran scratch. I created my own, using millet, black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, oats, split peas, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, flaxseeds, canary grass seeds, and so many other things, as well as free ranging and they get into the compost (allowable). When you say nutritionally balanced, what does that mean, especially when she picks at what is given to her or walks right by it (the commercial mixes)--so I wonder even if a nutritionally balanced option is given, is she really eating all of the items that make it nutritionally balanced, so it kind of defeats the point.

If her issue is pure diet, would this be the first time that she is molting? I have had her for 1.5 years, wouldn't I have seen this before? And on this diet she started laying right at 6 months and consistently through the winter (I have only had her for one winter so far, this is the second winter, I raised her from a chick--even producing double yolk eggs. I guess I am confused about what it means to molt, because I thought I knew what that looked like, but this, this is different.

Her crop may not be emptying, I will look into that, could you give a bit more direction on what I should be looking for there? The poop sample seems good, is there a way to also visually kind of know what is being digested? Thanks for entertaining all these questions.

 

[HealingJoy]

You need to find a feed for her, what you're feeding is bad nutrition for chickens and is the cause of her issues.
It's like feeding nothing but candy and cheetos to children, high fat, high carb, low protein and low nutrition. A diet like this quickly causes nutrition deficiency, reproductive issues, fatty liver and death. Symptoms of which, you're seeing. If you don't want "commercial" feed, then find a local mill or a small company online for feed, to continue feeding this mix is planned obsolescence.

I hope you are not emotionally upset. I'm not sure what you are responding to about what I feed them, but if you want me to list all the things in hopes that it helps, I could. If you read above you will see the other foods, it is so hard to list everything, so I just listed the first three that came to mind so I could get to what is ailing her. I just wonder about molting because it seems so odd that this would be her first time, she didn't do this last year. Thanks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If I may jump in here. A nutritionally balanced commercial feed assures that they get everything they need instead of allowing them to pick and choose what they like and leaving things they may need but not prefer. @U_Stormcrow is, IMO, one of our most knowledgeable people about chicken nutrition. He's said that it's almost impossible, and extremely expensive, to try and reproduce, as backyard chicken keepers, what the big commercial feed providers can manufacture for our chickens' needs. Maybe he will come on here and explain it better than I can. But if you put cake, ice cream, cookies, bread, peas, broccoli, meat and potatoes in front of a child and let them pick and choose what they want to eat, do you think they will get a balanced diet? Sunflower seeds, mealworms and table scraps are the cookies and ice cream. A nutritionally balanced commercial feed, either pellets or crumble, is the meat and potatoes.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As for molting, there are different levels of that as well. A soft molt may go unnoticed as a few feathers drop at a time and you may not realize your bird is molting. In a hard molt, your bird may look very rough, as if she's flown through a hurricane, with bare patches, broken feathers and obvious pinfeathers showing.

 

[HealingJoy]

As for molting, there are different levels of that as well. A soft molt may go unnoticed as a few feathers drop at a time and you may not realize your bird is molting. In a hard molt, your bird may look very rough, as if she's flown through a hurricane, with bare patches, broken feathers and obvious pinfeathers showing.

Would they also be low energy and stand around a lot? Thank you.