Sick Chicken?

[Henhelper43]

I have an Olive Egger hen, about six months old. We have 2 extra roosters that we are trying to get rid off because they keep fighting. I went up to the coop and found my hen Stanislaw under the nesting boxes and not moving. At first I thought that she was just freezing, so I took her inside and wrapped her in a towel and blankets. She kept squirming out and flopping onto the floor. She has slight diarrhea, soft shelled eggs, weak body, she isn’t making many noises, and when she does she is sneezing or kind of coughing. She wouldn’t eat any corn(I read that it’s good for sick chicks)or drink any water. She made it through the night and the day without eating or drinking, and not moving much. I’ve read things about it being avian flu or various other diseases. I don’t know what it is or how to help her. Please let me know if you have any advice.

 

[azygous]

Corn isn't really much of a cure for anything. Internet is full of useless advice.

Have you checked your hen's crop? If she has a full crop from impaction or yeast infection, she can starve. That can make her too weak to move. Her history of soft shell eggs could mean she is egg bound. That causes watery stools that are full of white mucous. These are just possibilities.

I suggest you check the crop. If the crop is empty, give the hen some warm sugar water and if that revives her, give her some soft boiled egg. If this makes her stronger, it's a cue she's been starving for some reason.

 

[nuthatched]

What is her diet?

 

[Henhelper43]

Corn isn't really much of a cure for anything. Internet is full of useless advice.

Have you checked your hen's crop? If she has a full crop from impaction or yeast infection, she can starve. That can make her too weak to move. Her history of soft shell eggs could mean she is egg bound. That causes watery stools that are full of white mucous. These are just possibilities.

I suggest you check the crop. If the crop is empty, give the hen some warm sugar water and if that revives her, give her some soft boiled egg. If this makes her stronger, it's a cue she's been starving for some reason.

Ok, how would I check the crop? And she just started laying so this is the first soft egg that I know of. Thank you for the help

 

[Henhelper43]

What is her diet?

Her diet is nature wise chicken food with freeze dried meal worms, cracked corn and grit, plus anything found in the run

 

[azygous]

Do you know how to find the crop? It's the sack on the chest wall below the neck. My article explains how to check for various crop disorders and how to treat when you identify one. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Henhelper43]

Thankyou, I checked her crop and it seemed empty, her whole breast area feels sort of like deflated, but she feels like her normal weight. Her crop doesn’t feel full, so I tried to give her warm sugar water, I had to pretty much force her to drink it, and she just slumped back down. I don’t know what else to try, and I don’t how much longer she will last.

 

[azygous]

Has it been freezing? Could she have hypothermia? If very cold temperatures preceded her symptoms, then you must syringe the warm sugar water plus a pinch of salt and baking soda into her or she could die. Get an oral syringe and do it like this photo to avoid aspirating her. Also, you must warm her. Wrap her in a towel warmed in a dryer while you syringe the fluids into her.

 

[Henhelper43]

Ok, we will try that. She made it through the night again. I got her to drink some more water, but not enough. Her comb doesn’t feel as warm as it usually is, so she could be freezing, she is under a flannel towel to keep her warm.

 

[azygous]

To treat hypothermia, you need to apply heat externally and internally. She needs her blood glucose elevated to revive her. That means she needs the infusion of sugar, one teaspoon to one cup of warm water, directly into her body. Use the oral syringe, hold her and pry open her beak. Insert the syringe into the right side of her throat, past the tongue, and push the fluids directly into her crop. Get one-fourth cup of warm fluids into her, then do it again in two hours.

If you have a dryer, heat the flannel towel and wrap her in it.