Sick chicken?

[h.woods54]

I'm slightly new with raising chickens, I've had 3 for a year and a half, and another 3 for six months. One of my chickens, a barred rock named Raven, started to molt. It's not a huge molt, where she looses all her feathers at once, it's a few-here-few-there kind of thing. Anyway, she's been acting very strange. She's very lethargic, she's not interested in food, she runs away from me and the other flock members. I did some research, and a group of flock owners say that this is normal. So, I let it slide for the day. I checked on her this morning and her crop is very soft, almost like a half full water balloon. So, I did more research... I'm thinking it could be Coccidiosis, but I'm not sure. There are a few chickens who've had bloody droppings, but that, to me, is normal because I have the 3 that just started laying, similar to the my first 3 when they first started, there were a couple strange droppings. Should I be worried about this? Should I quarantine her for a few days/week? Should I get her some antibiotics?

 

[Buffygirl]

If she is molting she might just be a little "off" from that. Bloody poo is NEVER good, but if it goes away without any incidents, no harm done.

Since your birds are molting, and feathers need protein to grow, you should take your birds off of the layer food and try feeding them a higher protein feed until the molt is finished. This will speed the molt. If you use Purina, flock raiser is the right stuff.

Some chickens take a molt better than others. Some might act like nothing is wrong, and some may become lethargic.

Since you said her crop felt full of water, try giving her something to eat. Oatmeal, yogurt with crumble mixed in, or soggy corn flakes are always a yummy treat.

If this has nothing to do with the molt(and it might not), sour crop is a possibility. Sour crop is when the bird does not eat enough grit, which can cause a blockage in their crop. This can be fixed easily and is not contagious. All you need to do is mix together yogurt, crumble, and chick grit to make a mash. Feed it to her. As long as you give her this often enough to keep her crop full, and if she is drinking water, she should heal perfectly.