Sick Hen- Lethargic, no appetite

mkknney

Hatching
Apr 15, 2025
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About 3 weeks ago, our 2 year old hen, Rory, had a prolapsed vent that had been severely pecked. We soaked her and pushed it back in. After her soak, she vomited a lot, so I treated for sour crop. I withheld food, then gave ACV in her water, yogurt and scrambled eggs. She perked up, so we waited a couple days before putting her back with the flock. She stayed in the coop for a couple days, but then returned to normal behavior. A few days later, she was weak and vomiting again. I repeated the sour crop treatment, but she did not improve. Since then, I tried an epsom salt soak (did not feel an egg), Poultry Cell for a couple days then tried Corid for 4 days - no improvement.

Her current symptoms are lethargy, ruffled feathers, drinking a lot, clear watery poops, weight loss, no appetite (she will eat a few bites of scrambled eggs/mash if I hold it up to her). She can stand and walk a few steps, but seems very weak. She has not laid since the prolapse (3 weeks). Her vent is clean and not swollen. The rest of the flock appears to be in good health.
 
Well, she is still alive! She seemed to be barely hanging on this morning… not even reacting to us at all-just sitting with her eyes closed. I started miconazole treatment since her crop was squishy and not fully emptying. Today I manually fed her some eggs and yogurt since she hasn’t been eating hardly at all for a week. I started to massage around her belly to see if I could feel an egg and once I started massaging her, she opened her eyes and started gobbling the scrambled eggs right up. As soon as I stop massaging, she immediately falls asleep- sometimes with food still in her mouth. I’m not sure what this could indicate?
 
Well, she is still alive! She seemed to be barely hanging on this morning… not even reacting to us at all-just sitting with her eyes closed. I started miconazole treatment since her crop was squishy and not fully emptying. Today I manually fed her some eggs and yogurt since she hasn’t been eating hardly at all for a week. I started to massage around her belly to see if I could feel an egg and once I started massaging her, she opened her eyes and started gobbling the scrambled eggs right up. As soon as I stop massaging, she immediately falls asleep- sometimes with food still in her mouth. I’m not sure what this could indicate?
Poor girl! I hope she'll recover!
That's good you started the miconazole, since it does sound like she's having crop issues. Keep up feeding the yogurt and egg, those are both good for her and she needs to be eating.
So you massaged the abdomen, underneath the vent behind the legs? Not the crop? I'm not sure what that could mean.

In addition to the miconazole, you might want to try giving her coconut oil and doing crop massages several times a day. She could have a blockage, which leads to sour crop.
 

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