Sick Hen, Limping, not eating/drinking

Three Little Chickens

In the Brooder
Dec 1, 2021
17
14
44
Hello BYC forum. My Light Sussex hen (Everest) who is 6 months old, has been quite lethargic over the past few days and not very interested in food/water/scraps ect. Today she started limping and so I inspected her legs and there’s no sign of bumble foot, scaly leg mites or any other visible ailments. Her legs are normally pinkish-cream but they have a red tinge to them now. Her comb has gone from red to a darker, almost purple colour. Her tail feathers are all droopy as well. The only thing she’s eaten so far today is a few mealworms, she even struggled to eat those and kept dropping them and trying again.

She’s been separated into the ‘med bay’ run, and has some soft bedding, food and water. The water has vitamin C in it to boost her immune system and help her with whatever is going on.

Sorry there are no pictures of her, It’s raining very heavily and I can’t take any. If anyone would like pictures just let me know and I’ll get some when I can 😊

Any help or advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance 😊🙂
 
Hello BYC forum. My Light Sussex hen (Everest) who is 6 months old, has been quite lethargic over the past few days and not very interested in food/water/scraps ect. Today she started limping and so I inspected her legs and there’s no sign of bumble foot, scaly leg mites or any other visible ailments. Her legs are normally pinkish-cream but they have a red tinge to them now. Her comb has gone from red to a darker, almost purple colour. Her tail feathers are all droopy as well. The only thing she’s eaten so far today is a few mealworms, she even struggled to eat those and kept dropping them and trying again.

She’s been separated into the ‘med bay’ run, and has some soft bedding, food and water. The water has vitamin C in it to boost her immune system and help her with whatever is going on.

Sorry there are no pictures of her, It’s raining very heavily and I can’t take any. If anyone would like pictures just let me know and I’ll get some when I can 😊

Any help or advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance 😊🙂
Has she been laying? Is her stance wide set? Is her abdomen feel large at all? The purple/bluish comb can be a sign of congestive heart failure, which can be caused by pressure on her organs from internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis. So you need to examine her lower abdomen, and see if it is distended.
 
Has she been laying? Is her stance wide set? Is her abdomen feel large at all? The purple/bluish comb can be a sign of congestive heart failure, which can be caused by pressure on her organs from internal laying/egg yolk peritonitis. So you need to examine her lower abdomen, and see if it is distended.
No, she hasn‘t started laying yet. Her stance is normal (other than the limp). I just checked her abdomen, no change in how she looked a few weeks ago and doesn‘t seem inlarged at all . She seems better than when I checked her a few hours ago. Shes been sleeping the whole time and was a little less wobbly when I locked her up for the night 🙂

Thanks for the help, I’ll go re-search some stuff on congestive heart failure in case I ever in counter it in my flock! 😄
 

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