Sick Hen: Not sure what's wrong

[Leo1]

One of my girls is sitting in a dark corner all fluffed up breathing a little heavily. She's moving slowly and has no interest in food. She was fine this morning. I don't think she's egg bound. I did notice a couple thin shelled eggs under the roosts no idea who they are from. They have limestone grit.
Any thoughts?
I've got no idea what's wrong with her.

 

[Suzie]

Please try to add more information..

How old is she?

Have you recently wormed your flock?

When did you last treat for lice/mites?

It would be prudent to isolate her and observe her behaviour... she should be kept in a warm place... feel her underside to ascertain if she may be egg bound...

Any further information would be helpful.....

 

[Leo1]

11 months
They are on herbal wormer, yes it does work.
No lice or mites and they have not been treated
I can't feel anything on her underside.
and there's really nothing more to tell, she's providing no additional information.
She is in the coop by herself at the moment. She was just sitting in the corner. When I left her after giving her a bath (which did not go well, she was very stressed), I turned the heater on in there, she ate a couple of pieces of corn out of her food, pecked at the ground a bit and was picking at her not quite dry feathers.She does tend to work really hard when she lays eggs, which aren't particularly large and is not the best of layers. She's fairly sporadic about it. She'll lay for a week or two and then stop for awhile. I don't notice any swelling or hardness on her abdomen.

 

[Suzie]

Thanks for the additional information... it may be an idea to give her some tuna fish or scrambled egg to add protein and encourage her to eat more.. maybe offer her oyster shell if you do not already give this to your hens...vitamin D is also good to help with egg shell formation and passing eggs...

Hopefully somebody else will chime in to offer more helpful advice...

Good luck!

 

[Leo1]

They have limestone grit for their calcium and I put Fertrell in their food. They may not be getting enough vit D with all the cloudy weather we've been getting. Can you always feel an egg if they are egg bound?

 

[Suzie]

I would suggest that it is difficult to know if they are egg bound... I have used KY to explore to see if I can establish if one of mine is egg bound.. that is while they are soaking in a bath of warm water...nothing seems apparent to me. I do however give them a small amount of vitamin D powder to aid them if that may be the case... is her vent pulsing by any chance? If so she is having some problems in passing an egg...

Hope this helps somewhat

 

[Leo1]

Her vent was pulsing, but it was after I tried to give her a bath, so I wasn't sure if had anything to do with the fact that she was wet. I'll have to try another bath tomorrow. She was really stressing out and flapping all over the place. I oiled her up, but since I couldn't feel anything I probably didn't get up far enough. She must have a small pelvis because she doesn't lay particularly large eggs. I guess it's a good thing she doesn't lay often, if she's going to be troubled like this. Egg bound was my first thought, but since I couldn't feel anything I wasn't sure. I just lost another girl yesterday to a mystery illness. She lived at my mother's, so different flock, but it's got me a little on edge when it comes to chicken sickness. Thanks for your help! Greatly appreciated!

 

[Suzie]

You are very welcome...see the post above by Nifty chicken.. symptoms are similar... warm baths are great for relaxing the chicken... hopefully she will pass any egg that may be giving her the symptoms you describe