Sick hen, stumped 🤔

[smopey]

Hi everyone,

I apologize ahead of time if this is long. I have a 4 year old cream legbar who has been acting funny and I can’t figure out how to treat her.

Last Wednesday I threw out some treats to my chickens and noticed she wasn’t going for them like she usually does. I felt her crop and noticed it was full and squishy, and then when I went to pick her up, some liquid came out of her beak that smelled like vinegar. I started giving her Monistat (2x a day for 5 days) and her crop seemed to be functioning better. But she still wasn’t super interested in food (mash, scrambled eggs) or water.

A few days ago I noticed she kept squatting like she was going to poop but nothing was coming out. Maybe 1 out of 10 squats would contain a small poop (mostly pasty white). I thought maybe she was egg bound so I gave her some yogurt with a crushed up tums, coconut oil (which she ate a decent amount of) and an epsom salt bath. After the bath she pooped and there was some yellow shiny stuff in it (pic attached). I wasn’t sure if that was from the coconut oil or if it was egg yolk, so I decided to bring her to the vet. The vet checked her and said he didn’t feel any eggs so he didn’t think she was egg bound. He said her temperature was normal and there wasn’t anything “obviously wrong with her.” I brought her home and put her in the coop and she started eating her food like normal. I watched her on my camera and she went to roost with the other chickens just fine. This morning I checked on her and she’s back to being lethargic, just standing puffed up or laying down. I tried to give her some yogurt and coconut oil and she wasn’t interested in either. I did see her pecking around and checking out the nesting box earlier. So I’m still not sure if it’s an egg issue or not. My other chickens are acting fine besides inconsistent laying and I think one of my girls laid a soft shell egg (pic attached) the yesterday or today. It’s been very hot here lately, in the high 80s and 90s.

Any advice is welcomed and appreciated!! Thank you in advance!

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

 

[Eggcessive]

Does she normally lay eggs? Could she have passed the egg membrane? If she had an egg break inside or is having shell-less eggs, she probably feels lousy. The yellow urates in her dropping are abnormal, and could be liver problems secondary to a reproductive disorder, cancer, or ascites (water belly.) Her crop problem may be related to a reproductive disorder as well, but various things can cause pressure inside the abdomen which slows digestion. I would try to get her drinking some fluids, repeat the coconut oil daily, and try some Monistat cream or Mediatatin powder in water twice a day given orally. Here is a good article to read about crop problems:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[smopey]

Does she normally lay eggs? Could she have passed the egg membrane? If she had an egg break inside or is having shell-less eggs, she probably feels lousy. The yellow urates in her dropping are abnormal, and could be liver problems secondary to a reproductive disorder, cancer, or ascites (water belly.) Her crop problem may be related to a reproductive disorder as well, but various things can cause pressure inside the abdomen which slows digestion. I would try to get her drinking some fluids, repeat the coconut oil daily, and try some Monistat cream or Mediatatin powder in water twice a day given orally. Here is a good article to read about crop problems:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Thank you, I will check it out! I don’t think she laid the softshell egg. She lays blue eggs and the softshell one looked brown like my australorp’s eggs. She hasn’t laid an egg in at least 10 days. She was always a good layer.

 

[Eggcessive]

If you could get a picture of some more droppings, that might help.

 

[smopey]

If you could get a picture of some more droppings, that might help.

Most of them look like this or more white and pasty.