sick hen / symptoms of poisoning?

[bleuquila]

Hi all, I have a sick hen

She is a 21 week old Cuckoo Maran, I got her with 2 others pullets of the same age. The sick one, Darlene has not started laying, the other two have been laying one started last week, one yesterday.

I noticed on Saturday that when I went out to check on them in the morning, she was no where to be found! I panicked a while, but eventually found her sitting under a bush. She didn't come to get treats, and seems to be ill - will walk but very slowly. No energy to get up on a roost. Shows no interest in eating anything, not even scratch. Is drinking water. Not talking.

She has liquid dribbles coming out of her vent, mostly white in color. I haven't seen her pass anything solid. I don't have a pen to keep her seperate indoors where I can watch her but I'm going to try and find some way to keep her apart.

Possibilities: Might have drank some bad water that had algae in it?
Might have gotten something moldy out of the compost pile? [what symptoms would that manifest as?]
Might be egg bound?
Crop problems?

I'm new at this, so I am not completely confident I felt the right places, looking for a stuck egg, but I tried and didn't feel anything.

What steps should I be taking to either treat likely things, or narrow it down farther?

I can try and find a place for her to rest apart and get special care, and should I feed:

ACV in water?
yogurt?
vitamin mash?
antibiotics?
I could also try a warm bath and warm towels, if it is egg problems (based on her size compared to the other 2 I would really have expected her to start laying by now)

hmm,, thoughts?

 

[robin416]

My first thought is an egg problem. If you'll grab one of the other girls and use her as a test subject you might notice a difference in the girl that is down.

This is what I do when I want to palpate a bird's abdomen.

I get down on the floor with the bird in front of me. I press lightly from just below the rib cage all the way down her center line, moving outwards slightly. If she flinches or cries then you know you've found a tender spot.

If you find her tummy is bigger, harder, softer than the example bird then you'll know its probably egg related.

 

[bleuquila]

Thanks Robin, I will give her a warm bath tonight and clean her up (nasty trails down her rear feathers) and try and feel around again. If she had egg remains inside of her, as opposed to a whole egg, what should I do? I saw some liquidy poos (though I don' t know from who) that looked pretty much like a yellow yolk.