Sick Hen?

[Zen Hen Momma]

Update: I believe she has an impacted crop. She didn’t eat yesterday and today her crop feels like a golf ball, hard and lumpy. I have her inside, gave her some olive oil and tried to massage it but didn’t seem to do much. I’ll try the coconut oil I’ve read about on here and keep massaging through the day. Fingers crossed it works.

I have a 3YO black Sumatra hen who appears sick. She was normal yesterday and laid. Today she is laying around, sometimes with ruffled feathers face down. She’s drinking a lot and has runny looking chalky yellow poop (pale yellow not yolk colored). Nothing else I can detect. Her vent is pulsating but I can’t feel an egg so I don’t think she’s egg bound. She will walk some but she’s just not active like normal. She is a daily layer for a few months in season.

I have 2 3YOs and integrated 4 babies a few weeks ago (now 10 weeks old) so I don’t think it’s stress from that change. They are in a huge coop with a large outside dirt run and only free range about 30 minutes a day. Drinking water is changed daily and because of the chicks, I switched them to grower crumbles a few weeks ago but they have free choice oyster shells. I only give them occasional corn and black soldier fly larvae as treats but it’s usually to lure them back in after I clean. Coop litter is sand which is picked daily. It’s been in the mid 70s here, not hot by any means so I ruled out drinking too much from the heat. I’ve read it could be a multitude of things so I started with the easiest: no treats and added electrolytes and vitamins with probiotics to the water today. Other than that, any suggestions?

 

[Eggcessive]

How does her crop feel? Empty, full, hard, soft, or doughy? Does it empty by the early morning? Is her tail position up or down? Can you get a picture of her and her droppings? I would offer some fluids, Poultry NutriDrench or electrolytes, and some scrambled egg.

 

[Zen Hen Momma]

How does her crop feel? Empty, full, hard, soft, or doughy? Does it empty by the early morning? Is her tail position up or down? Can you get a picture of her and her droppings? I would offer some fluids, Poultry NutriDrench or electrolytes, and some scrambled egg.

Just added some pictures. She just started this today and her crop does feel full and somewhat hard. I did not think her tail was down but as you can see from the picture it is now. I’ll have to check in the morning to see what her crop feels like. She’s not eating, only drinking.

 

[Eggcessive]

Try some moistened mushy chicken feed and a little bit of scrambled egg. If you have any coconut oil, you can chill it and cut it into pieces for her to peck. That and a little crop massage in a downward motion, might help her to get things moving and empty her crop by the morning. Do you worm your chickens? If you suspect egg bound, human calcium citrate with vitamin d is good to give orally, 600 mg daily. That can increase muscle contraction.

 

[Zen Hen Momma]

Try some moistened mushy chicken feed and a little bit of scrambled egg. If you have any coconut oil, you can chill it and cut it into pieces for her to peck. That and a little crop massage in a downward motion, might help her to get things moving and empty her crop by the morning. Do you worm your chickens? If you suspect egg bound, human calcium citrate with vitamin d is good to give orally, 600 mg daily. That can increase muscle contraction.

She isn’t interested in food at all. She’s pecking some but it’s just bits of dirt and gravel. I don’t worm them. I don’t know if she is egg bound. I read they won’t eat or drink and she’s only drinking a lot.