Sick, Lethargic, Thin Chicken

[mrstillery09]

Hey everyone! I hope someone can help me out here. I have an almost 3 year old leghorn who has some type of an issue. Sometime last week I noticed her hunched and ruffled outside by the door to her coop. It was a super cold blustery day, and there were one or two other chickens with her so I thought maybe it was just the cold. This weekend I noticed her out with all the other chickens, but they were foraging an she was just ruffled and pretty still. Later that day I noticed she had yellow poo on some feathers. So Tuesday we wormed everyone, hoping maybe it was just worms. This morning she was hiding under nest boxes, but came out when I went into the coop. She drank some water, and had a little food. I was thinking maybe she was feeling better. This evening everyone had put themselves up but she was outside still. She's never been the last one in, and at first thought maybe she was blind. But she moved towards the coop and seemed to navigate ok. I ended up just picking her up to feel her over and put her up on the roost. She felt extremely thin. She's always been small anyway, but she is obviously in some type of trouble. What are your thoughts and opinions? I was thinking of getting some antibiotics to see if that would help her out, but I hate not knowing what I'm treating for.

 

[Eggcessive]

What dewormer did you use? Some such as Wazine will only treat roundworm, while chickens can have several other types. Is she laying eggs? She could possibly be suffering from egg yolk peritonitis or internal laying if the yellow in her stools could have been egg yolk or a cooked egg appearance. Does she sit or lie down a lot, or wobble like a penguin when she walks?

 

[mrstillery09]

We used ivermectin. She has not been laying eggs, but no one else is either. I had just figured it was due to the darker days! The yellow poo doesn't really look like egg, almost more like a pale yellow, like butter. She is not sitting or waddling, just slower moving. I did also notice her comb has flopped over more. But I know older leghorns have floppier combs so I don't know if that means anything!

 

[Eggcessive]

Ivermectin is not as effective against worms in poultry because worms have built up resistance to it from it's overuse in the past. A more effective wormer is Valbazen 1/2 ml given orally to each chicken, and then repeated in 10 days. It gets all worms in chickens. Yellow poop is very abnormal, and could be from E. coli or egg yolk peritonitis. Blackhead in turkeys can have bright yellow stools, but it rarely affects chickens. If a vet is possible, you could take a very fresh sample in to be tested for serious worms or coccidiosis. A good antibiotic such as amoxicillin, Tylan, or chlortetracycline would treat many intestinal infections including enteritis. A vet would have even stronger ones to offer.

 

[chickenstar]

Hi, this sounds like yolk stroke possibly a soft shelled egg rupturing inside of her , being as she is a 3 year old leghorn it high possibility and I whould go straight to a vet with her , she needs very powerfull antibiotics , maybe even a cocktail of baytril plus clavamox then a desorelin implant to stop her laying cycle its the only way to help her and if you caint do this then putting her down is the kindest and most decent thing you can do because this condition is soo painfull for your hen imagine having rotten yolk sitting inside of you and you will understand how cruel it whould be for her to die from this