Sick or just old.... Or both

[Just2chickens]

I have a ex-battery white leghorn hen about 4,5 years old. She has a foot that never healed properly while at her former 'home' so she cant curl her toes and therefore walks with a limp. She had bumblefoot a couple times because of it.
Till a month ago she layed eggs almost every day, just not while molting. Then 1 day she layed a softshelled egg... And afterwarts she was miserable... Slept a lot, diarea, not eating much... Because she was dirty I gave her a bath, and some aspirine. I did that for 2 days and she slowely recovered, began laying after 5 days... But softshelled eggs, so I gave her calcium, vit. D and in this tablet were also vit.K and folic acid. She began laying normal eggs again... Normally she is very serious about her calcium, every day she searches at the same time for it, in eggsshells or oistershell, even snailshells, when she doesn't find it she asks for it... But not after this... So I kept giving calcium, after a while she began to search for it again, and she didn't want to eat the yoghurt I gave her the calcium in... She would eat it if it was just the yoghurt... It's the pro-biotic kind, so I give it to her, happy that she still wants it .
Everything went back to normal... She layed her egg almost every day.... Till Sunday.. And since Monday it's the same, no eggs, diarea, very pikky about what she eats, eating very little, but also and this is new she sleeps a lot, she is very allert, cleans herself, but she just sits, sleeps, when I see her like that I think she's dying and then in the evening she gets up, drinks, eats a little... Takes a sandbath and goes to bed.... She walk like she always does then, but not so far (still about 600 feet a day from the coop to where she wants to sit in the shade, it's summer and this week about 80/82 degrees)
Also every day around the hottest hours she sits back on her hocks/butt, but just for a few minutes.... But it concerns me.. I checked her over, no external parasites, don't know about worms, There's no vett here.... and no antibiotics, even a dewormer is a problem... so I try to keep it under control with garlic in the yoghurt ( a teaspoon of yoghurt with fresh garlic every day ) and I clean the run amd coop every day... her body feels normal, no swelling no stuck egg... like it always did, and she is a lapp-chicken so I check her every day... They eat a layerfeed, its whole grains but together it's al chickens need, so every week or so I grind the feed so they eat all of it... I think it's low in protein(11%), so we give a teaspoon of catfood- and sometimes some meat when we eat it... And they freerange every day, all day... So every bug or plant they want they can eat... She is very good at knowing what she can't eat...
Any idea what's wrong with her ?

 

[azygous]

Your hen probably has a massive reproductive disorder, as evidenced by the yellow poop. It may be infection, but I'm betting that she's laying internally. This is where, for some reason, usually stress, yolks backtrack up the oviduct and spill into the abdominal cavity. This can cause infection eventually, but treating the infection won't cure her if she's laying internally. Surgery to clean her out might. Having an implant installed to prevent further ovulation could buy her another year or two, but it's terribly expensive and an avian vet is required.

If you have access to any antibiotics, you could try treating her for infection, but in my opinion, things have likely already progressed too far for a full recovery.

 

[Morrigan]

Your hen probably has a massive reproductive disorder, as evidenced by the yellow poop

I agree. It's a sad truth that today's hens, particularly high production hens, are prone to reproductive problems and it is a rare production hen that makes it as long as yours has.

I would keep giving her the supportive care you already are doing and keep a close eye out to see if the quality of her life declines to the extent it would be a kindness to put her down.

I'll only add that sometimes a hen will surprise you. I had an sussex that developed what I thought was going to be fatal reproductive disorder at 4 years old. Soft-shelled eggs followed by diarrhea and lethargy. I didn't have access to antibodies, so I watched and waited, expected to have to cull her. But she bounced back. She has maybe laid 2 eggs since then, but is now 6 1/2 now and still very energetic. I know something is amiss inside her, but she still seems to have a good quality life.

Whatever happens, know that you gave her a very good and long life, particularly for a ex-battery hen.

 

[Just2chickens]

Thank you both for your answers, I was afraid that some day she would get this kind of problems, beying a production breed... I lost 2 isa browns to this, but it presented differently.... I'm very happy that she became as old as she is because she's the sweetest hen, and because of her foot and because I had her alone for 9 months she is very attached to me and vice versa.( the other Hen died and I couldn't get her a new friend because of lockdowns)
I will keep her as comfortable as possible, today she has spend for the most part sitting on my lap, eating some sunflowerseeds fresh from the garden.
Thank you very much for helping me....