sick or old? broody!

[fun monitor]

One of our hens is sick and I can't figure out what is going on to be able to treat her. Right now she's in a cage in the garage.

-age unknown.
-bantam OEG
-have been fighting scaly leg mites with vaseline, never completely gone away but has definitely improved
-has been laying shell-less eggs for about 4 months
-bald on head, not from roosters
-comb/wattle/skin on head are dark, anywhere from red to near black at times
-yesterday and today, not wanting to leave the coop, staying inside while the others are out
-decreased appetite, about 2 tsp of chick mash mixed with water in the past 12 hours

She's the only one allowed to free range in hopes that it would improve her health and that the others would leave her alone while she laid her shell-less eggs. (they take a long time to lay) She gets plenty of sun and a varied diet - she was our first so she gets first dibs on scraps and worms, plus tons of those huge green fig beetles.

No signs of being egg bound. She lays about twice a week and her last one was about two days ago. I had another hen go egg bound so I'm familiar with the signs.

I'm willing to pull out the big guns in terms of treatment if it will help. If she's beyond help, I need to know that too.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bangor777]

maybe the mites need more aggressive treatment? Sorry, I'm not much help. just thought the balding might be related to the mite infestation. hope someone chimes in. I'm guessing she has access to oyster shell for calcium? Good luck to you!

 

[Jennyhaschicks]

Worms? I know my pigs are prone to getting mites after we found out they had worms. One pig was smaller than the rest and had the mites. She also wasn't eating much and was sleeping a lot.
I don't know too much about chicken since I am new, but my guess would be worms.

 

[fun monitor]

Hm...I agree...probably something parasitic. I think I'll treat her mites with Ivomectin and see what happens next. Thanks for your help!

 

[fun monitor]

Guess what? Not sick - broody! I finally noticed that she gets up once a day to eat/drink/dust and when I open the little coop to check on her, she makes broody noises at me, but what really gave it away was the noise she made at my husband.

Yep, broody! Thank heavens since we're dealing with the pox on all the other ones...