Sickly hen

[Spero]

Hi,
I have a 2yr old english silkie bantam/new Hampshire red mix hen named Zoe. Over the past 3 days she has been acting odd. She distances herself from the flock a lot (she does interact with them for a bit on and off), she doesn't want to want to eat the pellets (Dumor layer pellets) but she eats everything else. (Grass, bugs, cereal, fruits, etc) she hasn't layed an egg since the day her odd behavior began. She walks around slowly and picks at the grass. I haven't noticed her drink much and she has very watery diarrhea. Her breathing is fine too. She was totally fine the whole day until about early evening just this past Sunday. The only thing different is that I didn't get an egg from her that day. I also noticed her crop is usually very full even through the night but even when its not, she's not hungry. Can anyone help me figure out what's wrong with her and how to treat her? It was very sudden and none of the other chickens are sick. She was born and raised on my farm as free range and is otherwise healthy.

 

[BantamLover21]

If she suddenly stopped laying and is acting lethargic, I would suspect that she is egg bound. To check this, lubricate a gloved finger and insert it into her vent. Feel for anything hard--most likely a stuck egg. A few weeks ago, I had a Cochin hen act similar to the way yours is. She was lethargic, wasn't interested in eating much, and had really watery droppings. Egg binding never crossed my mind, and despite my best efforts to save her, she died. I performed a necropsy and, much to my surprise, found an egg stuck in her. It appeared to have been there for several days, and was covered in several layers of egg yolk that have been released from the ovary after it got stuck.

If not egg binding, her enlarged crop could be the problem. I'd read up on subjects like sour crop or impacted crop. I'm not sure about the treatment for sour crop, but for impacted crop, I would give her some oil (mineral or olive oil works fine) and gently massage her crop to break up any blockage.

Good luck!