Sluggish hen and brown rusty colored droppings everywhere. this a 2fer

[bigj]

One of my younger hens cant seem to make it from rung to rung on the roost at the end of the day. She isnt old enough to be laying eggs yet but is almost fully grown. Ive been watching her in the yard and for the past few days she seems to be a little slugish and clumsy. Nothing alarming untill I had to start helping her past the 1st rung on the roost. She tries but falls short and will eventually just sleep on the coop floor unless helped. Ive also been seeing alot more brown runny rust colored droppings in the coop and yard. It seems these are being made by a majority of my flock now. Not EVERY time but alot more frequently than usual. No blood visible in the droppings and acording to some info I came across while doing a google image search for healthy chicken poop these droppings are "Ceacal - These are produced from the caecum of the chicken and are mustard to dark brown froth. They are expelled every 8 to 10 droppings". Any thoughts? I can post pics if needed. I have a batch under my broody hen (whos droppings seem normal) and im concerned about the chicks being born into a coop with a bug going around.

 

[bigj]

Put the bird down due to what seemed like total paralysis. Everyone else seems fine so I guess the droppings were just my paranoid tendencies kicking in.

 

[oesdog]

Was going to say your chick may have a vitamin difficiency and to try extra Vit B1 and B2 - But since you killed her I guess you don;t need that info now -

Oesdog - Hope the others are ok for you.

 

[TipsyDog]

Here's a great site that could help identify poop problems. http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

Sorry you lost her, but maybe it could help with some other issue in the future. Keep an eye on your other girls, just to be sure it wasn't something contagious.