So skinny!

[Bring]

I have an EE hen that is about 15 wks old. She Is SOOOO skinny. her eyes are sunken and there is no meat on her breast bone and her crop is completely empty. I've seen her eat. In fact just today she got ahold of a huge grasshopper. I have my girls, and one boy on complete layers feed. She's been this way for almost a week. When i seperate her from the others and offer her food she only cares about getting back in with the rest of the chickens. What do I do?? Do you think an illness could be the culpret? She has no signs of illness. No runny nose, sneezing, or coughing. Don't want her to die. What do i do?

 

[caralouise1974]

This is interesting, although I'm not sure I can help you much, I have a similar situation and share your concern. My BO, Henrietta, is a beloved pet, and she's fading before our eyes.

She's now ten months old and extremely skinny from a long spell of broodiness during which she was also terribly besieged by mites. We got rid of the mites over three weeks ago and she's in much better condition, (redder around the face and comb and with a lot more energy) but still rather disinterested in eating. She will catch bugs (although she gives almost all of them to her chick) and eats tons of grass and greenery, but is almost totally disinterested in other types of food. I haven't felt her with a full crop since the hatch. It's always either completely flat or just a little grainy, with a few sunflower seeds in it (which I feed to her by hand, as it's pretty much all she will eat, and only then if it is right under her nose). I'm worried that if she doesn't start eating a bit more soon, we'll lose her.

Thing is, she's always been a bit of a fussy eater, and I suspect she's had something not quite right with her all along. She laid lovely medium eggs, five days a week, before she went broody, but never really got plump and filled out like I thought a laying hen should. (In contrast, her coop-pal Bella, a Marans hybrid, is totally solid, and eats like a total pig. If anything, she's overweight!)

I wonder if some hens are a little anorexic, for no particular reason? It's sad, but perhaps they're never going to thrive, no matter how much we cosset and coddle them.

 

[chickenlady]

Worms and cocci can cause this to happen. You can have a vet do a fecal exam to diagnose both. Both can kill.

 

[Bring]

my neighbor, who I got this hen from, brought over some chick starter and scratch mix. It's what she's been eating over there. She ate it like there was no tomorrow. I think my problem was that I changed her diet too drastically. Honestly, I didn't even think about the feed change. I feed my girls complete layers feed.

 

[chickenzoo]

If it's worms, they will be slowly starving her. If she is that skinny, she probably does. Either Coccidia or worms

 

[purpletree23]

Mystery solved and a lot of us learned a good lesson. WHEW! I'm glad you found out what is wrong and now she will be a plump happy girl!!

 

[Bring]

I will continue to moniter her just to be sure that is yhe problem. When she was done eating her crop was bigger. Still wasn't all the way full, but bigger than I've ever seen it.

 

[caralouise1974]

Glad your girl is sorted out.

Chickens are quirky creatures aren't they?

My fussy girl is rather more of a mystery, as we haven't changed her feed recently, and have a regular worming programme in place, using ivermectin and flubenvet. We also dust the birds and housing regularly for lice and mites. In fact the way we treated her for the recent mites was using ivomec pour on, only three weeks ago, so I doubt its worms or external parasites.

However, if she had cocci, how long would it take to make itself known? She's ten months old and I've never seen any bloody poop from her, or our other hen, ever. Could she have had it all along and show no symptoms other than reduced appetite?

Sorry to hijack your thread Bring!

 

[chickenzoo]

Coocidia is everywhere in the ground, and you don't have to have a young bird to get it or see bloody poop. Often bloody poop is seen after damage is being done. Ravenous eating is often a sign, followed by sleeping off to a corner etc. Wild birds, bringing in a new bird that may have it or simply being on the ground, sometimes not even that. There are many types of coccidia. Chickens in a closed flock often get immune to the type that they are exposed to and keep it at bay. Adding a new bird that has a different form, wild birds etc. or baby chicks with less immunity can cause it to spread. Corid is a very good anti-coccidia med. It is the same as what is put in medicated feed, just a higher dose. Medicated feed however does not mean your birds will not get coccidia. It depends on exposure.

 

[Bring]

Quote:
No worries!