Something’s wrong... please help!!! She’s very lethargic, with messy poop on her butt... I don’t know what to do.

[Sunshine Chick]

My Plymouth Rock female, about a year old, has been very lethargic since yesterday. She wanted to lay around when everyone else was busy scratching and pecking like normal. She wanted to stay away from the others. This morning, she has messy poop on her butt, and she’s half-asleep in one of the nesting boxes. She doesn’t want to leave it. What could this be? What should I try? I’m thinking seperate her, give her antibiotics, and pray... give her electrolytes in her water... what else can I try? Yesterday she drank water without being prompted, and her crop felt full, so she was eating alright. But by evening she was laying around a lot, and she didn’t want to go to bed until I physically carried her into the coop... then she flew up onto a perch.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Sorry you face this and your gal is unwell.

My top two suggestions for your to search are.. Egg binding, and sour or blocked crop..

How is her crop this morning after sleeping all night BEFORE access to feed or water?

When was her last egg?

 

[Sunshine Chick]

Sorry you face this and your gal is unwell.

My top two suggestions for your to search are.. Egg binding, and sour or blocked crop..

How is her crop this morning after sleeping all night BEFORE access to feed or water?

When was her last egg?

Thank you so much for replying... I didn’t expect a reply that quickly! I went to town and got some vetRx and backyard chicken zyfend for her. Before access to feed and water, I don’t know. When I got to her later this morning (around 10:00am) she had a decently full crop. Last night it was very full. Her last egg, as far as I know, was anywhere from 1-3 days ago. I have 3 Plymouth rocks, and have been getting 2-3 eggs from them each day. For the past few days it’s been 2 eggs. She has been drinking of her own free will, but appears to have lost interest in eating. I haven’t offered her anything either, but she isn’t getting up to look for food. She is definitely worse than this morning. She won’t get up at all. She does respond to me as I move around her and touch her, but she doesn’t respond as much or for as long.

 

[hannah and the chickens]

I'm so sorry, too. I hope your girl gets better soon!
If you can, check the sick chicken over head to toe. I always try to feel the crop, the belly and around the butt (I know that can be gross, I usually try to find a pair of gloves if the chicken has a messy butt). Feel for an unusually hard crop and hard belly. If you aren't sure whether what you're feeling is normal, grab a second chicken to compare. Sometimes, having a second person to hold the chicken while you do the doctoring helps!

I'm not familiar with the medicines you mentioned, the first one is one against respiratory issues and the second is a dewormer?

In the picture, your chicken's poop looked a bit green-ish. Did you feed them anything that could cause such a colour? Otherwise, that colour could be a sign to what's wrong. One of my hens had a bacterial infection a while ago and her poop was bright green.

If you can, take the hen to a vet who is familiar with chickens. Make sure that she's eating something (if she doesn't seem to have an appetite, try some treats like boiled potatoes, pasta...). Depending on how she's doing right now, you might want to think about taking her inside for extra warmth or so that you can pay her more attention than outside with the others. If she's still attentive (looking what the others are doing, walking a bit ....), I'd put that off for now though.

 

[Sunshine Chick]

I'm so sorry, too. I hope your girl gets better soon!
If you can, check the sick chicken over head to toe. I always try to feel the crop, the belly and around the butt (I know that can be gross, I usually try to find a pair of gloves if the chicken has a messy butt). Feel for an unusually hard crop and hard belly. If you aren't sure whether what you're feeling is normal, grab a second chicken to compare. Sometimes, having a second person to hold the chicken while you do the doctoring helps!

I'm not familiar with the medicines you mentioned, the first one is one against respiratory issues and the second is a dewormer?

In the picture, your chicken's poop looked a bit green-ish. Did you feed them anything that could cause such a colour? Otherwise, that colour could be a sign to what's wrong. One of my hens had a bacterial infection a while ago and her poop was bright green.

If you can, take the hen to a vet who is familiar with chickens. Make sure that she's eating something (if she doesn't seem to have an appetite, try some treats like boiled potatoes, pasta...). Depending on how she's doing right now, you might want to think about taking her inside for extra warmth or so that you can pay her more attention than outside with the others. If she's still attentive (looking what the others are doing, walking a bit ....), I'd put that off for now though.

About the medicines, that is correct.
I felt around her rear and belly, and while feeling around her rear she suddenly struggled and acted very uncomfortable. She couldn’t get up, but she tried to. Her crop felt mostly empty, maybe bloated with air some, I can’t tell... her stomach and her crop did not feel hard. I’m going to get another chicken to compare, just to make sure.
She is leaking brown fluid from her beak now, and when I picked her up, she did let loose a lot more diarrhea. Attached are pictures of both. Her poop is green.
I’m afraid to feed her, in case she has a blockage somewhere... I’m going to feed her some yogurt, when I do feed her. They all love yogurt, and I’ve read it can help if the problem is sour crop. The probiotics would be good for her, and it’s soft food.
She is inside right now, on a soft cushion covered with plastic bed pads, covered with towels. She’ll be moved into the bathtub tonight, laid on top of layers of towels.
Her breathing seems a bit more labored now, but no wheezing or anything like that.

Update: a few other hens have varying degrees of diarrhea. I am going to treat all of them.

 

[Sunshine Chick]

She passed away at 1:15am. I was able to hold her and keep her comfortable, and she passed quietly.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm sorry you lost your hen. If you can double-bag her body and refrigerate it (don't freeze) you can send it in for a necropsy and find out what she died of. This may help protect the rest of your flock.

 

[AprilsZoo]

So sorry.
Since you mentioned the others having diarrhea, I’d suggest going ahead & lubing a gloved finger and feeling inside her vent—just to check that she wasn’t egg-bound.

It’s probably more likely that they‘ve eaten something that disagreed with her worse than the others (are they free-ranged?)... but I think it’s still worth checking out.

Again I’m sorry she passed.

ETA: Bluehen has a point... necropsy can be useful. This would be done thru your state’s vet lab. I think there’s a sticky in this forum with web links for each state.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@Wyorp Rock should know where the nearest lab is in your area to send it in. Perhaps she can respond in the morning to let you know.

 

[Sunshine Chick]

Thank you, all of you. She was not free-ranged, she was kept in a large 33’ by 33’ pen with 9 other chickens. I fed them all scratch grains. This one (along with 2 others) was moved over here one week and 3 days ago from my uncle’s. She has more room, and far more ventilation, then she had over there, so she shouldn’t have had much issue... but she had been pecked at terribly around her comb 3 days prior to getting sick, so maybe that stress made her susceptible to a problem?

My uncle also fed them laying mash instead of scratch grains, so one thing I should have done is switch over to the laying mash so that was one less stresser on their system (new food), and gradually changed the ratio until they were eating the same as my current flock.

What’s weird is, the 2 other Plymouth rocks I got from him aren’t showing any signs of diarrhea or anything like that. It’s some of my own hens who are. So... It makes me think it was a virus his birds weren’t used to, or something like that. Because if it was the food, my own birds would have become sick, wouldn’t they? And the 2 other Plymouths would have gotten sick first. But my birds were fine when I switched their food over.

I know there are a lot of folks that say you shouldn’t feed them more than 15% scratch grains, or scraps, or anything like that, but I know folks who only feed their birds whole sunflowers, kernels of corn, oats, and something else, with kelp mixed in for vitimins and minerals, and they THRIVE, so I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal if I did.
I don’t feed the minerals though... I need to get the minerals. Anyways, I’m switching back to layer crumbles until everyone feels better, then I’ll see what I should do from there.