Squishy crop

[blue fire]

Yes and she also expresses her "healthyness" by flinging grit around

, she did eat some though. She is taking a nap now.

 

[eggchel]

Hey bluefire,

Im sorry that your hen is doing poorly. Hopefully it was something she ate and she will feel better soon.

Washing the white poo off her butt is a good idea, however you dont have to give her a full bath if you think that it will stress her too much. Just hold her butt next to the running water and slosh enough water on it to get the poo off. Sometimes if it is really dried hard, you can snip a feather or two to get a big chunk of poo to fall off. Wow, that sound icky, LOL.

As d.k. said, she should have calcium available to eat free choice. You can buy oyster shell at the feed or pet store. If you feed eggshells back to her, make sure that they are crunched up small so that she doesnt recognize them as eggs or she may learn to eat her own eggs.... a tough habit that is rarely broken.

Some people just rinse out the empty egg shells after breakfast

and other people bake them in the oven before crunching them up. Up to you.
Sometimes I hard boil older eggs and then mash them up, shell and all, and feed them back to the hens.

Here is a link to a good informative site on chicken illnesses where you can look up symptoms: http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm

How is your hen doing now?


Chel

 

[d.k]

* Thanks, Chel, for answer my call. I appreciate it.

 

[blue fire]

thanx

 

[allen wranch]

Your original post said her crop was squishy. Is it still ? Does the crop smell and does liquid come out of her mouth ?

 

[blue fire]

her crop is not squishy anymore. My mom thinks I should keep her outside, I don't want to disagree with her, but I want to do what is best for the chicken. should I keep her outside?

 

[d.k]

* I just re-read over our entire thread, blue fire, and I was reminded that you told me she's at the bottom of the pecking order-- I'm thinking that it's probable she's being bullied and was maybe even kept from the feed a bit. That would explain why her poo was white (bullying stress) AND why it didn't have normal form and color, too... And if she took some nibbles of the compost heap as well, and wasn't getting enuf oyster shell to form eggshells. . .

 

[blue fire]

Is there anything I can do about the bullying?

 

[d.k]

* Not a lot that I know of, truthfully-- I think your'e just going to have to keep an eye on her, ya know & if you ever see any wounds, take action to treat her and let her heal up b/f she goes back to the pen. I HAVE read some posts that say there are ways to keep the flock entertained so that they don't get overly bored, which can lead to serious pecking. You should search "entertaining chickens" or "bored chickens", or " pecking causes"-- something along those lines and see what you find-- o.k., bf??

 

[blue fire]

Don't think that would help much bc the bully hen, Harriet, is stuck to her like glue. I think Harriet dosn't know she is being mean. Just curious, would a rooster straighten this whole bully thing out?