I have this little hen named Magnolia. She hatched august of 2021. She is a very small bantam and is at the bottom of the command chain in my flock. Yesterday I noticed she didn’t go up to roost but instead slept in the nesting box overnight which is very unusual for her. When I picked her up to asses her in the morning. She is so incredibly thin I can’t believe it. I picked her up a couple months ago and she was a pretty perfect weight. Her feathers are very dull but I thought that was just due to moulting . Most of my flock is goes through a hard moult at this time of year so I didn’t think twice about her feather conditioning. She is still quite interested in food and her crop seems to be working normally. It’s empty by morning until she gets breakfast. She happily plods around the yard through the day however she seems very weak today she almost lost her balance when there was a gust of wind. I’m assuming she’s so weak because she’s so thin. She doesn’t have a runny bum and I can’t see any evidence of bugs of any kind. Does anyone know what could cause her to become so thin and weak all of a sudden. Could it just be that she’s not getting enough access to the food due to the other chooks bossing her around or does it seem like there’s an underlying illness?
So far I have separated her, started her on a higher protein pellet and given her some boiled egg and oats. I have also added electrolytes and vitamin b complex to her water. Not sure what else to do for her.
