UPDATED: sick hen lost quite a bit of weight.

[jasonm11]

Buffy does not seem to be doing any better today. we fed her scratch and some yogurt. But she is not eating or drinking much at all. Put her out in the yard to visit today and she did walk around a little, but seems very weak and lethargic. She seems very alert, just weak. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Firearia]

Hmm, I do not know what it is, but I can tell you I had a chicken that had green poop for a while but it did go away. Could she possibly be egg bound? I don't know much on that subject or how long a chicken can last with it. But I thought I'd throw it out there. Maybe someone can come a long and correct me or help me?

Do you have any pictures of Buffy?

 

[jasonm11]

I can get the wife to take a few and post them tonight.

 

[aymer]

i am not a chicken expert but this sounds like my bird when she had coccidiosis. i used corid to treat her and she is back to normal. do you have an aviary vet nearby? we brought a poo sample to ours to make the diagnosis.

i have a buffy who is sick too. i think it is worms...

 

[jasonm11]

We have been hand feeding Buffy a mixture of yogurt, applesauce and pedialite for the past few days. She was quite a bit fiestier this morning than she has been. When i fed her ths morning i felt her crop and it was squishy after being fed. I could not feel it before feeding her. I tried the scratch but she will not eat hardly anything on her own. i thought it better to use liquids in case she was having some type of blockage going on. I am still looking for ideas on what might be wrong with her. She is very alert but seems to have stopped eating altogether and her poo is dribbles of greenish hard rocky materieal. I am assuming that is the scratch and oyster shell she consumed last week.

 

[jasonm11]

she is not egg bound as far as i can tell. i checked with my finger last night and did not feel anything.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Sorry to hear this, hope she makes a full recovery. Sometimes they just get sick and we don't know why.

 

[jjthink]

So sorry to have to say this and run (late for meeting) but I honestly think her best chance at this point, if you are able, is an avian vet. Her situation is quite desperate now - emergency actually - and I think she is suffering and that you are going to lose her if more time is spent on trial and error (not that any of us could have done better on our own either).
JJ

 

[tammye]

I would caution you about worming a sick hen, the wormer can be harsh on them, unless of course you KNOW the problem is due to worms. Try some electrolyte solution and extra vitamin B12 and E will help give her some strenght. Hope she does ok

 

[Minniechickmama]

Jason,
Here is the proper way to check her crop for blockage or sour crop:
In the morning, before she eats anything, pick her up and feel her crop. It should be empty if what she is eating is going through. If it is semi-filled and squishy, tip her over with her head down, maybe even hold her by her shanks to do this, and feel it again and massage her crop. do this over an area that can get dirty or a garbage can or toilet if she is inside. If fluids come out that are discolored, and especially if it is smelly, then you have a crop issue. I had two at the same time get sour crop, then one became impacted. I had to do surgery on one and remove everything. The other one kept getting recurring problems and at 9-months and no eggs, she went to the big free range in the sky. The other one, I must have messed up the stitches and her crop perfed and got infected. But the point is, you should find out what is causing all of this. If it is not her crop, then start looking elsewhere. If it is her crop, she needs some oil, like olive oil, squirted down into her crop to help clear it. If it doesn't get cleared and you are feeding her things that will ferment, like grains, then you are not going to get rid of the problem.
If you find it is the crop and you do the oil, then only give her water with a little apple cider vinegar for about 3 days. Keep an eye on her droppings to see how things are looking as they come out. Then after about three days, feed her plain, natural, live culture yogurt. Then I would slowly reintroduce the grain (crumbles if you have them, they are easiest to digest) in the yogurt until you can put her back on her regular diet.
I think part of the problem with my two girls was that I didn't realize they were having an issue with their crops until they had been distented for so long that they were too stretched out to get back into working right. Funny thing was they were both Welsummers and the only ones I have had that have had that problem, and they came from the same breeder.
Personally, I don't think a chicken is worth the price it costs to go to an avian vet for something like sour crop. You will never get a hen to produce enough eggs to pay those kinds of bills and feed too. You are just as well of culling the bird then. That is just my own method of taking care of things.
I would see a vet if I suspected some contagious disease that I couldn't figure out. That to me is prudent so it does not get spread anywhere else and biocontamination is not spread beyond my own yard or to other birds in my own flock of possible.

Good luck. I hope you find your answer.