nicolemc
Chirping
- Feb 22, 2012
- 11
- 1
- 79
My Buff Orp hen has been very ill for about 5 days that I know of. I was told that she was 11 months old when I got her in February but that is questionable. She has only laid 3 eggs over the course of 6 months. She had scaly legs that I have tried to clear up to no avail. She also has some sort of growth on her side, down near her leg. The feathers just dangle there. Aside from all of that, she has always behaved normally. 5 days ago I saw that she was alone, standing under the coop with her tail drooping when the rest of the flock were let out to free range. She finally went out just before I fed them, and did not return with the others to eat. I took some food to her, and she ignored it. That evening I found her close to where she was when I offered her food, and she was perched on a ladder. I picked her up and her breast bone was very prominent and she was very light. I put her in the coop to roost with the others. I noticed about a week ago that she was choosing to roost on a perch outside of the coop, which was uncommon for her. The next day I soft scrambled her some eggs and she only ate a few bites. Then the next morning she did not come out with the others when I let them out of the coop. I saw her in a nest box and thought she may be trying to lay, but she came out and just lay there on the porch. At that time I gave her a dropper of water/apple cider vinegar. Right after that she began drinknig from the waterer on her own. She let out some foul smelling watery green poop. I noticed she had ants crawling on her, so I took her out and that's when I saw she had what looked like pasty butt. We bathed her in a warm water bath with a little ivory dish soap and cleaned as best we could. Then I noticed her abdomen felt a little swollen and squishy. I began giving her olive oil with the syringe, 5 ml every hour for 3 hours and massaged her abdomen. She was able to release a little bit of liquidy yellow poo. She was still drinking fine but wouldn't eat the applesauce I offered. I isolated her and left her to rest. Yesterday she was worse, and the ants were back. I covered her with de hoping they would leave her alone but it didn't help much. I gave her more olive oil, and went back an hour later to give more but when I picked her up some clear liquid and what looked like olive oil ran out of her mouth. I tilted her down so it could come out easier and then uprighted her after a few seconds so she wouldn't choke. I am not sure what to do for her at this point, I'm very worried that I'm not helping her much and she could die. I have read about all of the above over and over again, but I have not found anyone that had ALL of the same issues so I don't know exactly what the cause is. I thought impaction at first, but I'm just not sure. Please help!
Update: I just found a small fleshy ball in her cage, a little bigger than a pea.
Update: I just found a small fleshy ball in her cage, a little bigger than a pea.
Last edited:
