very sick girl

[mollysmom]

Hello-new here.......I have read most of the posts related to sick chickens but couldn't find the answer I was looking for. I have a 5 year old Barrock hen who a few days ago was looking pale in the comb and wattles, it is very hot here and I attributed it to the heat. She is slow moving but wants to stay with her sisters.

Our girls (all 7) are free range during the day and eat grass and bugs along with laying pellets. they have plenty of water and the coop is cleaned once a week with fresh pine shavings put into the coop, their coop is well ventilated and the only scraps are bird feed from the wild bird feeders and some fresh picked veges from my garden with occasional treats of worms when I dig and beetles when I clean out my roses and lilys. Today my husband and looked at her closer and was grossed out by maggots around her cloaca and anus.

What do I do?
Do I clean her up...
do I put medication on/in her, if so what kind
do I separate her from the rest of the healthy girls

I haven't had problems yet and this is my second year with chickens,,,,,

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

If she was mine - first thing I would do is bathe her. I would use Dawn dishwashing soap, and lather and rinse well - of course taking special care around her vent.

If it is cool where you are, use a hair dryer on low to dry her off.

Take a good look at her vent, maybe get some good pictures and post them here for others to see - it will help giving you advise on treatment.



Has she been laying?




oooops, totally forgot, how rude of me --

 

[mollysmom]

Please note: I do not know if she is laying and she has brown diarrhea lethargic and not eating.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I am wondering if she is egg bound or has a broken egg in her. hmmmmm I have not yet had to treat an egg bound hen - my best advice would be to do a search on BYC using the search link located on the left side of the upper blue bar, just above your logged in name. This search will allow you to search forums by title or title and message body.



Getting her cleaned will help make her feel better. While in the bath, you might want to lube your finger and feel around inside her vent. I believe (again no actually personal knowledge) that once inside the vent "forks", the upper fork is the egg side, the lower the "discard" side. If she is retaining an egg, you might be able to feel it (or egg shells if the egg is broken).

I would bring her into the house, in a plastic dog crate, so I could monitor her feed/poop, make sure she is not getting picked on by the others (they will, just nature for them) and is away from any flies.

Wish I was more help!