Very thin hen

[chickensuz]

Hi All. We have a 1 year old crested cream legbar hen named Flora. Flora started laying at 24 weeks and was laying beautiful large blue eggs. Suddenly, she started to be listless for a few days each week and we realized she was laying internally. Sometimes she would lay an egg but usually she either layed a soft shelled or no shelled egg or she would poop out egg whites with her stool. Lately, she has stopped laying altogether, which is fine with us as she seems to feel better now, but her comb is shrinking and she is loosing weight. Our birds are free range with free choice to Egglands Best layer feed (crumbles) and ample water. We know she eats as we see her do it. When we check t night, she has a full crop and poop under her roost. She is lively and active but very very thin. I was considering worming her but was not sure the best wormer to use. We will keep and love her for her entire lifetime but I am worried at how skinny she is.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[Mosey2003]

I would separate her so you can keep a better eye on her. I would also deworm as a first course of action, yes. Personally, I use Valbazen. I would give her 0.25ml orally first thing in the morning, and repeat in 10 days.

Have you confirmed she doesn't have any external parasites?

 

[chickensuz]

I have not confirmed that she doesn't have any external parasites. I will look. Thank you for the tip on the wormer.

 

[Mosey2003]

I have not confirmed that she doesn't have any external parasites. I will look. Thank you for the tip on the wormer.

If you can't find or can't afford Valbazen (it only comes in cattle size, and is around $40), Safe Guard Goat Liquid will do well too, it's about $16 usually. I would give 0.5 of the Safe Guard, or 0.25 of Valbazen.

 

[chickensuz]

That is a great suggestion. I was looking at the other and it was a lot of wormer.

 

[Mosey2003]

I like it better, but Safe Guard is still better than anything out there labeled for chickens, so...