What is wrong with my chicken?

[cmaranhao]

This chicken always was in my top 2 most active of a flock of 13 hens. For about 2 weeks she is not behaving like usual and sometimes I find her almost sleeping during day time and feathers puffed up. Not normal.

I already de wormed the flock last week and she seemed to have recovered but today she is looking sick again.

I do not see nothing wrong with her but her butt seems to be a bit swollen for lack of a better word? I do not know how to check if she has a stuck egg but if it was that, after 2 weeks I think she would be gone by now. Also, her walking around is normal, not like when they have stuck eggs.

Help?

What do you think?

 

[chickenlittle21]

Can she lay or even poop. If she can't I think she is egg bound. Give her a 20 minute Epsom salt bath every 4 hours and make sure she has access to oyster shells. Egg bound is a very serious problem because if she stays egg bound it will kill her from not being able to poop. In the last casenaro you might have to break the egg.

 

[Chocolate_Chick]

You can insert a gloved finger to check whether she's egg bound. Sometimes you can feel the egg by feeling the tummy and vent area depending on where the egg is. You're right though, if she was egg bound she likely wouldn't still be here. However it sounds like she made a brief recovery so could now be egg bound. The second picture you posted does look very red, and I'm not sure but possibly swollen. Are there any signs of infection or open wounds/infected pens? Do you have any vitamins you can give her?

 

[cmaranhao]

I saw her poop a bit just before taking these pictures. tomorrow I will separate her from the others to be sure.

regarding the egg bound, first time I saw her like this was maybe 2 weeks ago, then last weekend I dewormed the flock and she looked more active. today found her again sleepy.

she is not walking like a penguin (this is sign of egg bound right?).

After I insert finger, how to I know she has an egg there? never done this!

there are no wounds, no infetions I can see. I do not think she is laying (she gives me brown eggs, smaller than the others and I think I have not seen an egg from her for a while). but she does the "available stance" when I approach her, she thinks I am a rooster.

 

[Chocolate_Chick]

You would go straight back by 2 inches you should be able to feel if there's an egg. I personally wouldn't go deeper than my knuckle. There's a good chicken diagram on https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/chicken-anatomy/ and they have a good article on what to do if she is egg bound https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/egg-bound-chicken/.

 

[cmaranhao]

this will not be easy for me

 

[Chocolate_Chick]

No it's not a nice thing to have to do. As chickenlittle21 said it can be a very serious problem for her. If you can I would isolate her from the others so that you can monitor whether she's pooing or not. The warm bath with epsom salts should help her, you could always do that before putting a finger in. Try and leave her in the water for 15-20 mins. If she's in discomfort she will hopefully enjoy the bath as it will reduce some of the pressure she'll feel. If your very confident she is egg bound feed her some crushed up calcium, i mix it in with yoghurt, as the calcium helps the muscles she uses to push the egg out.

Walking like a penguin is a symptom, but it can also look like her tail is down or she's walking and then stopping and 'sitting'

 

[cmaranhao]

I do not have oyster shells but I have natural yogurt though (from what I see, this has high % of calcium), will give her one in full tomorrow morning and will do the warm bath in the afternoon. I hope I can help her. thanks for the tips.

 

[cmaranhao]

Still have not done anything because today she is behaving like usual, scratching all over the place.

Not sure what happened or what to do?

Do you want a close up picture of the vent area? She is changing feathers and is very naked over there and somewhat the shape seems to be a bit strange but I can be mistaken.

 

[RumneyRoost]

Have you checked her over for lice or mites?
What did you deworm with?

Does she seem underweight or normal?