Why is my favorite chicken acting like this?

[sclanimals]

How long after she is put on commercial chick starter should she start looking better???? is this something that may take weeks or hopefully a few days????

 

[speckledhen]

If she has parasites, she wont look better right away, even on proper food. And malnutrition doesn't happen overnight, so it may take weeks to get her to some state of normalcy. She should be wormed and given good wholesome food at the same time. Also, get some active culture PLAIN yogurt (too much sugar in flavored ones). Give her some on a tablespoon every day for awhile. It will help her gut flora. A little cooked oatmeal made soupy by adding buttermilk to it and some chopped pumpkin seeds (unsalted) may also help with the worms, but I'd use a chemical wormer as well. (carefully on the dosage-worming is hard on the system and she looks ill right now).
Babies need baby food to grow properly, babies of all sorts. They need all the extra vitamins and minerals for their bones to properly form and to be healthy in general. And even at four months old, she looks like a two month old chick to me. It may take a month or more to get her on the upswing, if you can at all. As someone said, she may never be entirely right.

 

[sclanimals]

I have hopes that she'll turn out well. I'm not expecting it, just hoping. I actually have some plain organic yogurt in the fridge right now that I'll give her this morning and made oatmeal for the kids that she can have some of. My local feed store doesn't carry any wormers for chickens. Where can I order some online and what kind? I don't know if the pics make her look small or what but she's the same size as my dark cornish roosters and hens right now.Almost as big as my RIR hens too.

Edited to add: I'm still getting used to her being a pullet not a cockeral. That judge was so sure it was a young cockeral. So much for thinking judges know it all.

 

[speckledhen]

You can order from First State Vet Supply or Jeffers Livestock Supply or any number of places. Even one of our sponsors here at BYC may have the meds.
Unless the comb development is entirely stunted, that is definitely a pullet. Love when people want to act like they know it all when they obviously dont, LOL. Bad judge!
Anyway, worming her and getting her really good food will help. If you could scramble or hardboil and chop some eggs, that will give her excellent protein. In fact, eggs and yogurt every day should be part of her program, IMO. Dont overdo the yogurt (like giving her a cup or something) or her poop will be very runny, but she does need that.

 

[sclanimals]

Just came in from feeding her oatmeal and yogurt. She was kinda leery at first but was finally lovin the oatmeal and yogurt mixed together. I'll try the eggs a little later today. I added some chicken vitamins to her water also.