Worried my broody is dying

[TheResidentialFarm]

Help!

I've had an 8 month old large breed hen sitting on 7 eggs for 9 days. Except today there were 6 eggs when she was up and about, and a hint of dried yolk on some of the shells. She has food and water and her own run and room in the coop, but her run shares a chainlink gate with the large chicken yard, so she can still socialize when she's up.

She was fine midafternoon. We caused a little ruckus outside her house while bandaging another hen's bumblefoot foot, and afterwards found broody hen off the nest (never seen her off the nest in the evening before). She's stretching her neck and gasping. It seems hard for her to breathe. She's almost whimpering. I picked her up to check her out and she weighs almost nothing in comparison to her sisters. I gave her fresh water with vitamins and dripped a little VetRX in each nostril and her mouth. I got her to eat maybe 3 mealworms then left her alone. Her eggs are cold.

I'm ok losing the clutch, but I really want to help my hen! She seems so weak and frail, but she's been behaving exactly like a broody hen is described on BYC until an hour ago and has had access to all her usual foods. I'm a novice chicken keeper. What am I missing?

 

[sourland]

Is there any possibi8lity of a heavy mite infestatio9n in her nesting area ? 9 days of brooding should not debilitate a hen that severely.

 

[TheResidentialFarm]

I suppose it's possible. The space she's in doesn't normally have birds in it (brooding and quarantine room with new bedding prior to moving her nest) and I use diatomaceous earth in the shavings and on nests. I'll read into it--thanks

 

[TheResidentialFarm]

Yep, I think we have mites. I can't believe I have to wait until morning to buy something to help my poor hen. Is there any point in dusting her with DE tonight?

 

[barred2rock]

Yep, I think we have mites. I can't believe I have to wait until morning to buy something to help my poor hen. Is there any point in dusting her with DE tonight?

DE can cause respiratory distress, I'd hold off.

 

[TheResidentialFarm]

We moved her nest box, did a 100% bedding swap in it, and dribbled some vitamin water in her beak. She's still gasping. I couldn't find any sign of mites on her or her nest, though. She was fairly alert, but she doesn't normally accept this much handling.

 

[TheResidentialFarm]

Yesterday we dusted each of our birds (including broody hen) for mites, applied some pour on ivermectin to their necks, and stripped/dusted the coop/nestboxes and replaced all straw with pine shavings. I've continued to use a syringe to give broody hen vitamin water and some raw egg yolk. She's perking up (starting to hiss and puff at us again instead of acting listless) but she still does a little bit of gasping and wheezing, just not constantly now. It doesn't seem like she's leaving the nest, but it's hard to tell.

Does she sound like she's at a point where I should stop the extra support and let her be on her own so we don't upset her? Or should we continue supplemental support for a while?