Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

One of my chickens has had a dirty bottom for a while now. I've given her a few baths and she's always been quite lively. Yesterday she seemed a bit draggy. I gave her another bath and she hung out in the same spot, drying off in the sun and eventually moved away, but yesterday evening she was hanging out by herself instead of running into the coop to go to bed. I noticed that her eyes were closed and she seemed lethargic so I picked her up and put her on the perch.

This morning, the others were all anxious to go outside, but this one was still sitting on the perch and her eyes were closing. I wondered if she could be egg bound.

Reading up a bit about that, they said to give her Tums. She only ate a couple of Tums crumbs but hasn't had any food or water. I gave her a long soak in warm water which she seemed to like. The eye closest to me was mostly closed, but not the other eye?!?! An exploratory with my longest finger didn't locate any egg though. I dried her off and put her in a nesting box with food and water within easy reach. I shut the other chickens out so that they won't disturb her.

Any ideas of what I should do next would be most welcome.

Thanks, Linda

If a hen is egg bound they will stand like a penguin, very upright. This doesn't sound like egg binding to me. The dirty vent could be a couple of things. If you can spread the feathers and check for mites or lice-their excrement and egg masses can cause the feathers to collect feces if there's a lot of them. The second is potentially mycoplasm infection-in which case she will need drug treatment to get rid of the mycoplasm. The fact that one eye is closed is usually a sinus problem, and could be coryza which would also affect her GI tract and give her watery diarrhea that can also coat the feathers. So you'll need to do a good examination to determine what the issue is. First, examine the feathers around the vent, and try and see right to the skin and see if there are mites or lice. If not, does she smell funny? If so it could be coccidiosis-you need amprol treatment for that. What colour is her ? If it's yellow she is going into liver failure. Is her comb nice and red or light pink or dark purple? This will give you an idea about her heart function (red=good, light pink (almost white)=heart failure, dark purple=heart attack, reduced heart function). Does it looks like she's laboring to breath? Can you see her rising and falling when she breaths? Does she wheeze, rattle or squeak when she breaths? If so, it could be one of many respiratory/viral infections. You do need to get her separated from the rest of your flock ASAP just in case....there's lots of viruses that chickens get. Does she eat and drink normally, or just drink? Is her crop soft or hard, full or empty....all these things will help you to diagnose what's going on.

Many thanks WL Lady. Off to check. She is separated. Can see her breathing rise and fall no odd noises. Comb is rather dark. Probably not good. When I was cleaning her bottom and cutting some feathers that were coated, I didn't notice any signs of mites, but will check again with reading glasses on. Not eating or drinking now, just lying down, tail down, head almost pointed into the ground. Not looking good. Tried to syringe water, but not very accepting of that.

Linda

I'm so sorry. Once the breathing is laboured (the rising and falling) and dark comb and head/tail down...it's likely heart and liver failure. You may consider doing the right thing-in my experience once the breathing changes and they turn feed/water down they won't come back.
It sucks. I'm sorry.

@labradors how is your girl?

I wanted to put an end to her suffering, but hubby was dead against it.

After spending a day hunkering down in a corner of the dog crate, she actually stood up and walked towards us when we checked on her yesterday. I offered her some water which she refused, so I dipped my finger in and let some water trickle over her beak. She swallowed it! A better reaction than the day before when I had tried to syringe drops of water into her beak and she just let them drip out. Later, she drank water from the bowl on several occasions. I put it within easy reach from her lying-down position :).

Today wasn't a good day though. I offered her some scrambled egg, and she pecked at it, but her eyes closed before she finished and she's spent most of the day lying down.

I did some research and wonder if she has fowl pox.

Fowl pox is very obvious with scabby marks on the wattles comb etc. It tends to go through them all and if the dry form is basically minor. Wet type can give pox marks in the oral cavity and is tough for them My Kathleen had the wet form about 4 years ago when all the others had dry. She made it thrugh OK though.

@labradors here is a link to some useful info
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-a ... #v16229032

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Not the best photo, but probably not fowl pox.

Linda

KB, Many thanks for the info, and for the link :).

Linda