Sick chicken

mandyRS · Tuesday at 9:41 AM

Hello

We're quite new to keeping chickens. We have two, Kim and Spot, adopted from neighbours who moved away and they were, I think, originally battery hens, probably about 5 years old.
It's Kim we're worried about she's lethargic and has stopped eating. She will drink when sat next to the water. We thought she might be egg bound at first as a couple of soft shell eggs were found but after a few warm baths there's been no improvement. Her crop is soft I think - I can't feel anything hard till her breast bone. We've searched and googled and ticked off what it's definitely not e.g. Marek's disease, there's no evidence of worms, her feet are fine, she's no discharge other than loose poo, pic below. Spot's fine and still laying.
Any thoughts or advice much appreciated.

chrismahon · 2026-03-26T04:04:24-0400

Hello @mandyRS and welcome to the forum. They are not ex-battery hens, the photo looks like a hybrid layer.

A sloppy, slimy looking poo like that, particularly green in colour says to me a sour crop problem. This is where food in the crop doesn't pass through quickly enough and begins to rot, throwing the digestive system into disarray and causing their equivalent of stomach ache. There can be an age related underlying internal problem which causes the digestive system to block, which then stops food passing through and there is nothing you can do for that. But usually it is simply because something has been eaten that just didn't pass through quick enough. We have this a lot with chickens that free range and it is simply a case of gently massaging the crop and making sure they are drinking. It may be you need to give them water by syringe? Frequent (every few hours) massaging usually shifts any blockage, but unfortunately not always. Feed is not important and should in fact be avoided until the crop is clearly empty. Allowing them to eat too early means the food will compound the problem. Whilst you won't have this problem in the UK, ours have a greedy chicken habit of eating lizards given the chance. They are poisonous to them and that kills their gut flora leading to the same issue. It would be helpful if you had some probiotic to give afterwards, to restart the gut flora which will have died off with nothing to digest, but not essential. Our rearer pellets here have it built in, so we give them that.

Let us know how you get on please. Any more questions I'll happily answer if I can

mandyRS · 2026-03-26T04:37:07-0400

chrismahon said:
Hello @mandyRS and welcome to the forum. They are not ex-battery hens, the photo looks like a hybrid layer.

A sloppy, slimy looking poo like that, particularly green in colour says to me a sour crop problem. This is where food in the crop doesn't pass through quickly enough and begins to rot, throwing the digestive system into disarray and causing their equivalent of stomach ache. There can be an age related underlying internal problem which causes the digestive system to block, which then stops food passing through and there is nothing you can do for that. But usually it is simply because something has been eaten that just didn't pass through quick enough. We have this a lot with chickens that free range and it is simply a case of gently massaging the crop and making sure they are drinking. It may be you need to give them water by syringe? Frequent (every few hours) massaging usually shifts any blockage, but unfortunately not always. Feed is not important and should in fact be avoided until the crop is clearly empty. Allowing them to eat too early means the food will compound the problem. Whilst you won't have this problem in the UK, ours have a greedy chicken habit of eating lizards given the chance. They are poisonous to them and that kills their gut flora leading to the same issue. It would be helpful if you had some probiotic to give afterwards, to restart the gut flora which will have died off with nothing to digest, but not essential. Our rearer pellets here have it built in, so we give them that.

Let us know how you get on please. Any more questions I'll happily answer if I can

Thank you

Sick chicken

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