Dying Hen?

[Anonymous]

My ex=battery hen Chestnut has been looking a bit out of sorts for a few days now, she is not doing the usual hunched up thing, but she just seems very quiet and is not eating. Also her comb has gone all floppy. I have checked her for mites and can't see anything, they were all wormed recently, she doesn't have any funny discharges, but she is incredibly thin. When I came home from work this afternoon she was sitting in the coop. When I go to pick her up she runs away which is very unusual for her as she is very tame.
Do you think she might just have given up?
Oh the other thing - her poo is not solid it is very watery, but perhaps this is because she isn't eating?
Does anyone have any advice? Should I just leave her or try and feed her some high energy food?

 

[foxy]

Hello gretl, it does sound like your hen is poorly, and not unusual I am afraid for exbatts to just fade away, unfortunately. You mention very watery poos, as you suggest this is due to her not eating, or kidney failure.
If her comb is pale as well as floppy, check very carefully for redmite, they are incredibly hard to find and you will need a strong torch and look for small moving "dots". You can wipe with a tissue in the morning the ends of the perch, and looks for tell tale small smears of blood. If she is under the weather, it really wouldn't take much to bring her down.
Crop - would be worth checking in the morning to make sure it is normal, and empty. An impacted crop sometimes is not that obvious, and chickens can fade away very quickly, slow moving digestion can mean something is wrong with her gut that may or may not be treatable.
Finally, we can't really diagnose, but give you pointers of things you can check for, from our experiences (and mistakes! 04 ) A good poultry vet might be worth a call in this case as there are lots of things they can look for. Good luck!

 

[victorias poultry]

Hope your hen is alright, birds go off their feet so quickly