Help please, poorly hen

[Anonymous]

Hi - please can anyone give me some advice. One of my hens, a rhode island red about 10 months old, is looking very poorly. I though she looked a little off colour yesterday but today has stayed inside, is hunched up, not moving around much (although she was feeding a little around lunchtime today) and was keeping one eye closed most of the time, then the other one began to close, or she was resting?. Also, her vent feathers are very dirty, although white-ish and I haven't found any sign of yellow or green poo in the shed.
I am due to worm them all anyway, so will still go ahead and do that but is this worms? or something else?
I am new enough to this to have little confidence when things go at all wrong so advice is most welcome please.

 

[Anonymous]

hi Marishal,
your hen could be off colour due to a number of things,if due for worming,definitely do that like you said in your post .
At the moment I would suggest checking her crop isn't blocked.If she was eating earlier though,I wouldn't expect this.
Also check her vent,to rule out an egg that is too big for her to lay.
Did you have a lot of rain yesterday? Has she been outside and maybe got a cold starting?Check to see if she's snotty,got watery bubbles coming from her eyes.
I would bring her indoors,to keep her warm and keep an eye on her.
Sorry not much help,i'm sure other ppl who read this will have more idea's.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Lydia
Thank you for that - I'll check her crop and for an egg when I get home although I didn't feel anything when I picked her up this morning. We have had some rain but I don't think she was out at all. She was still unhappy this morning although she did cluck quite loudly at me (she had always been a quite stroppy vocal bird), and her feathers were cleaner - good, or bad if it means she hasn't passed anything at all? But I noticed that one eye looks a little odd, a bit cloudy which I don't think is good - is that an obvious sign of something? All the others seem ok so far and I seperated her from them.
Thank you again.

 

[podstable]

Hi Marishal----I think you are right to be concerned about her with a cloudy eye as well as being generally unwell. It could be anything from simple corneal injury/scratch , corneal infection ,Myco or other respiratory infection to a host other other things that can affect the eye as part of a more widespread disease. If you are unhappy with her maybe a trip to the vet is indicated? She is only young and you would not want to miss something easily treatable or that could spread to your others. Good luck , hope shes ok. Ros

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Marishal,when you're home(you're probably in bed now)definitely have a good look at her eye.Cloudiness could be her eye lid/inner eye lid being partly closed/fully closed.I can't remember if chickens have an inner eye lid or not :? ,some animals do.
As Ros has already posted though,it could be something minor(most probably is)but could be an indicator for something more sinister,so a trip to the vet would be a good idea.
Hope she quickly makes a full recovery.