help with lethargic chicken

[flynnoflynn]

Hi could some body give me a bit of advice please, we have only just got 4 chickens on friday and have never owned them before.they are 2 light sussex and 2 speckled hens, we are getting 2 to 3 eggs a day at the moment, I noticed on monday that one of the sussexs was wasn't as active as the others she just stands around. Looking at then closer yesterday I noticed that she looked larger than the rest but not eating as much she has her neck low her tail feathers ar a bit saggy and her comb is pink. The rest have nice red combs and peck around lots and seam in good health. I picked her up today and had a feel about she feels a bit solid under her vent compared to the others which felt soft is this all suptoms of egg binding,
What should I do with her?
I'll try and get some pics up when I work out how to reduce the size

 

[chrismahon]

Hello Flynnoflynn and welcome to the forum. I agree, she doesn't look happy at all. It could be egg bound -she would normally keep revisiting the nest box though and you can sometimes see the egg in the vent. Her vent would keep pulsating as she tries to move it. Is her crop full, so is she eating properly? Is her crop still full and hard in the morning, so is she crop bound? Is she drinking enough (don't put any additives in the water)? What are her poos like? Were they wormed before you got them? With any sickies we always isolate them for a few hours to check that they are eating, drinking and pooing normally. Sometimes they get upset with a move as chickens don't like change at all and she may just get over it, but that can't be assumed so you need to keep a close eye on her.

That run looks hard on their feet. I would remove the big stones and put bark or wood chip pings down.

 

[dinosaw]

Hello Flynn, it is hard to see from the photos but on the second one it does look like she has been leaking onto the feathers around the vent as they look slightly matted which could suggest her being egg bound, the other symptoms are a pulsing vent, sitting down lots, walking like a duck. Get her to move around the run and see if she waddles as this has always been a tell tale sign in my chickens, if this is the case then the treatment is to put her in warm water up to her middle in a very humid room which will help to shift the egg. If these aren't the symptoms then isolate her as Chris suggests and check to see if she is pooing and eating, if there is no poo at all or very watery poos and she doesn't eat then it is possible she has a crop blockage which will show up as a hard lump. Anything outside of egg or crop binding she will have contracted at your supplier given the 3 day lead time and you should contact them now and tell them that one of the chickens they have sold you is ill, they will most likely refund you if things turn out for the worst.

 

[flynnoflynn]

Many thanks guys, from both of your coments I would say she is egg bound, we had her in the kitchen today with a warm bath you can definatly feel a large egg in her, her vent is pulsating, couldn't see any egg in the vent, we gave her a bit of a masarge the blow dry!. We had isolated her Inthe run for part of the day with water and some mixed corn with olive oil and she had a good feed from it. Poos seem normal from what I can tell most of them have yellow in it!
We got them from someone who didn't want them any more rather than a dealer, don't think they looked after them too well though!

Will see what she does tomorrow and try anothe warm bath!

 

[chrismahon]

Fingers crossed for you Flynnoflynn. At least you have her in and are watching closely. Very tricky animals to diagnose as they hid their weaknesses from fear of being attacked by the others I think. Worming required after this episode then, if the last owners were not looking after them properly -Flubenvet is the only viable choice.

 

[Marigold]

If they've come from a home where care hasn't been too good, yes I agree they will both neeed a course of Flubenvet once this episode is concluded. If you click on the link at the bottom of the page to the main Poultrykeeper website and put Worming into the search box you will find out a lot you might not want to know about this riveting subject. Also, you might need to look carefully for signs of mite infestation, round their vents, under their wings in particular. Did you acquire heir old coop at the same time? If so, a very careful examination for possible redmite would be a good idea.
What size run have you got? If this poorly girl, sadly, doesn't make it, you will need to think about getting company for the singleton who will be left, and in that case, two would be better than one as its hard to integrate a single bird. Three is a good number, but you'll need a run at least 6 square metres in floor area, (2sq.metres per bird is the minimum especially for small runs.)
Good luck with the warm baths. Let us know how she gets on.

 

[dinosaw]

If you can Flynn, try her in the bathroom, get it very hot and steamy in there and then keep her in her warm bath for as long as the both of you can manage, unfortunately time is of the essence now to prevent peritonitis, best of luck to you both.

 

[flynnoflynn]

No change today, she has had a steam bath over hot water I've rubed some sterile loube in to her vent and had a long soak in the tub with epsom salts, folowed by a blow dry! It fells like she has a masive egg in her but I can't see it through the vent, she has been like this since monday so she may have to be put to sleep over the weekend to put her out of her pain. The previos owner said she had found a small funny shaped egg a week before we got them and assumed she had come to the end of her season! If she goes we will still have three chooks, the run isn't as Big as I would like but it is on the cards for making bigger!