Poorly chicken

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Cliodhna

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One of my girls isnt herself. She was the friendliest of all my girls, we hatched her last July and she always was first out of the coop and the most curious. I noticed 2 days ago she stayed behind in the coop when i opened up for breakfast, and when she did come out she went behind the coop on her own.

She is very slow in her movement and is hunched over. I brought her inside yesterday, checked her over, her crop is empty, I cant feel any hardness around her vent, I gave her a warm bath last night and afterwards she cuddled up around my neck and went to sleep. She is sleeping a lot and eating and drinking very little. I gave her some porridge (which she loves) with some yoghurt mixed in and she looks as though she is going to eat, but kind of air pecks rather than actually eating more than one or two pecks. Yesterday her poo was normal, today she has only passed a very small amount of essentially water.

She is in a large indoor rabbit hutch in my bedroom where it is quiet, and she is having a look around, but she really is obviously not well.

Any ideas?
 
Air pecking is a sign of bad eyesight Cliodhna. Now that may be just a side effect of not eating and especially drinking. My guess would be some kind of internal infection -is her body temperature high?
 
She does seem to be eating a bit now, she has eaten about half a ramekin of porridge, which is a major improvement.
 
My other thought was sour crop, in which case the crop will hot to the touch and the poos will be slimy. Important she drinks plenty I think Cliodhna, even if you have to syringe it in, in which case you are aiming to give her 10mL measures dripped into her beak at least 5 times a day. More if possible.
 
I thought of sour crop, her crop was completely empty last night, and there is no smell from her mouth.

I'll start on the water now.
 
The smell comes with an advanced case Cliodhna and you may, if it is sour crop, have caught it very early.
 
Even if her crop feels empty?

If so, what should I do, just keep on with the water or should I give her yoghurt as well?
 
I'd keep her just on water as yoghurt will feed the sour bacteria I think. If she doesn't improve in 24 hours she needs to get to the vet Monday.
 
Slow movement and hunched over might suggest eggbound, had you thought of that? Or possibly peritonitis. I think Chris is right, if no improvement by Monday she is probably seriously ill and either you should take her to the vet, or if she is deteriorating and probably in pain with peritonitis you may need to consider culling her.
 
I did think of her being egg bound but it is soft by her vent and she isnt trying to lay, the vent isnt contracting.

She seems to be scratching around a little this evening, whereas up until now she has been still and asleep most of the time.

I will keep her on water and to the vet on Monday
 
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Okay I've decided to post some photos because I am at a loss, its almost like when they were first hatched, and they fall asleep instantly, well she's like that. She is very hunched over, she isnt hot anywhere. She has had 3 poos, all are green and runny but not watery any more. Still no smell and the crop is still empty. The area around her vent is still soft. When she is on my lap and snuggly, her neck drops (see first photo).

I am giving her 10 mls of water every 4 hours.
 
Green in the poo is a sign of some kind of internal infection Cliodhna. She needs to get to a vet as soon as possible. She looks really bad and I think it will be necessary to have an injection first followed by a course.

There are other causes of green poo, diet being the main one and internal injury (without infection) causing stress another.
 
I am sorry, but having seen her, she looks as if she is suffering and if you do not want to cull her she needs to be taken to a vet today. She cannot wait until tomorrow.
 
Good, I'm glad you got an appointment. As 3441sussex says, she's obviously in great pain. At least the vet will put her to sleep painlessly for you, if he agrees this is terminal.
Only too often, there's very little that can humanely be done for chickens once they get to this stage, so sorry.
 
The first picture looks particularly bad, she is standing up, and holding her head up, she is just asleep most of the time.

Fingers crossed it is something that can be resolved with a course of antibiotics. If not, and it isnt easily resolved, I will ask the vet to put her to sleep.
 
Baytril twice a day for 5 days, and panacur once a day for 3 days.

I dont think its worms, they were wormed towards the end of last year, but I'm willing to try anything right now.
 
Found worming is necessary every 6 months but is preferable every 4 months, so you should be OK if she was wormed in December 2014. Problem you will have is that you can't worm her very easily without her eating a full daily diet. Hope the medication works. Baytril is normally administered for 7 -10 days at 0.1mL per Kg bodyweight twice a day, but you should see a difference very quickly.
 
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