Poorly hen mk2

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Grashirl

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Hello All
We now have a Hen that is sometimes struggling to stand upright. She is easy to pet but at the moment just lightly laying your hand on her back causes her to wobble and fall. She does appear to be eating and drinking OK. She is isolating herself from our other hens. The other thing is, she has diarrhea and is expelling a very watery green excrement. Have looked at "poo" pictures but can't find a match. Help needed!!
 
It might be prudent to keep her away from the other hens until you know what it is. Can you also tell us a bit more about her: how old is she, how long have you had her, what breed, have you introduced any new chickens recently, has she been wormed and if so what with and when?
 
We have had her with us since the middle of May, she came to us from a smallholder who rescues anything in trouble, horses,sheep, pigs hens etc. So he thinks that she is around two years old. She is a Goldline. We started with six, a few of them looked poorly when they arrived, we lost one who died in the hen house overnight and another we took to the vet who advised us to put her to sleep. We wormed them with Flubavent, I hope that spelling is correct. The worming was carried out in early June. There have been no new hens introduced.
 
I am afraid it is very difficult to diagnose the problem with your hen, particularly taking in account of her age and history. The symptoms are not good I am afraid, and the the best course of action would be to take to your vet.
 
I think you are right, sadly she hasn't moved since I opened the coop this morning, I have lifted her out and placed her by her water and food, but even that didn't tempt her. She does seem unable to stand at the moment
By "take to your vet" I am assuming you mean put her to sleep? Sorry if that sounds callous.
 
Making a very wild stab it sounds like it could be an abdominal infection Grashirl. Weak and green poos. Has she got a swollen stomach, is she still eating anything, has she ever laid, what does her crop feel like ? Needs a vet to prescribe the antibiotics of course- which is what Foxy meant. She doesn't sound beyond help yet.
 
Sadly some time in the last two hours she died. In answer to your questions, her crop did look swollen but didn't feel so when inspected. I thought it more pronounced because she was hunched? No apparent swelling of stomach, I honestly don't know if she ever laid for us and up to yesterday she was eating and drinking. Re laying, when they started laying for us we were on 2/3 eggs a day from 5 hens, then 3 weeks ago tomorrow we had one hen go broody, and all egg laying ceased. So we are down to 3 hens at the moment and all ,touch wood, are looking healthy and doing what you would expect them to do, except laying of course!! Thank you for all of your comments.
 
Sorry to hear that Grashirl. Possibly sour crop plus something else. Very fragile things birds in general keeping any illness well hidden and by the time they look ill it is frequently too late to do anything. I have noticed that they stop talking a long time before they actually look obviously ill, so that's something to keep in mind.
 
I am really sorry Grashirl, she did sound quite poorly:( I am afraid I always fear the worst when they go off their legs,especially when combined with very green and watery droppings. It is also much harder to try and work out the problem when there is a sketchy history of the bird in general. In this case the vet would be the first port of call.

Hope your remaining birds continue to thrive in your care! :D
 
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