Sick Hen?

[Anonymous]

I wondered if anyone could help? We have 2 hens, the speckledy is starting to worry us as she isn't scratching, not laying and generally looks lethargic. She is eating and when she walks she is upright, her comb is still upright too and red. We have checked for an egg bound egg, lice etc and none of these are evident. She did loose some feathers underneath her tail feathers about 8 weeks ago but they are back now.
She didn't want to come out of the pen today and thats really unusual. Is it another trip to the vet?
Our other chicken is perfect, laying well and eating, still bathing and scratching but she appears to have a bald spot on her front near her crop. When her crop it full it looks quite red and sore but doesn't seem to both her. Any suggestions?

Thank you for looking and hopefully we can help Margo and Barbara x

 

[Davidd]

Hi, have you checked the coop for red mite? they only come on the birds after dark- they will hide in the coop during the day- look under perches, in all the cracks and crevices- as for the bald bit - how wide are your perches? has she lost weight? and can your chickens get their heads through the wire on your run? or your garden fence? - what i mean is , are they rubbing themselves trying to get grass/plants on the other side of the fence?
regards, David

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the advice, we will have a look in the pen and give it a good wash down. Hopefully this will sort it out. It is only Margo who is demonstarting this behaviour is this normal if there are red mites for them to attack just one of the chickens then?
Barbara can't get her head through the chicken wire and they have just one perch as we only have two chickens in the house so not sure if its that? We will check though and watch her for whiel to see if we can detect anything.
Thanks

 

[Davidd]

hi, hens suffer from redmite in different ways- some lose weight and go downhill very rapidly- others have more resistance-if you check the birds in the dark- use a torch and look under the feathers- you will be able to see if they have red mite.
regards, David

 

[Anonymous]

Hi again

We have checked for redmite and couldn't see anything, she is showing no signs of over preening or constant dust bathing which we expected if she had red mite? She has now started to look like a sick chicken as her tail is no longer upright and her head seems to always be slumped into her body. She also seems quite lethargic and doesn't want to do anything. We haven't seen her scratching for a while and now her nails are quite long, can we cut them or is it a visit to the vet?

Please help?

Thanks

 

[Davidd]

Hi, i would take her to a vet- they will be able to have a better idea of what is wrong by seeing the bird- good luck,
regards, David