Eyes closed, lethargic, tail down, falling asleep standing? Crop empty, just dewormed. Need advice please!

[NikTR]

Its been very worrying at this time that my 1 and half years old hen may be sick from the activity she is showing.
First of this hen has stopped egg production around end Decemeber and her feathers from the back of her neck have fallen.
Her Comb and Face have become pale and she seams to stay isolated away from the flock, sleeping alot.
I have been trying treatment to be sure it isn't Mites or anything but it looks like I have come to late ad this point nothing has changed.
Early today I gave her a warm bath and dryed her up, and I see she has gotten quite a bit of stress from that as she has had quite a bit of sleep than usual during the day which is not normal for a hen to just stand on one leg and sleep for the day. Her eyes respond to sounds but she seams to just close her eyes, her tail is down to and it has started to worry me even more than maybe this warm bath has worsened the condition.
Her appetite is Greate as she eats alot and drinks to. Her stool is also fine to. One Major thing which is not completely fine is her weight, as she is the skinniest out of the 9 I own.
With the state that she currently is in, she looks quite old, but she is not very old,her comb is very short and her feathers look quite dull Aswell from the rest of our flock.
Iam sure something is wrong with her. I have tried few treatments already but I assume without knowing the right condition it will be completely hard to identify the problem, which worries me as I could end up loosing her.

 

[Cinnaminute]

@NikTR From what you explained it almost sounds like she's molting but I'm definitely no professional and clearly fretting over my own. I'm new to molting hens. Had two of my 8mo's last year have a very slight mini molt of sorts. Thought they were sick but they weren't. Some chickens seem to take it worse than others.

Four of my girls who molted this year had most of those same symptoms: stopped laying, combs paled and got dry/shriveled looking, and soon lost feathers most notably on the neck before going bald in other places.Cleo has a bald spot on her butt and just had to deal with low 20 degrees F last night. They also lost a lot of weight.

Cleo showed feather loss on her crop and butt first.

But her comb never paled.


Meanwhile Zelda looks like she's stopped molting but her comb is all weird still haha

The tail down and sleeping a lot is concerning to me. I can say that my girls who I've talked about in this post are fine still. Electrolytes and buttermilk helped to perk them up. Gretchen is still taking weird naps during the day but I've started to see white feathers and she stopped laying a few days ago so i think she's molting and is taking it very very hard.

You'll probably get more help if you create a new post and include plenty of pictures of her and her poop. Of course, feel free to share pictures of her here. I hope she's okay!

I'd probably give her electrolytes, not too much though, and stop the baths. Keep a close eye on her. Maybe bring her in where its warm and you can monitor her for a couple days. And hopefully others have good info for you!

 

[NikTR]

This morning I let my hens out for some fresh air, she was full of energy roaming around for quite a bit. I've also noticed her poop was little green meaning that she hasn't eaten enough to.
She has been eating and drinking as normal but as the day goes on it seams this sleepy head is still under stress, shivering and perhaps on occasions moaning to the other hens that she may be cold or sick.
I'm trying my best to take good care of her. Hopefully she pulls through.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Do you ever offer moistened feed? When my girls are less interested in food I like to offer some moistened feed. If it's cold, I use really warm water to wet it down so it's like a nice porridge treat while still being fully nutritious. If she's still not interested, you can try to pull her aside away from the others and offer her some food then. When they don't feel very well, sometimes they won't bother with trying to get to the food and water when the others are crowding it. I have one girl who refused to leave the coop roof. She sat up there all day. I have to put a dish of moistened feed there so she gets her food and water needs met.

It does look like a lot of new feathers are coming in like she's molting. And good to hear she enjoyed herself roaming around! Poor dear, you can tell she doesn't feel the best. I'm rooting for her!

 

[NikTR]

Do you ever offer moistened feed? When my girls are less interested in food I like to offer some moistened feed. If it's cold, I use really warm water to wet it down so it's like a nice porridge treat while still being fully nutritious. If she's still not interested, you can try to pull her aside away from the others and offer her some food then. When they don't feel very well, sometimes they won't bother with trying to get to the food and water when the others are crowding it. I have one girl who refused to leave the coop roof. She sat up there all day. I have to put a dish of moistened feed there so she gets her food and water needs met.

It does look like a lot of new feathers are coming in like she's molting. And good to hear she enjoyed herself roaming around! Poor dear, you can tell she doesn't feel the best. I'm rooting for her!

Poor Thing was for sure not well.
This morning went to check on my chickens found her lying on her side, she had some movement but her eyes were fully shut,
I brought her in as it worried me alot.
It was heart breaking that she has gone.
The other hens will be upset to to see one fellow of their flock pass away it's very heart breaking.
As a First timer owning hens for 1 year, it's Upseting to grow up a hen for her entire life, and not to mention how hard it is to.
With 8 of my flock remaining i still will take good care and watch after them as usual, making sure their lives stay healthy.

 

[Cinnaminute]

I'm so so sorry for your loss. I wish I had more experience that I could've helped more.

If you're able, you can get a necropsy done to see what was ailing her. That way, you can better help your other hens. Have you ever had a fecal float test done for your flock to check for parasites or at least dewormed them? I've learned the hard way how rough parasites can be on them.

 

[Cinnaminute]

Update: Just wanted to let everyone know how things have gone. I'm relieved to share that my flock of 20 has been normal for over a week now. It's been a little over 2 weeks since I dewormed everyone. They all are active, seemingly healthy, and happy little goofs as they always are.

Cleo - From my other post is currently going through a hard molt but she's her same old self, just very raggedy!



Stitch - Is 100% back to normal and doing great. Seems the aqua mox cleared up whatever was ailing her.




Gretchen - I didn't do much for her. She got electrolytes, buttermilk with rice, and moistened feed from time to time along with everyone else. I let her take her sleepy naps and just made sure she was eating/drinking enough. She perked right back up to her normal self by January 22nd and within a few days began dropping feathers like crazy. She is 100% normal, no weird napping or anything. Just molting super hard. Everywhere she walks she leaves a white feather trail. And by today, the poor dear is nearly bald with tons of prickly new feathers everywhere.

January 22nd

January 23rd

January 25th



Hazel - That one sleepy episode day was the only day she was off. She bounced back and has been great ever since, so that was more of a freak episode.



Mim - I waited nearly a week but the yellow urates continued. So I put her on aqua mox for a week. Within a couple days her urates began turning more off-white and less yellow. She perked back up and is back to her normal self. No more moping in a corner or tail down. She's doing so well, in fact, that I'm back to having a hard time telling between her and Yzma who she's nearly identical to! Her poop blends in with everyone else's now too so I believe she's back to normal!

Some of the last of the yellow urates.


Mim back to her normal self!


All in all, good news all around. No one else has acted strange or off. Everyone who was off is better. Thank you again for the assistance everyone!

So good seeing all of them dust bathing and enjoying themselves again.

 

[HannahCarter]

Update: Just wanted to let everyone know how things have gone. I'm relieved to share that my flock of 20 has been normal for over a week now. It's been a little over 2 weeks since I dewormed everyone. They all are active, seemingly healthy, and happy little goofs as they always are.

Cleo - From my other post is currently going through a hard molt but she's her same old self, just very raggedy!
View attachment 3737242


Stitch - Is 100% back to normal and doing great. Seems the aqua mox cleared up whatever was ailing her.
View attachment 3737249
View attachment 3737250


Gretchen - I didn't do much for her. She got electrolytes, buttermilk with rice, and moistened feed from time to time along with everyone else. I let her take her sleepy naps and just made sure she was eating/drinking enough. She perked right back up to her normal self by January 22nd and within a few days began dropping feathers like crazy. She is 100% normal, no weird napping or anything. Just molting super hard. Everywhere she walks she leaves a white feather trail. And by today, the poor dear is nearly bald with tons of prickly new feathers everywhere.

January 22nd
View attachment 3737256
January 23rd
View attachment 3737257
January 25th
View attachment 3737261


Hazel - That one sleepy episode day was the only day she was off. She bounced back and has been great ever since, so that was more of a freak episode.
View attachment 3737274


Mim - I waited nearly a week but the yellow urates continued. So I put her on aqua mox for a week. Within a couple days her urates began turning more off-white and less yellow. She perked back up and is back to her normal self. No more moping in a corner or tail down. She's doing so well, in fact, that I'm back to having a hard time telling between her and Yzma who she's nearly identical to! Her poop blends in with everyone else's now too so I believe she's back to normal!

Some of the last of the yellow urates.
View attachment 3737281

Mim back to her normal self!
View attachment 3737280View attachment 3737279

All in all, good news all around. No one else has acted strange or off. Everyone who was off is better. Thank you again for the assistance everyone!

So good seeing all of them dust bathing and enjoying themselves again.
View attachment 3737283

Read through your whole post and relived to see that your girls had a good outcome. I have a 3 month old Welsummer that is having a lot of the issues your Stitch was having. None of the others are showing signs like her though. Only difference I noticed is that my girl, Wren, either isn’t seeing well as a result of her illness or just doesn’t really care.

I’m planning to bring her in tomorrow, as I can’t get anything safely set up for her tonight away from one of my cats whom is wayyyyy not trustworthy enough without her having a fully enclosed setup to stay in.

Without her being in with me though, I’m unsure of her poop habits, but I do know that she is eating and drinking often (or at least when I’m around.) I only have on hand Nutridrench, Electrolytes with vitamins and probiotics, and vetrx which have all been given now. I’ve also fed scrambled eggs, never heard of the cooked white rice and buttermilk thing til tonight, so that’s also going to be on deck if need be tomorrow.

My question at this point though- where did you buy the AquaMox? Although I have very successfully kept worms and other yucks away from my grown flock for almost a year and a half now by adding various herbs and spices to their feed. I haven’t began that mix in my younger ones (who are all still fully separated and haven’t even come in contact with my bigs yet) but did plan to begin tomorrow *ironically* when I buy their next rounds of feed at the feed store. That being said, Wren hasn’t received any type of medication dewormer either.

Thanks for any and all help you (or any other readers) can give!

 

[HannahCarter]

Sorry these are the only pics my husband took for me today. I planned on getting some with her down, but life got in the way. Will take plenty more tomorrow as well.

 

[Cinnaminute]

@HannahCarter Aw, your poor hen. I hope she will get better soon!

As for the fishmox, this is the place I bought it from: https://fishmoxfishflex.com/collect...-equivalent-aqua-amoxicillin-250-mg-100-count

I got the Aqua Mox at the time, but Fish Mox is the same (the name brand variant, I believe). Everyone went out of stock of fish antibiotics for several months. Thankfully these folks got it back in stock and others probably have too. But I can vouch for FishMoxFishFlex being safe to order from. I've bought from them twice now.

As for Wren, definitely getting her inside for a better evaluation is a good idea. I've been able to tell a lot from just that. Some hens who have seemed off have thrown a temper tantrum the moment they're locked up in the house in a dog carrier. The ill and/or hurting ones don't make a fuss, with the exception of my Cleo who is dealing with ascites. I've also had hens who pretended to eat, I kid you not! Currently trying to figure out what's wrong with one of my girls, Leslie. She's losing weight, has a loss of appetite but no other symptoms than a slow crop for a couple days. She has little appetite. Bringing her inside and offering treats proved it and later I caught her in the act outside with the others: picking up food and setting it back down! They will hide their symptoms, but they're even more likely to in front of the flock.

Inside, you can also check how they're pooping and get some pictures of that. Check the crop. Check for mites & lice. Check for injuries and so on.

Anyway, I was wondering, have you ever seen her open her left eye? I know I thought Stitch had hurt her eye at first. She's done it before, got cut on some chicken wire I was using to keep them away from the garden. Eye injuries can be flushed with saline solution. I tend to homemake mine. I can lookup how much salt & water to mix together from my notes if you need or you can find it easily searching the forum.

You say she's eating and drinking. How's her crop feel? Is it empty in the morning after going the night without eating/drinking? I had a RIR girl just a month or so old who got sour crop very badly. She, too, would stand with her eyes closed because she felt so icky. If Wren's eye is okay, she's likely closing them because she feels so bad, poor sweet girl.

I'll be happy to try to help as much as I can! I'm still learning, but I've definitely had quite a fair share of health issues these past two years that I've managed to overcome.

Lastly, I definitely recommend starting a new thread with as much detail as possible! People are more likely to check out a new thread with a new sick hen than an older one like mine. Please feel free to link it here, of course, and I'll post in your thread as well. Hopefully we can get some other folks who can help, too.