chickenmomma1108
Chirping
Have a Calico Princess hen ("Kali" - 2 years old) who gets around the chicken run during the day, but I have noticed her belly is very big and low & she seems to struggle with breathing. I hadn't realized she was missing so many feathers on her bottom and her belly underneath until today. Had thought feathers broken or missing from her back was mating, molting or possibly bugs - I feel awful it has gotten this bad!
I will try to list things that I have observed and done as treatment for both the hen ("Kali") and the flock as a whole. We have a mixed flock of 26 - 2 roosters and 24 hens.
Applied petroleum jelly to this hen ("Kali") after seeing a couple peeling scales on her feet.
Observed her feathers on her bottom near vent have these clumps stuck in them, I will have a picture attached. Are these leftover mite clumps and would they be dead after Elector PSP spray? If I need to treat for any & all bugs again I do have both permethrin 10% and neem oil to use in rotation with the Elector PSP..don't want things to be getting resistant.
I had treated everyone in our flock this last week with Elector PSP to knock out any know bugs. There were too many broken feathers to have been either finishing a molt or a nipped feather here or there. And sprayed their coop with the spray as well (not directly on their indoor feeder & waterer).
Did give her an Epsom salt bath to help wash her up a bit. Did not realize her feathers were in this bad of shape all over
Also had a couple weeks ago (2/27/25) noticed her posture was different and checked if this was water belly with a needle and didn't get any fluid (had drained our Lavender Orpington "Bela" last summer for her water belly when she was walking around a big ball of fluid). Very cautious with making sure the needle doesn't go in far and I disinfect the area with iodine before and after and treat with antibiotic ointment. I also have hypochlorous acid, didn't have that at the time of checking for ascites / water belly.
Everyone was treated with ivermectin paste (and at 10 days) because I had seen a heavy load of worms in the poops in the run. Today, "Kali" pooped when I was checking her over beak to tail and there are worms in her poop (I'll attach that picture) - do I deworm her with fenbendazole?
I was listening to her heart rate with a stethoscope and clocked it at ~360 beats (counting to a stopwatch of 10-15 seconds) and gave her some calcium citrate (300mg) crushed and mixed in with a tiny bit of wet food. Will giving her calcium citrate help her as I treat for worms or anything else?
She will from time to time sneeze - it sounds kind of wet and she will shake her head. Have checked in her mouth - didn't see any canker or other abnormal things. Not sure if she is having any respiratory issue since her belly is so low.. Last year this same hen did have a large egg that she was struggling to lay (egg bound) in the evening and before I could get an Epsom salt bath set up she had passed the (double yolk) egg by hopping up on the chair..I had checked her vent with my pinkie finger and some lubricating jelly (water based) and had felt the egg shell. Not sure since her breed (Calico Princess) is a hybrid if she is internally laying with a sort of solid belly? If I push a little - it will give a little but not like the hen with water belly / ascites. If I carry her, I am sure to support her feet instead of squeeze her with her struggling to breathe.
I'm not positive when her last egg was, but probably when the feathers were becoming an issue..I was under the impression she was molting at the beginning of winter like the rest of the flock. She had laid a consistent large egg (not massive like the one that almost got her egg bound last year). She will some days go in a box and sit for a while, but there is no egg when she leaves.
Had checked crops in the morning since other hens (Black Australorp and Barred Plymouth Rock) had a small lump in the morning and Kali's has been empty in the morning. She just doesn't seem to be as fast as everyone else when I go in the run, so I know I've got to do something.
At the moment they are getting a 16% layer feed - I am buying some chick starter tomorrow to up the protein! I feel like an absolute toad for not doing right with their nutrition...everything I read on BYC here and see in chicken videos says that is what factory farms dish out and it's barely adequate The girls have oyster shell and egg shell. And there is grit available.
Outdoor run is roughly 25 foot x 25 foot with hardware cloth walls and chicken wire for the roof. I have multiple feeders and a plastic tote waterer with plenty of drinking nipples. Cluttered the run with things like chicken "shacks" (metal roofing covering pallets) where they can hang out if it's raining and don't want to be in the coop, a tree with sturdy branches attached to a 4x4 post, roost branch prob. 5 foot long, plywood divider, dust bath (old play sandbox turtle).
Coop they have a total of 12 nest boxes (6 stacked), and food & water, roost space total of 32 feet? We built a cabinet above the nest boxes for storage of grit, DE, eggshell, BSFL, BOSS, pine pellets (for chicken run mud spots), etc.
We do have a smaller 4 foot x 4 foot coop that can serve as chicken hospital if needed..it has pop outs for 4 nest boxes and food & water buckets. It also has a hardware cloth pen built underneath since it is on 4 inch x 4 inch legs to give some outdoor access/shelter.
We have a couple Buff Brahma hens & Rhode Island Red rooster that have scaly leg mite that I will treat this week (I dipped one Buff Brahma hen's feet only today in 70% rubbing alcohol after washing her feet free of most dirt.
We lost our Lavender Orpington hen ("Bela") 2/20/2025 to ascites / water belly - she was probably 5 years old. I did my first necropsy just to be 100% positive it was ascites / water belly as cause of death. There have been changes to flock dynamics since the loss of her..
Hope this is helpful background / information of what is going on with this hen (and the flock in general).
Sorry to drop this late at night - this just has me bothered so much that I failed to see this for as bad as it is! I am not a fan of small bugs that one can't always see and the possible internal issues that can be fatal.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
I will try to list things that I have observed and done as treatment for both the hen ("Kali") and the flock as a whole. We have a mixed flock of 26 - 2 roosters and 24 hens.
Applied petroleum jelly to this hen ("Kali") after seeing a couple peeling scales on her feet.
Observed her feathers on her bottom near vent have these clumps stuck in them, I will have a picture attached. Are these leftover mite clumps and would they be dead after Elector PSP spray? If I need to treat for any & all bugs again I do have both permethrin 10% and neem oil to use in rotation with the Elector PSP..don't want things to be getting resistant.
I had treated everyone in our flock this last week with Elector PSP to knock out any know bugs. There were too many broken feathers to have been either finishing a molt or a nipped feather here or there. And sprayed their coop with the spray as well (not directly on their indoor feeder & waterer).
Did give her an Epsom salt bath to help wash her up a bit. Did not realize her feathers were in this bad of shape all over
Also had a couple weeks ago (2/27/25) noticed her posture was different and checked if this was water belly with a needle and didn't get any fluid (had drained our Lavender Orpington "Bela" last summer for her water belly when she was walking around a big ball of fluid). Very cautious with making sure the needle doesn't go in far and I disinfect the area with iodine before and after and treat with antibiotic ointment. I also have hypochlorous acid, didn't have that at the time of checking for ascites / water belly.
Everyone was treated with ivermectin paste (and at 10 days) because I had seen a heavy load of worms in the poops in the run. Today, "Kali" pooped when I was checking her over beak to tail and there are worms in her poop (I'll attach that picture) - do I deworm her with fenbendazole?
I was listening to her heart rate with a stethoscope and clocked it at ~360 beats (counting to a stopwatch of 10-15 seconds) and gave her some calcium citrate (300mg) crushed and mixed in with a tiny bit of wet food. Will giving her calcium citrate help her as I treat for worms or anything else?
She will from time to time sneeze - it sounds kind of wet and she will shake her head. Have checked in her mouth - didn't see any canker or other abnormal things. Not sure if she is having any respiratory issue since her belly is so low.. Last year this same hen did have a large egg that she was struggling to lay (egg bound) in the evening and before I could get an Epsom salt bath set up she had passed the (double yolk) egg by hopping up on the chair..I had checked her vent with my pinkie finger and some lubricating jelly (water based) and had felt the egg shell. Not sure since her breed (Calico Princess) is a hybrid if she is internally laying with a sort of solid belly? If I push a little - it will give a little but not like the hen with water belly / ascites. If I carry her, I am sure to support her feet instead of squeeze her with her struggling to breathe.
I'm not positive when her last egg was, but probably when the feathers were becoming an issue..I was under the impression she was molting at the beginning of winter like the rest of the flock. She had laid a consistent large egg (not massive like the one that almost got her egg bound last year). She will some days go in a box and sit for a while, but there is no egg when she leaves.
Had checked crops in the morning since other hens (Black Australorp and Barred Plymouth Rock) had a small lump in the morning and Kali's has been empty in the morning. She just doesn't seem to be as fast as everyone else when I go in the run, so I know I've got to do something.
At the moment they are getting a 16% layer feed - I am buying some chick starter tomorrow to up the protein! I feel like an absolute toad for not doing right with their nutrition...everything I read on BYC here and see in chicken videos says that is what factory farms dish out and it's barely adequate
The girls have oyster shell and egg shell. And there is grit available.Outdoor run is roughly 25 foot x 25 foot with hardware cloth walls and chicken wire for the roof. I have multiple feeders and a plastic tote waterer with plenty of drinking nipples. Cluttered the run with things like chicken "shacks" (metal roofing covering pallets) where they can hang out if it's raining and don't want to be in the coop, a tree with sturdy branches attached to a 4x4 post, roost branch prob. 5 foot long, plywood divider, dust bath (old play sandbox turtle).
Coop they have a total of 12 nest boxes (6 stacked), and food & water, roost space total of 32 feet? We built a cabinet above the nest boxes for storage of grit, DE, eggshell, BSFL, BOSS, pine pellets (for chicken run mud spots), etc.
We do have a smaller 4 foot x 4 foot coop that can serve as chicken hospital if needed..it has pop outs for 4 nest boxes and food & water buckets. It also has a hardware cloth pen built underneath since it is on 4 inch x 4 inch legs to give some outdoor access/shelter.
We have a couple Buff Brahma hens & Rhode Island Red rooster that have scaly leg mite that I will treat this week (I dipped one Buff Brahma hen's feet only today in 70% rubbing alcohol after washing her feet free of most dirt.
We lost our Lavender Orpington hen ("Bela") 2/20/2025 to ascites / water belly - she was probably 5 years old. I did my first necropsy just to be 100% positive it was ascites / water belly as cause of death. There have been changes to flock dynamics since the loss of her..
Hope this is helpful background / information of what is going on with this hen (and the flock in general).
Sorry to drop this late at night - this just has me bothered so much that I failed to see this for as bad as it is! I am not a fan of small bugs that one can't always see and the possible internal issues that can be fatal.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
