I'm not sure if my hen has gone broody or is ill?

[chickenbike]

Let her soak in a warm bath for 15 minutes, then towel dried her, and used the gentle, mild heat on the hair dryer (which she loved).

I cooked her an egg and she ate all of it, although she preferred to eat from my hand and not the dish. I should mention that this girl has always been the most friendly, most curious, and easily handled right from hatching.

She is thoroughly and completely dry and fluffed. She did not appear stressed in the least during the entire procedure and as I said, she loved the warm dryer air. Let me hold up each wing, hold her to do her underside.

 

[vwoods]

I've been following your post - how's your girl? Hope all is better.

 

[chickenbike]

vwoods, thank you for your concern. I read your post on your recent loss of your red star and am so sorry. You did so much for her. I feel I am in the same position as yourself.

My girl has all the same symptoms that you describe. Low on the pecking order, but always busy and happy before. The only thing my girl does not have is diarrhea. Her poop is normal.

Today shows no change. I may need to bring her into the house again to hand feed. I did keep her in the coop and gave her her own cooked egg and porridge/yoghurt, but she did not eat much at all.

I am sad, frustrated, and worried. No parasites. The other hen chased the sick one round the run this morning and pecked at her. Poor thing, was trying to get away.

 

[SandraChick]

It sounds a lot like egg bound. I would check her abdomen and see if you can feel any eggs in there. Keep checking her poop... to note any changes.
Give her some olive oil...and then do some more warm bathing.

I wish you all the best luck

Sandra

 

[chickenbike]

silkiechicken, I forgot to answer your location question regarding the extra heat in the coop. I'm not at the coast, I am up in the mountains in SE BC. I normally use a 40w red bulb, but during the extreme cold, I use a 60w pink bulb. With night temps of -15 C right now, the pink bulb keeps the coop at -1 to +1 C.

I had my healthy hen lay an egg today after 10 days of not laying. So that's nice to see.

As for the other girl, she is still about the same. I brought her in to the house and she ate a full cup of porridge/yoghurt and one scrambled, cooked egg. Again, she is bright eyed and her vent looks good. I cannot feel anything in her belly re being eggbound. Any tips on feeling out eggs in the abdomen that I may be missing?

 

[silkiechicken]

Figuring -15C is about 5F, they can actually handle that just fine if they have an enclosed coop where humidity doesn't get too high. A few of my larger silly ones have slept outside in their tractor part vs inside at those temps without frost bite. Don't take away their light this winter since they are used to it, but you can consider not needing one next year. If the water is inside and it's keeping it melted, then it's probably serving a dual purpose and is fine. Just get concerned with "heated' at times, because of stories of birds being heated to near human house temps in their coops and getting frost bit when going out to below freezing temps. There are flocks in the colder parts of the midwest who don't heat coops even with temps equivalent to -25C with -35 to -45C windchills. Granted, many do have insulated coops as they prep more for the cold weather.

Good luck with the girls.

 

[chickenbike]

I don't have any light on at all usually. There have only been 3 times this winter where I felt they needed it. I prefer no light as I like the chickens to lay eggs on their own schedule. I see your point on a significant temp difference from inside the coop to the outside. The 3 times I've used the light, when I dropped the ladder in the mornings, they simply stayed inside for 1/2 hour to an hour and then came out (as opposed to coming out right away). This particular cold spell is expected to break today and that will be nice.

 

[chickenbike]

My girl is still hanging in there. We took her to the vet twice. The first visit she received subcutaneous fluids, an antibiotic injection, and an injection to reduce the inflammation of her lungs. Bloodwork was taken, but no results are back from the lab. Yesterday's visit was for another long-acting antibiotic injection. She is not stressed and is as comfortable as we can make her with soft, fluffy bedding and inside the house. She eats and drinks what I hand feed/water her so I've been doing that every hour. The vet confirms that she is not egg-bound and he suspects possibly pneumonia, lab results may confirm or tell something different. She seems to enjoy being a house-chicken and is most fussed over. We will do what we can to ensure she is not stressed and are taking it day by day.

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck!

If the vet thinks it is a lung aliment, perhaps there was a change in the bedding with extra dust or extra moisture that may have brought it on with the wet weather. Either way, hoping for a speedy recovery!

 

[chickenbike]

Thanks silikie, we're really hoping she'll pull through, but are also prepared should she not. She is especially important as we went to great lengths to acquire Partridge Chantecler eggs last spring and the hatch only yielded 2 roosters and the 2 hens. If we lose this girl, we will be down to 1 rooster and 1 hen. Then I can only hope she will go broody, the roo will do his job, and we can hatch more.