Pale comb and wattles

[jackieo61028]

This morning I noticed one of my girls has a very pale comb compared to the others. They are all about 5 months old. She is also not as active as the rest. I separated her so I could keep an eye on her eating, drinking, and pooping. She's not pooping much. Sometimes she looks like she's going to poop but nothing comes out. When she does it looks pretty normal. She's eating and drinking some, but still not as much as the others. I gave her some scraps and she ate those pretty quickly. We changed their food over to laying feed about a week ago. She's chattering a good bit, especially when I go out to check on her. I checked for lice and mites on her and the others but didn't find anything. Is this normal? If not, what should I do? What could it be?

 

[jackieo61028]

Just so you can see the difference in my other chickens...

 

[jackieo61028]

She's still the same. Not better, but not worse.

 

[jackieo61028]

 

[BeachMomma]

Try some vitamins or electrolytes in her water and give her something with some extra protein like a scrambled egg mixed with her food.
Has she started laying yet?

 

[jackieo61028]

Try some vitamins or electrolytes in her water and give her something with some extra protein like a scrambled egg mixed with her food.
Has she started laying yet?

She hasn't started laying yet. I put electrolytes in her water and I've gave her scrambled eggs yesterday and some more today. She is eating them. I haven't noticed her eating her feed at all, though. I also noticed that she's holding her head close to her body and she seems to be underweight. Her keel is sticking out a good bit.

 

[BeachMomma]

If she's underweight as well as the combination of pale comb and wattles, I'd suspect worms. Some ppl on here are very divided on deworming, not deworming, deworming naturally or deworming with medicine. If you suspect worms I'd highly suggest using Ivermectin or Safeguard, after of course doing a little more research to see if you feel this could be the issue. Wazine and other deworm meds seem to not do the trick as well.

 

[jackieo61028]

She was more active late this afternoon and eating a lot more. She seems to have gained some color, too. I was supspecting worms the more I researched. I think getting her away from the others has helped, though. She has food, water, and special treats all to herself.

 

[BeachMomma]

That's great to hear she's looking better

 

[jackieo61028]

We got our first egg yesterday! I'm not sure if it was her that laid the egg because I have 24 chickens. I'm wondering if she was acting funny because she was getting ready to lay. She was squatting a lot. She's acting 100% better now.