Sick hen won't stand for long

[Heidis Happy Hens]

I have a 2 year old Buff Orpington hen who has seemed sickly for a couple of months and is really getting picked on. She stopped sleeping on a roosting bar, and instead sleeps on the floor of the henhouse every night. She will go out to the run each day and seems to eat and drink ok, and loves a treat now and then. But she mostly lays down in corners and behind things, and even when I toss treats out for the flock, she'll walk toward it and then lay down to peck around her. Her comb is pale, and she is missing feathers on the back of her neck, presumably from the pecking. She also keeps her tail feathers tucked. I've checked her for mites, lumps, bumps... and her vent looks fine and her poop is normal. She will sit on my lap and peck at syringes of electrolytes and seems to like it but I don't see improvement. I've also given her B12. I'm stumped. Now she is isolated because she was literally getting violently stomped on by a group of hens yesterday. Any ideas what this is? She had a buddy that started sleeping on the floor with her. That hen slept on the roosting bar last night, but I noticed this morning that she was laying around and had her tail feathers tucked... oye.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a 2 year old Buff Orpington hen who has seemed sickly for a couple of months and is really getting picked on. She stopped sleeping on a roosting bar, and instead sleeps on the floor of the henhouse every night. She will go out to the run each day and seems to eat and drink ok, and loves a treat now and then. But she mostly lays down in corners and behind things, and even when I toss treats out for the flock, she'll walk toward it and then lay down to peck around her. Her comb is pale, and she is missing feathers on the back of her neck, presumably from the pecking. She also keeps her tail feathers tucked. I've checked her for mites, lumps, bumps... and her vent looks fine and her poop is normal. She will sit on my lap and peck at syringes of electrolytes and seems to like it but I don't see improvement. I've also given her B12. I'm stumped. Now she is isolated because she was literally getting violently stomped on by a group of hens yesterday. Any ideas what this is? She had a buddy that started sleeping on the floor with her. That hen slept on the roosting bar last night, but I noticed this morning that she was laying around and had her tail feathers tucked... oye.

When was she last dewormed?

You don't mention her laying eggs, so I assume she's stopped?
Possibly she has something reproductive going on, Cancer, EYP, Internal Laying, etc.

Any bloat or fluid in the abdomen below the vent between her legs?

Sometimes all you can do is to continue to offer supportive care, see that she's eating/drinking, that her crop is emptying. Check again for lice/mites and any injuries. Deworming and treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic perhaps too - try and see if anything makes a difference.

 

[Heidis Happy Hens]

When was she last dewormed?

You don't mention her laying eggs, so I assume she's stopped?
Possibly she has something reproductive going on, Cancer, EYP, Internal Laying, etc.

Any bloat or fluid in the abdomen below the vent between her legs?

Sometimes all you can do is to continue to offer supportive care, see that she's eating/drinking, that her crop is emptying. Check again for lice/mites and any injuries. Deworming and treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic perhaps too - try and see if anything makes a difference.

She has not been dewormed. I didn't consider it since I haven't seen issues in poops, and we live in such a dry climate. She has lost some weight though. No bloat, and her crop is fairly firm, about the size of a ping-pong ball. She just ate some food. No, she hasn't been laying at all. And actually, egg production for my flock slowed down mid-summer about the time we hit a horrible heat wave and hasn't picked back up.

I'll try the deworming and antibiotics, thank you! Assuming I should treat the whole flock?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She has not been dewormed. I didn't consider it since I haven't seen issues in poops, and we live in such a dry climate. She has lost some weight though. No bloat, and her crop is fairly firm, about the size of a ping-pong ball. She just ate some food. No, she hasn't been laying at all. And actually, egg production for my flock slowed down mid-summer about the time we hit a horrible heat wave and hasn't picked back up.

I'll try the deworming and antibiotics, thank you! Assuming I should treat the whole flock?

If you haven't been having any issues, then I'd only treat her and see how it goes.

Often hens do slow down in production when the weather is so hot, mine usually do (and did this year). They did pick up when the weather broke, but now it's cooled a bit here and some have started to molt, it is what it is. I still have some in lay so I'm getting eggs.