Sick hybrid and what to do?

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RedHillChicken

Songster
Dec 3, 2022
254
460
156
Central Alabama
This is the second hen we've had with the same symptoms - bluish/purplish/red flopping cone, clumping yellow uric acid smelling discharge, lethargic. We had to cut off the clumps of poop around her vent yesterday. She doesn't seem to be eating as much as they all eat, but did lay an egg yesterday. Our first hen to have these symptoms also had her tail drooping before she passed. We thought she had salpingitis, but didn't have the rank odor described by some. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I'm sure @Wyorp Rock will be along, until then, can you post some pictures of the bird, and the droppings? How old are they?
Often droppings like you describe can be from a reproductive problem, but they often do not lay if that is the case. Do you feel any bloating in the abdomen? Is the crop functioning normally? Do you feel food in the crop, is it hard, soft and squishy, empty?
Have you ever wormed your flock or had a fecal done to check for internal parasites?
As a side note, I've lost a fair amount of hens to salpingitis and I don't ever recall any rank odor associated with it, just the smell of the droppings that might be there. Bad odor is usually an indication of bacterial infection.
If you think she's having trouble laying, then calcium might help.
 
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She's in a box and looks to be laying another egg.
 
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This is the yellow discharge we cut off her rear. It was urea smelling. She's two years old. Notice her cone, laying down and bluish red. She also is isolating herself. I'm no able to check her crop since she looks like she's trying to lay - vent pumping. Never wormed them, but I may need to do that. Would I worm them all?
 
Did you give any calcium? It all sounds a lot like a reproductive issue, let us know if she lays. I would give the calcium for now, see if it helps. Dose would be 600-800 mg of calcium citrate +D once a day.
 
No, pull down on her wattles, just put it in her beak and push it back, let go the wattles, she'll swallow it. If she spits it out, push it a little farther back. They can swallow a whole frog, lizard, mouse, a pill is not a problem no matter the size. The issue with putting it in food is getting them to eat all of it. A bird feeling unwell often will refuse to eat.
 
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I just wanted you to see this, since you asked!:) She has moved out of the nest box, and mingled with the flock. She ate a piece of bread, but not much else. We're going out and give her this pill. I'll try and test her crop, and check her stomach.
 

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