Elderly cat breathing difficulties when purring

[George Wolff]

Hi,

 

I'm totally new to keeping hens. We have 3 and have been enjoying them for the last 4 weeks or so, until yesterday, when one of them (Nutmeg), normally the most "in your face" of the 3 changed her behaviour. She looks OK as far as I can tell and also laid (today at least), but spends quite a lot of the time sitting and seems off her food. She will happily eat sweetcorn though, and saw the cat off yesterday, so maybe we are worrying about nothing, but any advice on checking her out, or action that helps would be appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

George

[Hen Watch]

Is she young and only just started laying? If she has a soft shelled egg in the pipeline (which they sometimes lay at first) then they can look ill, puffed up, hunched, but it will pass when the softie comes out.

 

Is she is off her food you can try adding water to her normal feed, it makes a sludgy "pellet porridge" and chooks love it. It will help get water into her too.

[George Wolff]

Hi - thanks. She is young about 22 weeks and has been laying for two weeks. Her eggs have been firm and fine to date. She looks awkward when sitting, tending to put her weight on one side only. However, she had perked up a bit this evening and was scratching around more normally.

 

G

[George Wolff]

Hi,

 

Katy was absolutely right in her prognosis. We had some soft shelled eggs over a couple of days in the garden and I made the mistake of assuming that these were from Gwyneth, the only hen that had not laid so far, but now we've worked it out, it was Nutmeg and she was obviously not feeling great. Good news is, all three are now laying just lovely! Thanks again.

 

G