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Jenthelibrarian

Poorly chicken help plse?

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My black hybrid hen, Tilly, is just about three years old and currently not right.

 

Here's everything I can think of telling you all in the hopes of some advice....

 

Over the past couple of days she has been off-and-on listless with her tail down. She is producing very runny poops, greeny in colour.

She also has little bouts of doing a funny little gulping head-jerk, like someone about to throw up or maybe like a hiccup.

No eggs for several days, she usually lays regularly.

As far as we can tell her crop feels normal.

The other two are not bothering her at all.

A couple of days ago I was all for calling the vet and she was suddenly back to herself.

This morning once again she was all sorry for herself and lurking in the coop, but I returned from work this afternoon to find her out and about and jumping into my lap and up onto our patio table for crumbs of rice cake.

 

Any ideas?

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Sounds odd; when one of my girls had impacted crop last year, she was standing around looking very miserable and doing the jerky head/swallowing thing. Her tail was down and she had watery poos. Keep an eye on her crop in case there's a problem building up - my hen went downhill just over a couple of days and when I took her to the vets she was extremely dehydrated and had lost a lot of weight. I was shocked at how hard her crop had suddenly got. Turns out she had a large tumour inside as well, which obviously I didn't know about and so the vet advised to PTS. Goes without saying that she had stopped laying too. She was a black rock; her black rock sister was PTS the very next day also due to a large tumour, although she had been vaguely not right for a little while :(

 

I don't want to cause alarm, but keep a close eye on her that she is able to eat and drink. If she has perked up again then it could have been something she ate (too many greens/treats or something?). I believe live maggots help with crop blockages if necessary.

 

As we all know, they hide illness very well and they go downhill very quickly, so I tend to be a bit paranoid now every time something different happens :anxious: They are a worry :anxious:

 

I hope little Tilly gets better soon. Perhaps someone else will be able to shed a bit more light on it for you.

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Thanks both!

 

She's still a poorly old chook, although she perked up to scoff down some mashed spud softened up with yoghurt.

As I was worried about fluid intake I got some grapes and I've been offering those chopped up and floating in a bowl of water and she took some.

 

She's been dozing quietly in the sunshine, and I'm unwilling to disturb her too much.

 

I think it's the vet tomorrow, although I'm really worried that she won't come home with me :(

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