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AyeAyeMagpie

Chicken not eating or being active

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Hello folks, I hope you can offer some advice/expertise. I've had my chickens since September and Myrtle, my blue Marans is out of sorts but I can't place why. She is off her food but still drinking. Only occasionally will leave the coop to freerange but is mostly just standing with the flock in a hunched position and is unenthusiastic about scratching and pecking. Mostly she is sitting on a roosting branch in their run and not coming down much. 

I've been treating my flock for lice and she is virtually clear now. I'm also giving worming feed this week but I think she was already under the weather before starting that treatment and hasn't eaten the food to my knowledge (so in effect, if it is worms, she's not allowing herself to be treated).

Any thoughts on what I should be looking for to determine what could be going on? 

 

Thank you in advance. 

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Her crop is small and hard. I compared it to Rosie, our Wheaton Marans this evening and they're completely different. We've used a Calpol syringe to give her water and massaged her crop, which now feels squishy and gritty but not as full as Rosie's. (Belatedly) putting our children to bed now, then we'll give more water and try to get her to throw up.

I've not felt the bottom end, I'll check that in a bit too - thank you.

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If she hasn’t been eating, it isn’t strange her crop is small. I would leave her be right now. If there was some hard obstruction in her crop, it sounds like it has dissolved right now.

What did you worm them with? You can get oral wormers too, that you syringe into their beak. Flubenvet isn’t a thing in the Netherlands, so I get an oral wormer from my vet.

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Could be any number of reasons, but you do need to ensure that she has nutrients, so syringe a dilution of Vit Boost into her beak, or give her some NutriDrops.

If her crop was hard after not eating,, then it may have been impacted, you say that you have massaged it and it's gone down, so keep an eeye on it and see if she starts to eat now that it is less uncomfortable.

Is she pooing? I am trying to work out whether she has a digestive blockage further down her system

It's hard to tell what's wrong over the internet, so I would suggest that it's high time that she went to a chicken-savvy vet. If she is pooing, then it would help them if you took along a poo sample.

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Thank you, very much appreciated. 

She has perked up a little today. She is pooing today, when she wasn't yesterday, and it's a little loose but surprisingly within normal range. Still off her food but is drinking and did gobble down some white maggots (recommended for breaking down contents of crop) so that's something. We've been syringing and massaging today. I'll check her crop first thing in the morning and make a decision from that re vets. Our local vets knows nothing about chickens though. 

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Update:

Myrtle is a lot better this morning. She's rearranging with the others, pecking and dustbathing as normal. Her comb even looks better. 

We're going to the farm store today to pick up a supplement for her. I think massaging and maggots have done the job. Maggots are super cheap and easy to buy from a local fishing shop so we're going to start giving them to our flock once a month as an extra treat/protein boost/digestive. :)

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Yes, I wouldn't want to leave it too late.

Speaking of vets, I did take one of the chickens to the vet not long ago to have the lice confirmed and she openly admitted that she knew about as much as I did about chickens...but happily took the £20 consultation fee. So I think I'm going to have to find a specialist vet, but I don't think we have any locally. I'll phone around tomorrow.

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I'm in Lincoln. She's not improved today and her crop is back to squishy. Any idea what ball park figure I'd be looking at if she needed surgery? I can't imagine my vet trying to make her sick, I think they'd probably just go straight for the surgical option, which of course has it's own risks for Myrtle and I'm guessing would be expensive. 

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I paid £100 including VAT back in 2016 for a crop operation, if that helps.

Very successful - 2 of mine had eaten stuff they shouldn't and ended up with clay like muck in their crops. 

I paid £100 including VAT back in 2016 for a crop operation, if that helps.

Very successful - 2 of mine had eaten stuff they shouldn't and ended up with clay like muck in their crops. P1030570.JPG.6303c98bc3f2c51c8967bcfca3e09c84.JPG

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19 hours ago, AyeAyeMagpie said:

I'm in Lincoln. She's not improved today and her crop is back to squishy. Any idea what ball park figure I'd be looking at if she needed surgery? I can't imagine my vet trying to make her sick, I think they'd probably just go straight for the surgical option, which of course has it's own risks for Myrtle and I'm guessing would be expensive. 

If it is squishy, then I doubt that she will need surgery - this is usually reserved for an impacted crop, which will be hard. It's hard to advise when I can't see the bird, but I would suggest emptying it as much as you can, then syringing 2-3mls of neat ACV into her beak a couple of times a day to see if that helps. Aim to do this fr 3 days and see how she goes. What she doesn't need (by the sounds of it) is antibiotics; they can make sour crop worse as it's a yeast infection.

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This is so helpful, thank you. I've just checked on Myrtle and her crop feels mostly flat (still off food) and I couldn't feel any blockage. I've given neat ACV (which she seemed to quite enjoy). I'll keep that up and see how she goes. I'm hopeful!

If she's no better by Thursday then it'll be a trip to the vets, as apparently that's the day of the week the vet with experience of chickens is in. 

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Another update, just in case this thread becomes useful for reference to someone else in future. 

I gave Myrtle breakfast of scrambled egg and raw, grated lamb's liver, mixed with olive oil. I checked on her after the school run and she's eaten some, which is great. She's also had a bowel movement in the crate, so all looking promising. 

I'll give more ACV after work.

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Oh...Oh yeah, I did forget about that. I was just going off advice online about high protein soft food. 

At least it was lamb's liver and not chicken... :/

Back to maggots tomorrow then.

...but, what about sardines? I've seen them recommended too. Are most people just flaunting the defra rules then? I honestly didn't mean to and hadn't given it any thought in the moment. :(

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