poorly hen

[aefondkiss]

we are taking her to the vet,tonight, she is very listless and not moving around much, she is just sitting by the water feeder.

I have read a few bits about sick hens but not really sure what we can do for her....

What symptoms other than the listlessness? Is her comb red? Eating and drinking? What are her poos like? Does her crop seem swollen or squishy? Have you wormed them/de-mited them recently? Could she have eaten anything dodgy?

What I normally do for mine if they're off colour (which they can be - they can have an 'off-day' or be brewing up a soft egg) is to try and make sure they have some 'pick me up' food - I tend to give beef cat food with some poultry spice and it perks them up fairly quickly.

Sometimes though they do just get ill and don't always recover. Fingers crossed yours will be fine - how did the vets go? I am a bit about vets as lots of them don't seem to know much about hens, but if you get a good one then they can be really helpful.

It might also be cramp. Very common in pullets, they seem listless and just sit or crouch down wherever they happen to be. When that happens I tuck them up on a straw bed or the perch and leave them to it.

TS, she had her head tucked in, diarrhoea, she did eat but not much and has been drinking, I am wondering if she is the one laying odd shaped eggs, dh says there was a soft egg this afternoon... I see what you mean about vets ours was, said the hen probably has an infection, gave us antibiotics.

we have four hens and this one is mostly on its own, the other three stick together, I have never seen any bullying, they do have loads of space.

we haven't wormed them (dh says they don't have the "pip" as he calls it) nor mited recently

dh is going to buy some poultry spice tomorrow, plus oyster shells (they are very free range, but just as an extra help)

duchesse, I haven't read about cramp before, I feel like such a novice just now! thank you for the advice

the hen perked up before she saw the vet!

Are you keeping her seperate fromthe others just incase?

You do realise that the consultation and meds from the vet will cost far more than the chicken plus any eggs she may produce?

Chickens do die for all manner of reasons: she may not have been kept sufficiently warm as an egg or chick (which causes heart problems) or she may be egg bound (can be terminal, shove some cod liver oil in her vent and hope for the best). The best you can do is keep her warm and quiet (airing cupboard?) and keep your fingers crossed.

Worms and/or mites are unlikely to cause these symptoms ime: worms would have to be very bad indeed (you can see them moving in fresh poo - they tend to give chooks diarrhoea so easy to spot) and mites will cause feather loss if bad.

Calisto - it cost £13 for the antibiotics and check up(worth it for peace of mind), not exactly more than the cost of the hen(well she was a present from my brother and worth more to us than she was to the chook breeder). The eggs she provides us, for very little imho, in the way of care and effort from us, these are pets that also provide eggs and much comedy entertainment!

We don't have hens for cost benefits, though the fresh eggs daily are worth way more than eggs people buy from shops...

You were lucky it only cost that much aefondkiss - sometimes a vet will charge £50+ for very little expertise!

How is she today? What colour is her poo? Might be worth worming with flubenvet - I do mine every Spring and Autumn, and in between if they look like they need it. Mite/Louse powder - I just put it in with their dust bath every 3 months or so and they treat themselves.

Also, do you give grit/oyster shell/calcium? She might have a calcium deficiency if she's laying softies.

Blimey, you've got a seriously cheap vet. It costs me £45 for the pleasure of seeing a vet if one of my animals needs it and that is before any meds are prescribed. So, sorry if it offends you, but my chooks don't get medicine if they are ill.

Good idea about the mite powder in the dust bath Tortoiseshell - how do you prevent it getting into the garden? (My chooks love dust bathing in the veg patch).

thanks TS, I was surprised it wasn't more expensive for the trip to the vet! I think the vet was quite happy to be treating a hen (novelty value?).

we haven't given grit/shell until now, because we thought they would get plenty, but dh is getting some today.

I will get some worming and mite stuff this weekend.

she seems so much better today, so hopefully she is on the mend, I thought she was really ill yesterday, so quite a miraculous recovery

it doesn't offend me Calisto, at the price of vets elsewhere! I am not sure we could afford our hens if they were going to have expensive medical needs. I think vets can't get away with charging that much around here?

I'm in the Cotswolds. Everything is expensive here.