Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: wellies101 on April 17, 2010, 13:18
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Help
We have 4 chickens and one is ill. She is very lethargic, drinking lots, eating a little bit and has yellow, liquidy poo. She spends most of her time sat underneath the coop. Any ideas what could be wrong and what we can do to help her greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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no idea, sorry. Hopefully someone will be along soon with some good ideas
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how long has she been like this? does she have a temperature? - feel under her wing and then feel under a wing of a healthy hen. Does she have a snotty nose or sound chesty or a bubbly eye? When was they last wormed?
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No snotty nose or eyes or bubbly cough. I'll check her temperature in a bit. We've had them for about 6 months now and not wormed them yet.
Just bought "Verm-X Herbal liquid for poultry, ducks and fowl. Internal parasite control" so will give that a whirl to see if things clear up.
Thanks for the help so far,any more appreciated.
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And now we think shes laying eggs with very thin shells and has been for the last 3 days or so. :(
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Ok, laying shell less eggs can take it out of a hen. Do you have a pot of oyster shell available for them at all times?
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yeah there's plenty of oystershell and grit freely available for them. The eggs aren't shell-less, but they are very, very thin shelled.
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Ok so it sounds like she either isn't absorbing the calcium or isn't getting enough. Cut out any corn and meal worm treats and make sure she has plenty of greens as these help with absorbtion. If this carries on then get some limestone flour and give her a little pinch on something like a grape half. Do this for just a few days.
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Thanks for the advice joyful. Will up the greens, they get very little corn and have never had mealworms. She seems much brighter this morning so maybe it was a difficult egg? We'll carry on with the wormer because they'll all need that anyway and their coop is due for a clean out today too so I'll make sure it has a deep clean.
Fingers crossed she's coming throught the other side now!
Many thanks all
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The Verm-x is more of a prevention for worm control and you would be better to worm her with Flubenvet. However, if she is just under the weather rather than wormy I would not worm her until she is stronger.