[chuckmad]

Hi All,
my chuck is sitting on the ground and is very sleepy.  Her eyes are opening and closing.  Her comb and wattles are very very red and she seems puffed up (not as lean as usual). Normally she is very alert and follows us around but hasnt even looked in our direction today. The others seem to be ok.
She hasnt laid an egg yet.  Could she be egg bound or is she sick?
We've built a new run  for the chickens and just discovered that hens shouldnt eat some types of plants, such as buttercups, dock leaves and nettles.
Please help we cant loose a third hen?

[chuckmad]

We've just had a feel around and her crop is swollen and soft!

[Jeanette]

If she hasnt layed i would give her a warm bath. You need to keep her in the water for approx 40 minutes to an hour and have the water covering her vent. They normally relax and enjoys it when you get her out dry her with a hair dryer. This may help if she is having troble laying and if it isnt that then there is no harm done.   Give her a bath.

[Pretty Chick]

Yes, they do like having warm baths. I gave one of my pekins a bath and a blowdry today, it was her first time and she loved it.

I agree, give your hen a bath, see how she is and then take it from there  .
Hope she recovers  .

[chuckmad]

How do we tell the difference between a swollen crop and egg bound

[Pretty Chick]

Smell her breath, what does it smell like?
Your hen may have sour crop for you have said that her crop is swollen and soft.

From your description, it sounds like your hen might be egg bound, so if I were you I would give her a warm bath as soon as possible.

Sniff her breath first though and tell us if it smells bad or normal.

[chuckmad]

she doesnt seem to have bad breath but i cant really get a good whiff

[Casey76]

hens shouldnt eat some types of plants, such as buttercups, dock leaves and nettles.

Ha!  try telling my chickens that! though it's true they only eat certain types of nettles, and not all of them.

On a more serious note... on an evening a chickens crop should feel full and slightly granular (as it will contain the pellets/grain etc that she has eaten during the day)  If it feels soupy or spongy then it might be sour crop.  You will need to get hold of your chicken and open her beak to take a whiff.  Apparantly sour crop smells quite noxious.

I'm not au fait with the treatment as it's not something I've come across personally... sorry.

[chuckmad]

I decided to give her a warm bath, blow dry and put her into the garage (just in case it is sour crop).
I checked on her this morning, she seemed much better, but again I decided to leave her be for the day, with a nice big bowl of water and no food.
I arrived home from work and betty had laid her first egg!!!!!!!!!!
Her crop still feels big (not sure if that's normal for her) so I will just keep monitoring her. But so far so good, she seems back to herself.
Thanks for all the help!

[kzaba]

We think we have the same problem with one of our hens. We're beginners so not expert but we 'ran' our hen on adice from a friend. We made her run up and down the garden a few times two or three times yesterday and it did seem to perk her up. Maybe we'll bath her to day as well