[laurahargreaves1]

Hello my name is Laura and I have 5 hens, 3 of which are about 10 months old and the other 2 about 28 weeks. I have noticed that one of my hens is not her normal self. I have been monotoring her, they are regularly wormed with flubenvet and have grit, garlic, chicken spice and cider vinegar on a regular basis. Her crop has gone dark and so have her eyes. Usually she is the one out of all of them to be by my side in the garden and lets me pick her up easily but recently she seems despondant.

I have had to chase her to pick her up, which I have just done so, her crop is heaving and she is eating and drinking well.

Any advice is welcome for my poorly Florence

Thanks

[mumofstig]

hello Laura, I'm sorry I can't help with hens

I'll move this over to the Hen House, where you should get some advice

[laurahargreaves1]

Thank you

[bantam novice]

Hello Laura and welcome to the forum. 
I'm not an expert but you could try taking the chicken's temperature by feeling under the wing of one of your other girls then using the same hand to feel under her wing to see if she feels hot(ter).
Have you checked her vent?  She could have an egg stuck or be laying softies.  This makes hens feel under the weather.
Is she moulting? Are there loads of feathers around?  This also seems to make chickens feel a little unwell
Good luck and keep us posted

[hillfooter]

Hello Laura,

Goes the crop feel heavy & pendulous, feels squashy and does her breath smell.  If so it could be sour crop.  Try googling for this condition but it is due to a blockage in the crop and fermentation starting.  It's a serious condition sometimes caused by eating grass cuttings.  You need to get her to regurgitate the contents of the crop by upending her and gently squeezing the crop to expell the contents.  You may need to do this several times.  Once clear you can give her some cod liver oil and feed her with a natural probiotic yogurt.  Ensure she has layers pellets and mixed poultry grit separately ad lib and cut out the the other supplements like ACV and garlic and any other treats until she is recovered.

If her crop is heavy stiff and hard feeling she could be crop bound which means there's a blockage which you need to shift by getting it to be ingested normally.  You can try giving a couple of spoons of cod liver oil and massaging the crop.

In either case unless you can properly diagnose and treat the condition a vets visit maybe needed which you should do asap if there's any deterioration or she's not showing signs of improvement.  In severe cases which don't respond to external manipulation a small surgical proceedure maybe needed to empty the crop.  Only a vet can do this.
HF

[laurahargreaves1]

Thank you all, it is very much appreciated. My partner has checked on her this morning and the contents of her crop had not gone so have massaged that down and there was some wind that came out of her! He also spotted a mite so will get some treatment for that today and do all the girls. Have segregated her from the others and just given her food and water no supplements so will get her some yogurt today.

Thank you all for your help and I will keep you updated

Laura

[hillfooter]

Thank you all, it is very much appreciated. My partner has checked on her this morning and the contents of her crop had not gone so have massaged that down and there was some wind that came out of her! He also spotted a mite so will get some treatment for that today and do all the girls. Have segregated her from the others and just given her food and water no supplements so will get her some yogurt today.

Thank you all for your help and I will keep you updated

Laura

Red Mite live in the house and aren't usually seen on the bird unless at night or there's a really bad infestation so you need to either start a regime of frequent (once every 5 days or so for as long as it takes deep cleaning using a detergent (cheap washing up liquid with a slurp of household disinfectatnt is a good cheap treatment) or Poultry Shield is an expensive one which many use and isn't any more effective.  

Don't bother treating the birds with powder and any marked red mite powder or spray made by Barrier.  It's just expensive bird talc which is only a dubious deterant and won't kill RM and is much more expensive and less effective than DE.  Use DE (Diatomaceous Earth) slurry paint made from a dilute disinfectant base with a slurp of washing up liquid after they have all GONE.  Or otherwise use a pesticide spray for a one off residual treatment of the house which should last a year.

Best of luck
HF

[laurahargreaves1]

Thank you, have been and bought some powder already and just finished doing all of them (quite a challenge to catch them all unwillingly!) Florence was covered in little white lice things and so doused her well with it and cleaned out the coop and waiting to spray mite and lice stuff in it when it is dried.

I think this is the only issue now it has been detected... could it be this that is giving her the other issues?

Thank you all again

Laura

[hillfooter]

Thank you, have been and bought some powder already and just finished doing all of them (quite a challenge to catch them all unwillingly!) Florence was covered in little white lice things and so doused her well with it and cleaned out the coop and waiting to spray mite and lice stuff in it when it is dried.

I think this is the only issue now it has been detected... could it be this that is giving her the other issues?

Thank you all again

Laura

Red Mite Powder is sterilised corn flour with added herbal aromatic essences and the active ingredient (if you can all it that) is citriodiol (Sp?) a mozzy repellant.  The louse powder is essentially identical (the active ingredient is the same) except it has a coat glosser for horses (I think it's based on avocado), the horse fly repentant is the same active ingredioent as is the Red Mite spray.  The RM powder costs £10 - £13 for half a kilogram which doesn't go very far and is essentially very expensive flour.  Which is why I described it as talc.  It does smell nice. 

I and many keepers I have known have not found these products effective for killing RM and dealing with an infestation.  When I contacted the manufactures of the active component Citrodiol they denied any knowledge of it's effectiveness for repelling RM.  It's marketed as a component for use in organic mozzy repellant and has scientific data to show it to be effective against certain species of mozzies that were used in the tests.  Barrier claim it is effective but refused to share any test data with me unlike the citrodiol manufacturers. 

My wife uses the horse spray version and finds it effective for about 20mins for flies but she sprays it on therself.  I know how the flies feel so I'm not surprised.

If you want to zap lice or any creepy crawlies which live on the bird use Frontline cat strength four drops on the skin back i=of the neck for large fowl or two drops for bantams.  Repeat in 5 weeks until there are no signs.  FL is available on line or from Costco or from your vet (expensive).

HF