[Sarah C]

Hi all. Looking for some advice on what might be wrong with one of our chickens. She has not seemed herself for a while. She's had a floppy comb for a couple of months, but seemed otherwise ok adn was laying. Over last couple of weeks though she has become withdrawn (if a chicken can be described like that!), she doesn't run around and if she comes out of the run she generally just stands or sits with feathers all ruffled up looking very tired and miserable. She used to be the feisty one so it is very out of character. she is also now eating less than usual and has stopped laying this week. We've also noticed since yesterday her eyes have gone bubbly, which hopefully shows in the picture. We have another chicken of a different breed and she seems unaffected.
Have booked her to go to the vet on Monday, but wondered if anyone had any thoughts in the meantime on what could be wrong. I'd hate to think she was in pain / suffering.
Thanks.
Oh and she's just over two years old.

[joyfull]

she looks very poorly, I would get her to the vets as quickly as possible. This illness has been going on for quite a while now. It looks like a respiritory infection (possibly micoplasma) and so she will need a course of antibiotics (my vet prescribes aureomycin but others will use tylan or baytril). It is infectious so you will need to treat your other chicken.

[Sarah C]

Thanks. Monday is the first time they could get us in so  I just hope she's ok until then. This very poorly look has really only come on in the last week, otherwise we would have taken her ages ago. She had seemed ok in herself, just a floppy comb before, but this is definitely a marked change for the worse.

[Brad26]

Sorry to hear about your chicken but one of mine came out of the house the other week with what looked like a golf ball sized bit of flesh on the side of her head completely covering her eye and a slightly smaller one on her other eye.....she was pretty much blind and walking into things. Took her to the vet straight away and got injected with some baytrill and another dose 2 days later, the swelling went down and she's fine now so try not to worry too much.

[Sarah C]

thanks Brad26, that's reassuring to hear. Let's hope she can wait until Monday without it getting too much worse. Have tried tempting her with corn treats today and she ate some, but has definitely lost her usual lust for life.

[Sarah C]

As an update. We took Coucou to the vets Monday and she seems to have an infection in the roof of her mouth and possibly mycoplasma, vet was not sure though as the eye / nasal symptoms could apparently all stem from the undetected mouth infection. She is very underweight from not eating well recently.
So she had an injection of antibiotics and we have more to give her morning and evening. She seems a bit perkier and has ventured out a bit more and is having a go at eating now, but still not right. Instructions are to keep going with the antibiotics until Monday and then we have a follow up appointment to see how she's doing. Fingers crossed a few more days on them and she'll be getting better.

[sarah f]

sounds  promising sarah

[Pretty Chick]

I'm glad Coucou is looking slightly better 
Hope she makes a full recovery.