Hi all, new to posting but have lurked a while and always found the forums extremely useful. I have a 10 month old Speckledy who to be honest has never been right since we got her at 17 weeks. She is very timid and gets bullied by our older hen although is friendly with the other 10 month old.
She moulted about a month ago - not sure why except thinking maybe stress brought it on. She has slowly become more and more lethargic, this week her breathing is laboured and after she eats (although this morning she wouldn't eat) she gapes as if to clear her throat. She shakes her head and scratches her ear area and her eyes are half closed. Hunched with tail and wings down. She only laid 3 pullet eggs when she was 22 weeks and then stopped and hasn't laid since.
She is wormed regularly, the coop and run are cleaned daily, food is fresh, she is supposed to be fully vaccinated against all the normal things. She wolfed down a scrambled egg with probiotics yesterday. There is garlic and ACV in the water. Diatom used once a week in the coop and no signs of lice on her. The other two are fine.
My instinct is to cull - as I said she has always been poorly with something. Husband wants to keep trying with her but he isn't the one doing all the looking after. We don't want to treat with antibiotics because it seems most likely viral, and we try to avoid them. We like our hens but they are for eggs primarily. I know I should isolate her but am worried that she won't be accepted back and we would end up culling anyway as I can't give her away.
I'm out of ideas now and to make it worse we are away at the weekend. A friend is looking after them but I don't want the hen dying on him! Is there anything else I can do?