[CattinJ]

I have a poorly chook with the following symtoms - not all the time but on a few occasions:

Mornings -looks hunched, tired and sometimes isolates herself from the others.
A few mornings her comb has been edged with purple.
Not eating much.

Afternoons: comb back to pink colour, perky, eating and running with the gang.

Constant symptoms: soft shelled eggs and always thirsty.

Today when I put her in the coop I noticed her crop wasnt as full as the others so I dont think she's eating enough.
I am going to send throat swab to Retford Poultry for examination - but wondered if anyone recognised these symptoms?

Cat

[poultrygeist]

Hi Cat.

Does she visit the feeder as ofen as the others ?

Could it be she's being bullied away from the feeder/drinker ?

Not sure about the blue comb though. That's usually heart/circulation problems.

Rob

[redmolly]

She could be like that because she is about to lay a softie!! Need to tackle that first I believe. It's a lot more painful and uncomfortable than a normal egg.  A couple of mine have been like that before laying a soft one. How long has this been going on?? Suggest you look at curing the soft shells first tho! 

[CattinJ]

Thanks both - in answer to your questions:
I don't think she's being bullied, she's in there with the leader at the top....just seems off her food some mornings.
I thought heart problems when I saw the blue comb but it always seems to disappear by the end of the day.   

Regarding the softies, I have been giving liquid calcium for nearly 2 weeks now...
Would the blue comb be due to laying softies too?

[redmolly]

I'm not sure about the blue comb bit sorry! Maybe she is having too much calcium - although not sure of the effect of that. I've given my girls baked & crushed egg shells with their food when I've had a few softies and all seems well. One of mine goes dreadfully pale and a little blueish - whilst the other goes bright red!!
Laying softies can be really bad for their muscles.
Can u section her off with some food (and egg shells) and leave her to it??
It may end up being a combination of things tho 

[Vember]

Has she ever been ill with anything else before,  since you had her cold like symptom etc...?

[CattinJ]

Hi Vember.
She's an ex bat and we've only had her for abt 10 weeks....she was the most pecked and bald one when we got her, but up until now it was only the soft eggs that seemed to be the problem.
She seemed so poorly a couple of weeks back (tho in hindsight perhaps I was over reacting as I thought she might have peritonitus) that we took her to the vets and they gave her a course of antibiotics.
But that's it - no rattley breathing/bubbly eyes or anything...

She does tend to eat her own soft eggs - will this make her ill?

[poultrygeist]

There's something in the back of my mind about vit deficiecy and soft eggs/circulation probs.

In order to facilitate calcium uptake, they need vitamin D also. You can give that via cod liver oil, but only a little bit.

ALso, vit B12 deficiency can cause anaemia. A small amount of marmite can sort that.

Rob

[poultrygeist]

Did a quick search and found this thread...

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=43698.0

Being an ex bat, she may be worn out physically.

Rob

[Foxy]

Oh dear, she sounds very poorly I'm afraid, there are a few things that exbatts commonly seem to suffer from, that also interfere with laying. It sounds like either general cage fatigue, or could be something more sinister like tumours, the symptoms are often blue tinged comb and egg laying problems.

I doubt she has anything contagious due to a vigorous vaccination programme that would have been applied.

Keep a close eye, a visit to the vet would be good to detirmine if there is any lingering infection that another course of a/bs would help. Also, the vet would listen to her lungs to check for any fluid build up.

Double check her crop, first thing in the morning and at night - have a sniff -can you detect any odour? this would eliminate any digestive problem

Good luck, I am afraid it could just be one of those things..

[redmolly]

Aw bless!!

[CattinJ]

Thanks all so much.
Crikey, I really hope not's not tumours!  I seem to be doing pretty much all I can at the moment. Our vets are kind but not particularly clued up on chickens so think I'll get the swab sent off snd see if that can help detect anything...

[CattinJ]

sorry - just wanted to add that she's sounding very wheezy.
No discharge from eyes or nose - and not rattly.  Just wheezy like if one had a very heavy chest cold...

[karlooben]

this sounds like one of my girls but mine has been like this on and of for quite some time now , foxy an vember know what bird i am talking about if they remember  . i am in two minds wether to let her go or not but she eats really well and at the mo i have her in quantine although she dont like it , one min shes happy then next she can be acting all quiet like shes sulking with her head tucked in to her chest and eyes shut  she baffles me .