Poorly hen - should I flap or chill?

Hi everyone

I am a new girl on the block so please bear with me if I am asking a 'newby' question

I have had 8 hens from a free range farm (ranging in age from 1 - 3 years old) for 2 weeks and everything has been going swimmingly apart from the emergence of an egg eater - but am on the case with this!

However have been keeping an eye on one of the 3yr olds as she didnt seem to be as in your face as the others and today she has started doing all the classic under the weather symptoms that I have read about - hunched, dull. tail down, very crappy bum etc - not interested in corn - and so she is obviously not right .

My question is...........
do I immediately rush in, wash the dodo off, seperate her and give her some minerals (or something) or do I leave it for a day or so and see if she gets better?

The other problem is I don't have anywhere separate  to put her yet apart from the metal feed shed or a greenhouse!

I am anxious to treat her right but not be a flapper
Any advice very gratefully received

Sparkle

Could be the start of myoplasma which will need a trip to the vets and some antibiotics to be on safe side.  with mine when they came down with this the first sign was the head shaking as they try to clear the nostrils of runny mucus.  Sooner the better really as she is one of the oldest may be a bit more run down from all the egg laying over the last few years.  Vet will advise to prob give meds to all as they sneeze on each other and spread that way.  You could just put her in dog crate or in a garage/shed to give her some rest if poss to reduce spread of infection.  May be that you could give your vet a ring and ask advice and you may not even have to take bird into stress it.  See how you get and and good luck.

i hope she gets better.
(although, do prepare yourself fo the worst - one of our ex-batts died recently after similar symptoms - I don't want to worry you unduly.)

hope the vet could sort her out.

and while you keep her separate, greenhouses are great!  they usually have slabs underneath to prevent mr fox getting in and plenty of soil and interesting pots for her to muck around in.... 

Hi Sparkle

You said her head was twitching, just wondering if it's a crop problem? I had one do that and it's crop was impacted

If possible check the crop first thing in the morning before she's eaten anything, it should feel quite empty

Was the egg she laid normal or a softie? Softies really take it out of the girls when they are trying to pass them

Sarah