[Mumoftwo]

Hi, I wonder if anyone has seen something like this before.
1 of my chickens has suddenly this afternoon come over funny. Her legs seem to give way and she sits down and looks like she us feigning an injury. Droopy tail and wings. I bought her up to a calm secure area and she ate a bit if corn but promptly laid down again. She then got up and Walked pretty normally across the lawn then sort if wilted again. On picking her up she felt very thin and her chest and belly was stripped of feathers. No sign of injury on wings or legs. She's now lying in the flower bed panting a bit.
Usually they are completely free range but last week we lost one to the fox so they have been in their run until today. So any thoughts?
Could she be traumatised from loosing one?
Been attacked herself?
My partner said she was fine this morning.
She's about a year old.
I think she's still laying.

[Mumoftwo]

Update:
Have just put her back in the pen and she's taken herself inside to bed. She walked with slight limp but tail and wings all normal. Her face was grey earlier but now she has gone back to red.

[bantam novice]

Hello Mumoftwo and welcome to the fourm.

I am not an expert but here are a few thoughts I had :-

When hens go broody they pull out their chest and belly feathers to heat up the eggs more efficiently.  Could she be going broody?  When they go broody they also puff themselves up and flatten themselves out.  Is she more cranky than usual?

How does her crop feel?
Does she have a temperature (you take this by feeling under the wing of one of your other girls then under her wing to see if she feels warmer)
Does she have any hot or swollen areas on her legs
You say she is panting a bit.  Is this all the time or only when she is lying down?  Is she opening her beak to gape?
When did you last worm them and what did you use?

Sorry about the inquisition but it will help us to help you.

In  the meantime good luck with your hen and keep us posted.

[Mumoftwo]

Hi and thanks for replying. Yes she felt a bit hot. She's not acting broody. She's not the friendliest so hard to tell. Worked about 7 weeks ago using stuff from the vet can't remember the name.
Crop felt normal, not as big as usual if anything. She has a definite limp but legs are nit swollen or hot and she was letting me feel them.
Her mouth was open yes. Only panted for a bit when lying down.

It was the colour in her face that worried me. My husband thinks she's been attacked but I think shed have some more obvious damage.

[Mumoftwo]

Sorry I'm on an iPhone and it auto corrects things (wrongly) when I type them!! Hopefully you can understand!

[Mumoftwo]

This mornings update:
I was expecting to find a body this Morning, but thankfully she appears fine. I think I may have found the problem too.
On doing the daily poop pick I checked Feathers on coop floor were covered in mite and eggs so that explains the plucking. Because they were free range they had lots of dust baths in our woodland but none in their run. So having kept them in for a week that exaggerated the problem.
2. Runny poop, so bit poorly maybe.

Anyway we are going to disinfect the hut, move it and the run and powder the hens again.

We are going to construct a bigger pen which is walk in and fox proof as what they've got is minimally large enough and because they love the great outdoors I can tell they gate it in there. It's currently about 1m by 6m and really boring for them. Our garden is fantastic for hens. We have a woodland area and stream and wildlife gardens so they get a varied diet to say the least! Pity about the local fox!
I'll try to get round to posting some pics.
Anyway relief she seems ok this morning.

[bantam novice]

Sounds like you have the problem cracked.   Oh those pesky redmite are persistant ****ers and live in the ground or the cracks and crevices of the coop.  I should have thought of that myself as a suggestion! 

If you type redmite into the search box in the top right-hand corner you will find all sorts of info about how to get rid of them.  If you can get hold of some Diatom (Diatomaceous Earth) powder you can make a paste or slurry by adding some water and a little washing up liquid or poultry guard and paint it onto the coop paying attention to the cracks and crevices that redmite can live in and particularly the ends of the perches. 

Good Luck!   

[Mumoftwo]

I know! Awful I've showered and washed my hair twice and still feeling them on me. I can't believe it got so bad in the coop so quickly as we clean it out every week and poop pick daily. They were everwhere as soon as you homed in on them. We turned the coop upside down and scrubbed with ms bleach solution and they lived through that! The ground was crawling, yuk! All powdered now but will get something I can spray around in there as probably better at getting in the crevices as you say. Feel awful about it! They're happy scratching around on afresh plot now. Pesky fox ruined my free rangers!!

[bantam novice]

No need to feel guilty.  Redmite is a regular topic on this forum and most of us have encountered it