[viettaclark]

Lulu has been up and down for weeks now. She hasn't laid for nearly 3 weeks when she used to be very regular. It's been a bad few months with her injuring a leg which took 3 weeks to heal, laying a huge egg, then laying soft eggs and having a bum matted with cream coloured chalky gunge.
I am assuming she's reached the end of her lay and 21/2 years of regular extra-large eggs (she's a White Star) has exhausted her.
Her comb has lost it's vibrant red and is now dirty pale pink with blue tinges. She is still getting around, her tail is usually up, she does eat and drink a bit and enjoys a dust bath. But not like she used to.......she's very slow and takes frequent naps. Definitely not herself but not sick, egg-bound or got parasites. Poo is fairly normal. There's no infection or temperature.
Is the comb a sign of heart problems?

[joyfull]

yes the blue tinge is often a sign of heart trouble but can also be a sign of vitamin deficiency (marmite spread very thinly on toast - just a small bit can help).

[Beano]

I have an old hen that has a blue tinge to her comb every now and then (especially when the weather is hot). It's probably her heart (that's my chicken now not yours) but the marmite treat deffinately does help. They all have it at the same time and love it. Not too often though.

[viettaclark]

Thanks to both of you. I assume you mean a Vit.B lack? I'll spoil them all with a little Marmite toast today.
Don't they get yeasts in mixed corn? And I give them my wholewheat bread crusts too (if there're any left!!) and that has Bs?
I suppose it's a concentrated dose? Must say yeast tabs definitely perk me up!!!
Give it a go......

[hillfooter]

Probably not too much to worry about just a sign of age.  A multivit in her water wouldn't go amiss.  This one from ANTEC (Dupont) can be bought on line or at some farm shops and is very economic, much cheaper than the poultry specialist ones like Lifeguard and lasts a good while.

Try Wells Poultry online.

HF

[viettaclark]

Right! Toast and cooked brown rice tried but she wouldn't eat anything. When I let them out she sat in the rain sleeping and hardly moved round the garden. In the end I brought her in after she even refused to eat WORMS! (and pasta, cat food)
She is completely zonked, no temperature...if anything too low....but I was surprised her crop felt quite full and squigey seeing as she hasn't eaten anything.
Onto the site for info and I've syringed some olive oil down and massaged the crop which has now gone down....(quick! get the newspaper under her!) and also syringed her with a little water.
She perked up enough to try to resist weakly but is now in a box on my desk.
If it was sour crop I will kick myself. She is so light and I didn't notice the not eating really. 

[viettaclark]

Oh no! I 've done the wrong thing! Sour crop is a fungus and needs bio yog. not oil for a blocked crop!
The massage did clear it though....

[nuggets dad]

Our 4 get given bio yoghurt once a week , mixed with some porridge oats (supermarket value stuff) This seems to keep them all healthy and happy and their poo of good quality ,until i gave them too much lettuce and thinnings from the allotment and today they are a bit squidgy lol

Hope she pics up soon and returns to being a happy lady .

Mark

[viettaclark]

I've tried her with my probiotic stuff...just a pinch in water syringed. In a box and in my room and still breathing well.
See what the morning brings...

[viettaclark]

Sad time. She has just died. 

[Helenaj]

So sorry to hear she died - you did everything you could and sometimes these things just happen. 

[bantam novice]

So sorry Vietta     You have tried everything you could for her.

[joyfull]

so sorry 

[hillfooter]

She was clearly more sick than we thought and quite possibly an internal infection connected with her laying.  They don't always show their symptoms untill the illness is well advanced.  Hybrids and exbatts in particular are susceptible to problems at this stage in their lives.

Sorry to hear she didn't make it into a long retirement.

HF

[Sassy]

I am sorry but you really did try for her