Hen is unwell

Yahooaccount

Hi,

My hen ( who is about 9 months old ) has recently started acting unusually. She is still eating and drinking, but has become somewhat lazy. Her symptoms have lessoned over the week but they're still there.

For example, she used to run to the door of her hutch to eat grass but now she doesn't make much of an effort. Also, last week, she spent the whole day lying down and her wings looked very floppy. She was also closing her eyes. Whenever her sister came near her she would make noises.
We only have the two hens.

Today, I went out to collect our eggs but instead of finding two eggs, I found one by the other hen and a jelly thing left ( like a yolk ) by the sick hen.

Does anyone know what this could be? We asked our vet but he said it could be a number of things and veterinary medicine for hens in Ireland is very behind anyway so there wouldn't be proper medication for her.

Does anyone know the reason for her behaviour? She has improved over the week but I'm still worried.

Sigma Force

I don't see why a vet can't treat her, I'd get a second opinion from a different vet that has more experience with birds.

Sounds like she could have some sort of infection or virus and perhaps is coming to the end of it now as she's improving.
Obviously goes without saying not to use her eggs for a couple of weeks perhaps months until you find out what it is.

In the mean time ensure she's drinking well and eating, check her poop as well and take a note of it and compare it with the healthy hens poop.

It's be a good idea to take a sample of the poop to another vet to see if there's anything unusual going on.

A suppliment would be good too, can you get your hands on critical care? Or something similar which is fine to use on birds in general but just double check to see if it's ok to use on hens. It's a suppliment with pro biotics and bascially a good 'pick me up' for poorly critters.

There's a website called irishfowl.com they might be able to suggest something.

Jinxi

From what I know of hen biology(limited) the lack of a shell on her egg suggests she isn't eating normally as they use the grit to shell them.
Your vet is copping out. Ring around and ask other vets if they treat hens. The least she should get is a shot of antibiotics!

Qualitymark

May I suggest that you go to the Feathersite

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultrySites.html

and join the DomBird maillist?

This is a high-traffic list, but it's good; it's peopled by hen breeders of all types from people like yourself with one or two hens, to hill folk in Virginia with a backyard flock going back to the 17th century, to Africans and Australians and Indians with their own particular type of hen, to large-scale poultry farmers. They can answer every question you're likely to ask.

You might also look here:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2283