possibly sick chicken

[lucaspayto]

Hi there,
I have owned chickens for a fair number of years and normally am able to identify any illnesses that they have had but have never posted on this forum before. This morning I noticed that one of my hens (pekin bantams) has lost some feathers from the top of her tail which I suspect is down to a barney between this hen and another but I also noticed that the hen is wandering around a bit slower than the others and every so often stops and does a long slow close of her eyes and is generally just sitting around where she is usually a very active one.

Apologies for the essay but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lucas payton

[Nicos]

Hi there and welcome to the Vine!

Gosh...do you have any piccies of her?
Have you checked for mites/lice/painful joints/impacted croup/eggbound/runny nose/eyes/cough/rattle?
Have you wormed her recently...and if so what with??
How old is she?

[Bigmallly]

Hello & welcome to the vine Lucas. I can't help with your problem but hope she is soon on the mend.

[lucaspayto]

Hi there, I have checked the hen over since I was able to separate her from the others and found nothing out of the ordinary apart from the start of scaly mite so I will begin to treat that tomorrow morning. They have a planned treatment for worms in two or so weeks so that could be a slight possibility.

I think that it may be that the hen is tired? Hopefully she will have perked up a bit in the morning.

Thanks for replying though.

[Scarlet]

When did you last worm them? If you've had them for a while and they are in the same ground you can worm 4 times a year (I do) I wouldn't wait for 2 weeks. Worms can really make them feel poorly and chickens don't often show they are ill until later on.

Good luck and keep us posted.