Light weight chicken?

[Graham K]

OK, I'm back again with more prob's with my weird trio.

While rearranging and darkening the roost and nest box the other day (thanks for the help) I gave the girls a quick look over to check for mites and "stuff".

All three are clear of the crawly things but I did notice one of the girls was nowhere near as heavy as the other two, not just a little bit lighter, the others are along the lines of two or three times heaver.

They all appear to be eating and drinking ok, no obvious pecking order problems and are all the same size and age, so I was wondering if it could be a worm of some sort? They were all wormed a little while ago (Flubenvent) so I'm not sure.

Is it safe to re-worm after about six/eight weeks or should I be looking at some special attention for the light weight one? Apart from being significantly lighter than the other two she looks fine.

As always, all comments appreciated.

Graham.

[RichmondHens]

Can you feel her keel (breastbone)? Is it sharp and pronounced. This is the obvious sign of an underweight chicken. She may be normal and the other two overweight. Had you considered that? If she was wormed only 8 weeks ago the worm burden is unlikely to be large and I would expect the other two to be showing symptoms too. Heavy worm burdens generally produce symptoms such as diarrhoea, reduction or cessation of laying and general unhealthy appearance. I think as long as she is still behaving in a perky manner and feeding and drinking and pooing normally then there is nothing seriously amiss.

[Graham K]

OK now I'm really confused. Breast bone is way out there so she is definitely under weight, but at this evenings corn feed she was up and running before I got to the "house" and pecking away like no ones business.

Is it possible that she has gone off her normal feed (small holder range layers pellets) and is just not eating enough? As far as I've seen she is eating OK but I can't watch them all day!

As an after thought, we are still not getting any regular egg laying from any of the three, at least a couple of months now, (see; Where have all the eggs gone) two or three eggs per week in total.

[RichmondHens]

She may be being bullied off the food which doesn't happen when you are around "supervising" or she may be stressed about something which would also tie in with the lack of eggs.

[Graham K]

Whatever is wrong it's not getting any better.

Today I tried a couple of handfuls of feed, layers pellets, on the run floor to try and encourage eating, she fed for less than a minute, stopped and just stood there motionless with her head pulled in (like she has no neck) the other two are still feeding from the floor.

So the "symptoms" so far are;

1.Weight loss.
2.Not eating, probably accounts for the first one!
3.Standing around motionless.
4.Head tucked in (no neck).
5.No eggs, none are laying at the moment though!

On the good side, she still has bright eyes and good colour and is still getting around albeit not as much as the other two.

Unfortunately I have a horrible feeling as to what is going to happen very soon, we will see.

Graham.

[jessmorris]

I hate to say it Graham, but one of my growers had these symptoms. It may be something else but the head pulled in is quite distinctive. He had E.coli of the brain and eventually his head was pulled in so tight it stared at the sky. I do hope its not this as they go very slowly...I culled mine in the end.

[RichmondHens]

She sounds very poorly. What you are describing is the classic poorly chicken stance. What she has however could be any number of things. In the absence of more definitive symptoms all you can do is wait and watch and encourage eating and drinking although given she is losing weight this is obviously something that has been going on a while and it is only now that you can see she is ill. If she is very inactive a warm box in a quiet place somewhere may be better for her than with the others. I'm with JM on this though, doesn't sound hopeful.

I would also be concerned about the lack of eggs. This is peak production time, every hen in the country should be laying by now. Even my ancient geriatrics are popping out a few. Unless they are eating them without you noticing then there is something amiss somewhere.

[jessmorris]

Did you use a 'proper' medicinal wormer like Flubenvet? Some of them aren't (despite their claims), so won't have any effect...just a thought. Also red mites don't live on the birds, are you itchy after cleaning out the coop? Sorry for obvious questions!

This is a bit of a grim pic, I'm including it for interest as much as anything...
JM

[Graham K]

Yes it was "proper" medication, Flubenvent. I've been worming every six months as it says on the packet/box but was wondering if it's possible to maybe just "under-worm" and not give them enough over a long enough period etc?

Google and forums are a wonderful thing, if your careful.

So far I know it's not;

1. Impacted crop.
2. Sour crop.
3. The thing in the picture, I think it's called sky neck or something.
4. Anorexia, if a chicken can't spell it they can't get it!

But it may have been;

1. Overgrown beak.

Did you know on occasion you have to trim a beak, nor did I, heard about claws but not beaks.Two of mine had the top beak overhanging at the sides, one is fine the other is the light weight. Two minutes with a pair of nail clippers and both beaks were all nice and "pointy" again.
This morning Miss Light-Weight has a neck again and I'm not 100% sure but I think she is eating more? I doubt it is as simple as that but you never know, I'll keep an eye on her and let you know.

Thanks for all the advice so far, Graham.

[Hilary B]

If the beak was overgrown at the sides (sort of a straight across end, instead of a point?) It may be a symptom of having the beak shortened for intensive keeping system, they do this when the hens are babies and it sometimes regrows a funny shape (I think a sign that it was slightly over-trimmed). If sorting that out has got her eating, you may have solved it, but keep close watch, because it may go wrong again.

[jessmorris]

The pic is the bird with E.coli of the brain...just for info! Scary pic!