off-chicken

[Sunbeam]

Dolly, my big chicken is looking off colour... she lives outside with 2 ex battery girls and is approx 2 years old.

She is normally big, glossy and quite proud looking (holds her head up) but she has recently become quite thin. Her face around her eyes looks dehydrated - except there is plenty of water available... she is eating, although I don't know how much. She lost all her tail feathers, these are growing back, but her bottom was never pecked...she is also looking very shabby at the back of her neck, where her neck meets her back. If I didn't know better I would think she was being bullied by the other two; but it is usually her that does the 'hen-pecking' and I haven't seen any evidence of the others taking over. She isn't laying... I wondered whether she maybe in moult, but last time this happened they all went off colour.

She has always been very skittish and doesn't let you too close to her and to be honest I doubt I could catch her to take her to the vets. Does anyone have any ideas??

[TPeers]

If it isn't moult... redmite? Have you dusted recently? The blasted things get into the most ridiculous cracks and crevices. I just spent 1.5 hours cleaning the hen house, hosing the things out of corners and around framing bars.

[Birdie Wife]

Have you wormed her recently? The vet can give you something for her that can be put in her drinking water, or there's Vermex pellets (which I use) to mix with food. The shabbiness could just be down to the moult but the other syptoms sound a bit more like something else.

[daisychook]

Sunbeam, have you tried syringing water into her (I know you said she is skittish, but its definitely worth a try). If you can stop her being dehydrated I think that will help (unless there is something else wrong) until you can go to a vet. IMHO I think they do tend to lose wait in the moult, we lost a chook a couple of weeks ago, she went very thin, with no real other symptoms other than being quiet and in her moult - dont know if there is any connection - anyway we took her to the vet who diagnosed a probable non specific 'virus' and gave us some Baytril. The only thing I have picked up is that when they get ill, they tend to use up their supplies of fat etc trying to fight off the illness/infection - hence my dehydration theory and I also try and feed them too to give the strength and stamina to keep fighting!! My vet gave me some hydration salts which she said taste like lucozade. Having said all this and giving you the benefit of my vast wisdom (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), we lost our chook, so I havent got all the answers, but maybe some of this may help!!!

[CountryFayre]

There are various tonics aound to help birds in stresssful times like moulting, which ones you use tends to be a personal thing but there is Poultry spice (a powder you add to feed) Poultry drink and poultry boost which you add to the water just for starters. The spice and drink have both been around for years, the poultry boost was launched a couple of years ago. Older birds tend to moult a lot more drastically than younger birds, some go almost bald! I have an old turkey hen that looks like she is ready to go in the oven at the moment bless her!

[peafailure]

it sounds to me like she is just moulting, the majority of vets would be unable to advise you about about chickens apart from giving antibiotics.Ensure she has a balanced diet of pellets/corn and extra greens from the garen and she will get over the moult and start laying again.If she goes off her food then there is an organic problem which will need to be dealt with differently.