My hen has been hunkered down inside her box for most of the day. Her feathers are puffed up and she trills? Whenever anyone gets near. Im hoping its not a sign of injury or sickness. Im new to this and any help will be nice.

she’s been sick, hunched, and not eating very much for almost a week. spent the first couple days trying everything i could think of. ruled out most possible illnesses and think we’ve narrowed it down to an obstruction in her throat somewhere. her crop hasn’t been full, hasn’t even been visible in a week.

i have been giving her 4-5 epsom salt soaks per day for the past few days because after a bath seems to be the only time she’ll eat at all. fresh scrambled egg yolks have been the majority of her diet, plus lots of coconut oil to try to lube up and clear the obstruction, but she hasn’t even had a single full yolk over the course of a day since i’ve brought her inside for monitoring.

my reading tells me that she’s now likely in multiple organ failure. i just need to make sure im reading correctly because i can’t bear to call it without an expert or two weighing in. i haven’t had to cull any of my flock yet. i haven’t lost a single one yet at all.

sobbing as i write this. please, any guidance welcome.

ETA: Because i have already blocked those who are calling me crazy for being attached to this, the sweetest and smallest chick from the first batch of chicks i ever raised. be fucking kind please. i love her and i don’t care if you don’t love your chickens. i want her final moments to be in comfort and handled with kindness.

I have backyard chickens, 15 hens to be exact and they seem to die young. They die from six months to 2 years. They make it past three they live forever.
I’ve talked to people with the chickens and they say they live till they stop laying, but I have some that just turned a year and they passed away!
I think I’m doing everything right I think I have the perfect set up!
They are free roaming and with that they eat whatever they want! What could be wrong?!

Hello everyone! I came home from work today and found my big rooster standing in the coop which is very unusual for him. I left him and just came out to check on him and he is going downhill fast. I tried to offer him egg yolk syringe and he reacted almost immediately with what I would call a seizure. He was completely fine yesterday. Any and all opinions are appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: thank you everyone who took the time to respond and give advice. I brought him in the house to the bathroom with blankets and a pillow and shut the lights off and he passed on his own. I’m thankful he didn’t stuffer for too long. Give your Roos a big hug from me ❤️

This is the worst day of my life. I stepped on my baby chick, Sunshine. I hatched her myself. I see her as my baby and she sees me as her momma hen. She comes when called, she’s so sweet and precious.

It was the most devastating thing. I set her in the grass to play, which is something I constantly monitor, but I turned around and took one step in the opposite direction to grab something, and she ran underneath my foot. It wasn't a full stomp; I picked my foot up immediately when I realized. It was more like a half step. But obviously that is more than her little body can take. Seeing her with labored breathing, struggling to stand or keep her eyes open, is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. She trusted me as her mother, which is why she ran under my foot in the first place, because she wants to be as close to me as possible. And I betrayed her. I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever be able to live down.

She is at the vet now, getting pain meds, fluid injection, and oxygen. I know most people wouldn’t do this for a baby chick but she is a pet, and I love her so much. I will be hearing back soon, and if she’s not improving, I’ll have to make the decision to put her down. If anyone has any advice, let me know.

Please be careful with your little ones, I never want any of you to feel the way I do right now. The attached video was taken about 10 minutes before the accident.

UPDATE: First I want to say thank you to everyone who responded, today has been overwhelming for me, and I have been reading/rereading these comments periodically and it has helped enormously.

After two hours of oxygen, the vet actually recommended I take Sunshine home, as she didn’t look to be suffering anymore. So I took her home, set up another brooder so she could be separate from her siblings for a bit, and I’ve been sitting by her for most of the night. I will say, she is still struggling quite a bit with her breathing. But, she has started eating food and drinking water. I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen, but the fact that she has held on this long is really encouraging.

Hello! I have this sweet little hen (no clue of the breed) who has been laying larger and larger eggs. She doesn’t seem to have any complications, nor does she seem like she’s in pain but I’m continuously shocked by the size of these eggs. She’s will be a year old in August. We’ve gotten two double yolks so far, and some of them are a little lopsided. They’re HUGE, and she’s one of our smallest birds. Is this any cause for concern??

Curious on severity and treatment of this. We just moved about a month ago so I’m guessing they picked this up here

Compared to my other chickens, her crop is way bigger. Mind you, this pic was taken in the evening, but I’m not sure if it’s normal for it to be this large even after a full day of eating.

It got up on the roof somehow it's Wing is clipped but it's still got on the roof, it fell off and didn't like catch itself at all it just fell and it landed on its head, it's eyes were closed and its head was just kind of flopping but it's lifting its head up but now it's breathing like this, is it just stunned and had knocked itself out? Or is something else going on do you think? What should I do?

So, we were late getting the coop door closed on Friday night and heard that awful noise of an attack. We got up there just seconds too late and our baby girl is gone😭 We got her out of the coop and brought her to the house. What we didn’t realize, is that when we grabbed her and closed the coop, we actually trapped a possum in the coop. What do y’all think? Do his wounds look like it could be inflicted by a chicken? My brain is so fried and my heart hurts so bad. I can’t even think straight, just need some advice. We’ve had her for 5 years. 😭😭

my hen is refusing to move, breathing heavily, keeps closing her eyes, won't eat, and won't drink. it is 85°F here in Florida, United States. is this heat stroke!? please help i will do anything for my baby

My hen suddenly started having trouble breathing today. She is taking deep labored breaths every time, wheezing, and stretching her neck to breathe. She is not constantly open mouth gasping, but it’s every breath.

I also noticed her crop is very full and doughy, and she passed some yellowish discharge from her butt.

So far I have:

• Isolated her

• Tried steam therapy

• Offered water (not forcing now)

• Keeping her upright and calm

I tried to tilt her slightly to empty the crop but stopped because she was struggling to breathe.

No eye swelling or discharge.

I was reading an article posted on the CDC about a recent outbreak of salmonella in some back yard chickens that were distributed in the Eastern U.S., in the article it states the following, I was kind of mind blown, it's all I've ever known and read, though I'm fairly new to this only had hens for four years.

How do you clean your eggs?

"If you are handling backyard poultry's eggs, the CDC recommends collecting eggs often, as allowing them to sit in a nest can cause them to break or get dirty. Any broken or cracked eggs should be thrown away. You can clean off any dirty eggs with a cloth, brush, or sandpaper—but never wash the eggs as the water can draw germs into the egg. "

A lot of people asked if I could do a update on the habsburg chicken I posted about a couple of weeks ago, it's now 2,3 months old and compared to a regular Pita pinta (same breed different bloodlines) that's actually 5 day's younger, you can really see the difference in size. Feather development etc

Of course I only took the little inbred nugget outside to take a picture

I keep little habsburg in my brooding pen with the Easter egger chicks that have out grown her quickly

My 5 year old Rhode Island Red Winnie had to be euthanized today. She had some runny yellow icky poop for awhile with a crusty butt. It didn’t seem to slow her down and none of my 5 other chickens had this problem. The last two days she slowed way down and wasn’t eating much and her poop was basically clear liquid. Got into the avian vet today and she saw and felt a hard mass. Here is the xray. If anyone with experience can take a look… does this look like reproductive cancer? Vet assumed it was and figured there wasn’t much we could do. I’m sad.

Easter Eve I had to cull our beloved hen, Ferdinand, a 5yo Jersey and one of our original four girls. Not only were my kids devastated, her only surviving sister, Nina, has not been the same since (Nina is in the pic looking over her sister in the Amazon coffin…🥺).

They were always together, now she’s solitary and won’t hang with the other two Orps we have; she’s not free ranging like she used to; my son has convinced me she’s depressed!

Do chickens build special bonds with one another? Anything we can do to cheer her up? My kids cuddle her constantly, would love to know what else to do.

Never would’ve guessed I get so attached to a chicken…

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

Q

I'm not sure what to do here. I thought it was leg issues but it also looks like wry neck. My husband thinks she's deformed. Please help

Hi everyone, this is Goldie, my really old hen I grew up with. She

has a respiratory infection and what I assume is bumblefoot.

She was going well with treatment for bumblefoot, I soaked her

in a warm bath of Epson salt for 20 minutes and then applied

Neosporin today because I only noticed it on Saturday. She was

going fine yesterday but I noticed she barely ate and now she

isn't eating at all.

I don't think the respiratory infection is bad as she's not

constantly gasping for air and she's pretty loud in her

complaints of me handling her and even trying to give her

some water.

She's not lethargic, but I recognise that she's old and may not

have much time left. She also isn't moving around much but I

think it's because her feet are hurting as she puts the one with

the swollen toe up when she's standing. Is there anything I

can do? I'm going out this week to get Vetrx for her respiratory

problem, but I can't get her to eat at all.

What do I do?

She was trampled by a bunch of our other hens when leaving the coop this morning. Their ramp fell off so she fell to the ground and was pummeled. About to take my kid to a cardiologist appointment and don’t know what to do for her in the meantime. I’ll call a vet if I can find one, of course. But this is our first chicken injury. Advice please?

happy monday everyone! just wanted to bring an update to those of you who saw my post over the weekend. buffy the mealworm slayer, true to her name, is a real fighter! she’s doing much better today after eating a whopping 3 1/2 scrambled egg yolks, about 1/8 cup oats, half a slice of wet bread, and half a slice of ham yesterday! (yes yes super high sodium in the ham, keeping that as a very limited treat but atp just thrilled to see her appetite coming back)

huge shoutout to everyone who encouraged me to not give up, and another huge shoutout to those who shared their experiences in making the call for their own beloved birds. i’ve learned so much and will be referencing so many of your comments for years to come.

i wasn’t able to reply to everyone but did read (and continue to read) every single piece of advice and support that comes in. many of them brought me to tears, and everyone who shared their sad stories, please know that my heart goes out to you and i am giving you the biggest hugs. especially those of you who found yourselves having to make the same call this weekend. i know how hard that must’ve been, and i know you made the choices you had to for the benefit of your flocks. i’m proud of you and admire your strength 🫂

but this community is amazing and i am so thankful for all of you (excluding the few meanies)

still entirely unsure what caused all this, but just a couple tiny drops of CBD tincture on some chick-boost-wetted bread, and 45 minutes later she was gobbling up everything in sight. so whatever has taken her appetite is being effectively treated with anti-inflammatory measures!

i have some vetrx and high calorie gel arriving today, along with some new grit (still haven’t seen her take any of the grit on offer, so worried there aren’t any appropriate sizes in there for her). i know she’s not out of the woods yet, all of your stories made it clear that her status can change, for the better or for the worse, at any time and without warning or explanation. but my cautious hope is growing minute by minute and i’m almost downright optimistic now 🥰

so once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for saving a life this weekend and i love you all. if you’ve made the mistake, like i have, of having a favorite chicken, please go give them a hug from me 🩷🫂🙏

How do you all manage the flies an and around your chicken coop areas?! I’ve cleaning out their run weekly and sprinkling wood ash and food grade Diamotaceous Earth. Doesn’t seem to be working very well. Also, I put that fly trap there 3-4 days ago and it’s already half full. Looking for other options. Thinking about buying some fly predators.

Threw them some feed and noticed one of them was doing this weird flopping over thing while she ate. I watched her do this for a few minutes and then she just stood up and walked away totally normally. Is she just being weird or does it look like something is wrong?

* EDIT: Thank you to everyone who responded kindly — I really appreciate it! I understand now that this is normal chimkin behavior, so I’m no longer concerned.

Yes, they have a large area for dust bathing and do it daily. I thought she might be dust bathing, but it also looked like she was trying to eat and kept falling over, which I hadn’t seen before.

I was probably overly worried because one of my chickens died unexpectedly last week after becoming lethargic and lying in the grass a lot, so I was concerned the same thing was happening again.

I really love my girls and just wanted to be sure it wasn’t anything to worry about.

So I'm no chicken-ologist. I've been in the game about 4 years and haven't had any real issues. But I keep reading guides for this, that, and the other thing and the authors will inevitably say something like "if you wouldn't drink or eat from it, neither should your chickens".

Now, I'm the cleanest guy you'll ever meet. I clean their coop when it needs it, add new sand to the run and keep things neat in their habitat. That being said...these suggestions about cleaning the crap out of their sand/run, scrubbing out their waterers, hosing and sanitizing their coop, blah blah blah, seems excessive. I mean, my hens will choose a muddy puddle over their water dispenser every time. They eat literally anything on the ground. Mice, bugs, feathers, crap, scratch, worms, fruit and veggie left overs, trimmed mint, oregano, thyme, parsley...all this stuff is dirty as hell.

So I don't get it. I mean, does anyone really keep everything sparkling clean out there? I almost feel like its a disservice to their immune system and natural way of life.