Sarahh_Janeyy
Songster
Yesterday morning I found my 3.5 year old hen on the bottom of the coop. When I looked at the camera footage, I saw she had been there since 3 or 4 am. I brought her inside. I was able to bring her to the vet in the morning, where she suddenly decided to stand, much to my surprise. Her air sacs were clear, no parasites in her fecal, yeast was low, and she otherwise has been very healthy. Her last illness was about 4 or 5 months ago- she had a thin shelled egg crush and get stuck to her oviduct and it took about 2 months for her to fully pass it. Prior to this she had an issue with getting very dehydrated after going broody. The vet thought she was leaning to her left side and keeping weight off her right side, so he suspected injury. He gave her fluids and a shot of meloxicam. After getting home, she started to act more normal again. I was afraid she might have been in pain- hence her distress. But a few hours later, she laid an egg. It was thin shelled and small. But I was very surprised she laid given that she hadn't in months. My gut says these two things are related. This morning, I gave her the meloxicam, and she was fine literally all day until around 4pm. Suddenly she was down again, barely able to move, and panting. She has another appointment with the vet tomorrow, but I'm very worried about her. Does any one have any ideas? She doesn't act like her feet or legs are bothering her at all - the vet moved them all around and she didn't get upset about it. It's so hard to sit here and watch her and not be able to do anything to help. We did tube feed her liquid food and vitamins, and she picked at some mealworms.