Cmonk66007
Chirping
- Apr 6, 2022
- 22
- 151
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One of my Black Copper Maran hens has been suffering with diarrhea for a few months. I can also see that she has a pale comb, she seems less active, eats less and seems sleepy more often than normal. She is about a year and a half old and I've never had any other health problems with her or my other hens in the past. We had a hot summer, no worse than last year but I though that maybe it was just the heat getting the best of her. It has cooled down the past couple of weeks though and she has not improved. Three of my 6 hens, including her, have stopped laying so, I thought that maybe they were beginning to molt but I'm not sure since they haven't lost a lot of feathers yet, just a few more than normal. I just added 2 young pullets to the flock but the diarrhea was an issue before that. I feed the flock fermented food, daily and I give them some Apple Cider Vinegar in their water, on and off, a couple days a week. I also added electrolytes to their water, a couple days a week when it was hot. My flock is partially free range, I use produce tents as chicken tractors and move them around my back yard for access to grasses. I've taken the flock off of all veggie scraps and cut off access to new grasses this week but that doesn't seem to have had any impact either. I use some diatomaceous earth mixed with yard sand in their coop sandboxes and I've never had any issues with parasites, internal or external that I know of. I noticed her "rolling" or "flexing" her crop last night and then just standing there with her eyes closed, then she'd repeat the action again and again. Can a chicken live with a crop problem this long? I'm not sure what might have gone wrong here but I know that taking her to the Veterinarian is going to be crazy expensive so, any advice about other options is greatly appreciated.
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