Digestive Help?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dawn hughes on February 21, 2012 at 12:52pm

There is something in one of my books about that. Could be a parasite but, if only one of your girls has it that's probably not the problem. When I get a chance I'll look it up in my chicken health book and get back to you. It could be a number of problems. How is she acting other wise? Is she eating and drinking ok? Active? Is she an older hen or younger? Does she range in the yard? What's different about her in her behavior and habits from the other hens you have?

Permalink Reply by Erich Gottl on February 21, 2012 at 1:06pm

Thanks Dawn, She's eating and drinking like the others and free ranges when weather permits. I also checked her crop and there's no obvious swelling or excess fluid. She seems normal otherwise.

dawn hughes said:

There is something in one of my books about that. Could be a parasite but, if only one of your girls has it that's probably not the problem. When I get a chance I'll look it up in my chicken health book and get back to you. It could be a number of problems. How is she acting other wise? Is she eating and drinking ok? Active? Is she an older hen or younger? Does she range in the yard? What's different about her in her behavior and habits from the other hens you have?

Permalink Reply by Ray Glover on February 21, 2012 at 1:38pm

One possibility is that she is "more sensitive" (for my lack of a better term) to the type of feed you are using.

Bugs and weeds are hard to come by right now. Does she get any supplemental grains? greens? If not, you might try adding that to her diet to "bulk" her up a little. You might not want to wait for a flat of seeds to germinate, or beans to sprout. But every couple of weeks at least one of the grocery stores around here has bags of greens on sale. Maybe yours does too. My girls love turnip greens, collards and endive.

Also, something may have caused an upset in her digestive flora. If she will eat out of hand (unless you want to gain some extra devotion from your entire flock)  you might try feeding her a couple of spoon fulls of shredded cheese or cottage cheeese and some yogurt for a few days.

These might not help, but they sure won't hurt and she'll love ya even more more it. ;~)

Good luck.

Permalink Reply by dawn hughes on February 21, 2012 at 1:47pm

My girls eat lettuce every day. I just keep some in the house and take it out to them when I let them out of their run. They also get some cracked corn with their grain. Yes, my girls are kind of fat but, it keeps them warm in the winter as I do not heat their coop and it gets quite cold here at night. Not so bad this winter.

Permalink Reply by Erich Gottl on February 21, 2012 at 2:37pm

Thanks Ray, Maybe she is more sensitive. She does get layer mash and plenty of greens either from the yard or when there's lots of snow on the ground, my local grocery store will save me a bag of excess clean-up greens, which they really like.

Ray Glover said:

One possibility is that she is "more sensitive" (for my lack of a better term) to the type of feed you are using.

Bugs and weeds are hard to come by right now. Does she get any supplemental grains? greens? If not, you might try adding that to her diet to "bulk" her up a little. You might not want to wait for a flat of seeds to germinate, or beans to sprout. But every couple of weeks at least one of the grocery stores around here has bags of greens on sale. Maybe yours does too. My girls love turnip greens, collards and endive.

Also, something may have caused an upset in her digestive flora. If she will eat out of hand (unless you want to gain some extra devotion from your entire flock)  you might try feeding her a couple of spoon fulls of shredded cheese or cottage cheeese and some yogurt for a few days.

These might not help, but they sure won't hurt and she'll love ya even more more it. ;~)

Good luck.