You may not be able to talk to your chicken to determine whether it is sick or not, but you can make an educated guess on whether the bird is sick or not by taking a look at its behavior and its appearance.
A bird with a floppy comb may be worrying you, this article explores this topic.
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Chicken has a floppy comb and is lethargic:
The appearance of your chicken’s comb is usually a signal of whether the bird is healthy or not. A healthy chicken will usually have a bright red, firm, and upright comb. If your chicken’s comb is floppy, and the bird is lethargic, reasons why may be:
Large comb + dehydration/overheating:
Chicken combs come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, some combs are very small and easily stand upright and other combs are quite large and can’t support themselves, some combs will even flip over covering the bird’s eyes.
If your birds comb flops over because it is too large, and this has always been the case, then this isn’t anything to worry about. But if your bird is lethargic then the bird may be dehydrated or may be overheating.
What to do:
If it’s a particularly hot day outside, and your bird is overheating, then you need to give your bird access to cold water. You also need to give the bird access to water-filled foods like cucumber and watermelon as a food source.
Make sure that the other birds aren’t keeping the lethargic bird from drinking the water or accessing the water-rich foods, they may bully the bird because it is weak and lethargic.
What will also help is giving the bird electrolytes, electrolytes will help rehydrate the bird quickly and get the bird to perk up
Also, move the bird and place it in the shade where it can cool off.
She just laid an egg:
Egg laying takes a toll on chickens, this process can take calcium out of the bird’s bones. Salt and phosphorous are also needed during egg laying.
A successful egg lay may redirect some blood away from the comb and this will cause the comb to deflate and flop over. The redirection of blood may also make the bird more lethargic.
What to do:
This is nothing to worry about, it is a normal process.
As long as the chicken’s comb, overall appearance, and behavior go back to normal after egg laying then your bird will be alright.
Tip: If your bird is an egg-laying bird you need to take extra care to make sure that she is getting all the nutrients that she needs, namely an egg layer feed
Broody hen:
Another reason why your bird’s comb may be floppy, and her behavior may be lethargic, may be because she is broody. This is normal, her hormones and genetics cause her to act this way, she isn’t sick, she just wants to be a mom.
When a chicken feels the need to hatch eggs she will go broody. She will stay in her nest box for the day not because she is lethargic, but because she is broody.
Her comb may flop over if she is broody. She will make a fuss if you try to touch her and she will be this way for several weeks
What to do:
You either need to allow her to stay broody or you may need to break her to get her out of her broody state.
Broodiness in chickens is contagious so you may want to break the bird out of her broody state or else other members of the flock will become broody as well.
Old age:
Old age happens to everyone, chickens included. Chicken bodies start to show signs of aging just as human bodies do.
As your bird ages, the bird’s comb will grow in size as well. As the comb grows in size, it will get too big, too long, and too heavy to stand up on its own.
The bird may be lethargic as it gets older because it isn’t as young and full of life anymore.
Another sign of old age in a chicken is a decrease in weight to a point where the bird becomes quite thin. This will happen because the bird will gradually eat less and drink more water
What to do:
If your bird is getting older then there is nothing you can do about it, this may be bittersweet but it’s a sign that the bird lived long enough for it to get old.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Chick Making Green Poop, Black Tar Chicken Poop, Chicken Puffed Up Tail Down, Baby Chick Suddenly Can’t Walk, What Does Black Chicken Poop Mean?
