[egbert]

Well, it looks like we may have to lose our first chicken.

She is just not interested in eating, a farmer friend of ours picked her up today and found she had a blockage, which he moved, she chucked up some gritty liquid, but she is just skin and bones underneath her new feather - compared to the other 2 ex-bats who are plumping up into right couch potatoes.

I have her in a separate box and where she is just laying still, and put some bread and tasty greens right next to her, but she just isnt interested. My friend has said that vets will not be much use, and its kinder to put her down 

Any last chance ideas anyone 

[Fleecewife]

What kind of blockage?  Do you mean of her crop?  If you were asking about sheep I know of various ways to get a sheeps insides working again, but I don't know that about chickens.  More important than eating - has she drunk any water?  If she doesn't respond then she should probably be put down.  Before my husband learned how to wring a neck he used an axe and wooden block in emergencies - messy but very quick and sure.  It seems that battery hens can, as you would expect, come to you with a variety of ills. Some you can save, some you can't in which case you do your best for the hen and despatch her efficiently.  Don't let it put you off keeping hens - they are wonderful creatures 

[sheila]

It sounds like sour crop to me.