hen walking side-ways, please help!

[teach1rusl]

So do you have an old pic of your girl all feathered out?

 

[roxyblue]

mmm, I'm sure I do somewhere but she came strait from a farm where she had lice, so she wasn't very pretty. But I promise to post one after she is all feathered after her molt.

 

[mitch4u]

My hen is doing the same thing. She won't leave the nesting box and when I get her out for some food she eats like she is starving. I offer her water but she doesn't drink and her droppings look like,,,,a huge pile of green bile with what should be an egg in it. Nasty stuff. She looks like she is molting, but there aren't many feathers coming in, just dry, flaky skin.

 

[5Leepy!]

Hi Mitch4u,

I'm wondering, does she puff her feathers out a lot? When one of my hens go broody, they tend to fluff out their feathers quite a bit and get cranky and won't leave the nesting box. The green bile might be a concern, I'm not sure. Do you see yolk or any egg parts in it? She might be egg bound. Chickens have quite a range of poops that are totally normal. Have you looked at the famous poop page? If you go to my profile page, there's a link for it. And, has she thrown off a lot of feathers? You said nothing's coming in but has she lost feathers?

Good Luck!
5Leepy!

And, by the way... welcome to the BYC forum.

 

[mitch4u]

She does puff her feathers, but she has always tended to be broody in the fall. We gave her a couple of eggs to lay on, but she is a mess. She is missing a lot of feathers, and she is very thin. Her last molt was not like this one. I have never seen a chicken walk backwards and sideways like a drunken sailor. I dumped a bunch of food into the corner of her nesting box, hoping that she will eat more. Maybe that will help with the green bile. The poop, is huge, like a weeks worth all in one shot and the middle of it looks like a dried up gritty egg, but with no definite shape. I am thinking that she is due for a warm bath. Last time we had one of our Buffs having egg trouble, we bathed her and it seemed to clear things up. But like I said, they never did the weird walk. She is inside where I can keep an eye on her, but so far she remains the same.

 

[5Leepy!]

I'm no expert but it sounds to me like she's possibly molting at the same time as being either Broody or Egg Bound. A warm bath can't hurt. My hens that have gone broody have done huge poops, too because they aren't getting off the nesting box to do their business. My hens don't always walk like they're drunk when they molt, either but one of them has and I can tell you that it scared me half to death. I thought for sure she was poisoned or super sick or something. It took her a while to actually get some feathers to come in. Once her feathers started growing she stopped walking so crazy. From what I understand, this is called a "Hard Molt" and they only do it once. (not positive about that, though). If she's doing a hard molt, make sure she gets lots of protein to regrow the feathers. Try scrambled eggs, Sunflower seeds, meal worms, etc... or, even change her feed to a higher protein level. If possible, keep her off the nesting boxes. We separate our broody ones by having them free range by themselves (or with one other hen for company) or we put them in a dog carrier to break them of the broodiness.

I posted a video of my hen doing the drunken walk at one point but don't know the link. You might want to check my profile and see if you can find the post.

Hope that helps. You may want to post a new subject to get more feedback on her.

5Leepy!

 

[Noobchick]

I'm so grateful for this thread! Walked down to the coop this AM to let the girls out and was shocked to see my Welsummer, Rosalind, staggering around. It completely freaked me out but thankfully a quick search on this site turned up this thread. Who knew that a bad molt could make them stagger around? (And hers has been sudden and VERY hard.) I have a feeling I'll still be learning new things about chickens YEARS from now. What interesting (if sometimes worrying) animals.

Thank you for posting and replying to this thread, everyone.

 

[jjthink]

When the molt is sudden and hard, the effects can be so severe, poor dears. Warmth (bad time of year for molt!), TLC, hand feeding, great nutrition, treats for raising spirits (live healthy mealworms may work when little else will), keeping them in a safe place so they can't hurt themselves while so loopy, spending more time together so they can draw comfort from your presence..........JJ

 

[Noobchick]

I thought it was a bad time for a molt, too! I haven't been supplementing light or anything. Do some chickens just molt late in the year??

One of my girls molted early- beginning of September. Then Eleanor started in the beginning of Nov, but has been slow and steady. Poor Rosalind dropped 75% of her feathers over two days. Thankfully, we'll have some warmer days here in NC over the next week. Nights will still be cold though.

The remaining two girls have been slowing their egg production over the last few weeks, so I'm expecting them to start molting soon. Their poor little bald butts are gonna be so cold.

 

[mitch4u]

Well, I am happy to say that my Buff hatched her eggs, and grew back her feathers. We kept her separated from the other ladies and she ate canned cat food, yogurt and we fed her the medicated chick feed. After the eggs hatched, we kept her on the medicated chick feed and she looks absolutely beautiful. Her feathers are a darker golden now, almost like an Isa Brown instead of a Buff. You can pick her out from the other Buffs by her beautiful feathers. Her "baby" is now 14 weeks old and they are both doing very well with the other ladies. Buff is now laying eggs again and all is well. I hope none of my other ladies go through what she did. Seeing her stagger backwards and waste away to the point that she couldn't even stand up was horrible.