Well we had something weird happen to our hen over the last few days! Thought I'd share here in case I can help someone out, and I'd love to hear if anyone has similar experiences or could explain some of the oddities...
What happened:
Our hen went missing while free-ranging in the yard. We thought a coyote got her, but the next day (over 24 hours later) she just showed up! She was acting incredibly strange. She kept bobbing her head and would take a few steps then fall down. It was like she was dizzy or had vertigo, and simply couldn't stand for long! We wondered if she hit her head, or got into something poison at the neighbors house. Now I'm thinking she was just dehydrated and malnourished.
What we did:
We put her in a dog kennel with food and water, then put the kennel inside our shed. This way she didn't waste any energy moving around and the shed was a quite, dark, calm environment for her. We left her in there alone for 24 hours.
Recovery:
After 24 hours, she was fully recovered! I let her out of the shed, she ran up to the other girls and immediately resumed her normal chicken behavior. I couldn't believe it! I thought she was going to die overnight. I'm still not sure why she went on her overnight adventure or what she did during her 24 hour absence. Her odd behavior had my mind kept jumping to worst-case scenarios, like she would infect the whole flock with a virus, but turns out she just needed some TLC to bring her back to normal.
What happened:
Our hen went missing while free-ranging in the yard. We thought a coyote got her, but the next day (over 24 hours later) she just showed up! She was acting incredibly strange. She kept bobbing her head and would take a few steps then fall down. It was like she was dizzy or had vertigo, and simply couldn't stand for long! We wondered if she hit her head, or got into something poison at the neighbors house. Now I'm thinking she was just dehydrated and malnourished.
What we did:
We put her in a dog kennel with food and water, then put the kennel inside our shed. This way she didn't waste any energy moving around and the shed was a quite, dark, calm environment for her. We left her in there alone for 24 hours.
Recovery:
After 24 hours, she was fully recovered! I let her out of the shed, she ran up to the other girls and immediately resumed her normal chicken behavior. I couldn't believe it! I thought she was going to die overnight. I'm still not sure why she went on her overnight adventure or what she did during her 24 hour absence. Her odd behavior had my mind kept jumping to worst-case scenarios, like she would infect the whole flock with a virus, but turns out she just needed some TLC to bring her back to normal.
