Is my roommates chicken going to die!?

[farmtotable]

I'm just saying, but how would you like it if you were new to chickens an just really didn't know how to take care of it and someone just decided to take it away with out asking? What if she reallys loves her and is trying her best? Honestly I DO NOT suggest a shelter. I've taken several birds to the shelter and they personally told me, " We don't take in birds so we will probably put it down." I even tried a wildlife shelter.
Please post pics of her and her " coop!"
Even for the next couple weeks or so I'd say buy or make a chicken diaper for her and keep her inside. Keep her in a pen with a bowl of fresh water and veggies and some meat scraps. Even that's a lot healthier than out there. I'd say do this until you can reason with her to put the chicken on Craigslist or find someone who's looking for a chicken local.

Just going by what johnconnor posted, but it seems like she told her roommate numerous times that what was going on wasn't healthy or sane for the chicken, and the roommate refused to listen to reason. Even way back when I was new to chicken raising, common sense would say that they need something other than a cardboard box, white rice, and apples to live a healthy life. Then add to that equation a few months of obvious discontent, and it seems like her "oh I just don't know what I'm doing because I'm new to chickens" pass has long expired. If that's her best, then she should be banned from keeping live animals for life. I understand giving someone the benefit of the doubt, and again, I'm only going off of what johnconnor posted, but the abuse described in the post goes above and beyond a newbie making a mistake. According to the poster, she clearly doesn't want to adopt the chicken and take responsiblity for it, so keeping it is out of the question. No offense, but even putting down the chicken is a better option than maintaining the status quo. Even if the roommate were to take the suggestion of putting on a chicken diaper, do you really think she's responsible enough to change it? At least having a shelter put her down would end her obvious suffering.

Don't forget that they live in an apartment complex, with a small shared yard, and neighbors and a landlord that DON'T want the chicken there. Getting the chicken to begin with was an irresponsible choice, and keeping it is even worse.

No offense to you, Poultry Couture, but making excuses for people who are mistreating animals and putting aside common sense in the face of obvious suffering doesn't make the world a better place for animals. If you aren't willing to put a little bit of research into "rescuing" or raising any type of animal and figuring out what its basic needs are, then you shouldn't have the animal to begin with.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Tell your roomy that all that is necessary for an egg to be sold or marketed as free range is for the door on the chicken house to be thrown open for some unspecified time to give the hens the OPPORTUNITY to avail themselves of the great outdoors. In other words for some short period every day the the hens are FREE to choose their RANGE, hence free range. This opportunity is invariably offered for about 15 minutes at feeding time. Therefore free range chickens are confronted with the dilemma of forgoing eating or venturing into the unknown and starve. Oh, did I mention that chickens are extremely competitive at feeding time? It looks like they are going to kill each other getting to the feed trough before the rest of the flock. Remember how fast the re-homed hen scarfed down that scrambled egg? She didn't want the "other" hens in her flock to get any, well you get the idea?

If a hen did manage to get outside and she ate an Earth worm, a cricket, or some escargot, (snails and slugs) then it would likely become necessary to treat that hen with deadly chemicals to kill the internal parasites she picked up while enjoying her free range picnic. This also means that you can't sell real free range eggs for awhile after you medicate your flock for intestinal worms. This creates a dilemma for the free range egg farmer. Do I want to sell eggs from healthy hens, or do I want my hens wondering all over Hades and half of Georgia and then have to pay to dump their eggs in a land fill?

Hard boiled eggs , shell and all, uncooked old fashion oatmeal, yogurt, sugar water, and buttermilk are all very good foods and beverages for ailing or weak chickens. Also good is small chunks of raw beef, raw beef liver and fresh bits of raw or canned fish, even canned or dry dog and cat food in small amounts is good. Don't forget good lay pellets and some grains like scratch feed, whole corn, whole oats, barley, wheat, etc. Be careful about feeding milo or other forms of grain sorghum. Some of these grains are breed to be repellent to birds. As cold as you say it is where you are, a teaspoon of corn oil in her food everyday may be advisable.

 

[Poultry Couture]

This is why I don't even try!

 

[deserthotwings]

Why don't you try Craigslist just for kicks. If you should get a suitable reply from someone who is truly interested in helping the poor bird then you can discuss it with your roommate. If you were closer I would take her in a minute. I think she'd be a lot happier on our ranch than in your bath room. I'd sure hate to see animal control put her down after all shes been thou when there is a better chance for a happy ending thou Craigslist, but I do think that your roommate should be in on the decision, providing she has at least the IQ of the chicken.

 

[johnconner]

Both the animal shelter and animal control (apparently they just take the animals to the shelter) would put the chicken down. I've posted an add on Craigslist and have been trying to get in touch with a young man who had offered to buy the chicken this summer. He was the son of one of our neighbors, and actually owns a nice coop and keeps around 30 or so hens and makes some money selling fresh eggs at the farmers market. My roommate shot him down pretty angerly when he asked to buy her hen for 20$. He also tried giving her some advice on care (he was the one who told me about the feed stores in town) which was met with in the same fashion of "this is my pet you don't own her, you don't own me, you can't tell me what to do! " the only problem is our neighbor is recently diseased and I'm having trouble trying find a way to contact his son. Im still trying though, i know the son is clearing our neighbors estate, so i left a note. At this point. I would pay someone 20$ to take the chicken as long as its to a good home!

My roommate home today so the chicken went back in the coop early this morning. She hasn't noticed the coop has been cleaned, bedding has been supplied (I got a big bag, no excuses not to clean) chicken feed is provided, with some extra treats ( Greek yogurt, scrambled eggs, and spinich leftovers from last night)

Hopefully there is someone out there who loves chickens and is willing to give this bird the home she deserves! In the mean time I'm gonna keep a close eye on the chicken and make sure her health continues to improve (thank you all for your help with that, I don't even pretend to know the first thing about chickens, never had a bird in my life) it seems that her diet was one of the big contributors to her feathers, she isnt pulling them out anymore as far as I can tell (no loose feathers in her bedding) and is walking around doing normal chicken stuff, a wonderful turnaround from the laying on ice waiting for death thing she used to do.

I guess the plan is to continue to search for a happy home for the chicken, I've been looking for bird rescues, posted an add on Craigslist, and have been trying to get the word out. The part that kills me is she really is a sweet chicken, she deserves far better than this, poor girl!

Just for good measure, if anyone is near the northern colorado/Wyoming area, and has room for another hen who needs a little love but will give you plenty, I would love to get in touch with you! She comes with a big bag of feed, and bedding. And I will pay you 20$ to take her, as I'm pretty sure she needs to be dewormed, and will probably need to be kept separate from your flock for a while. She's a normal red hen, lays brown eggs (laid one this morning for the first time in a long while) and is sweet enough I would have no problems letting a child play with/pick her up. Please reply if your interested, pray for someone to come rescue this bird if your not.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Both the animal shelter and animal control (apparently they just take the animals to the shelter) would put the chicken down. I've posted an add on Craigslist and have been trying to get in touch with a young man who had offered to buy the chicken this summer. He was the son of one of our neighbors, and actually owns a nice coop and keeps around 30 or so hens and makes some money selling fresh eggs at the farmers market. My roommate shot him down pretty angerly when he asked to buy her hen for 20$. He also tried giving her some advice on care (he was the one who told me about the feed stores in town) which was met with in the same fashion of "this is my pet you don't own her, you don't own me, you can't tell me what to do! " the only problem is our neighbor is recently diseased and I'm having trouble trying find a way to contact his son. Im still trying though, i know the son is clearing our neighbors estate, so i left a note. At this point. I would pay someone 20$ to take the chicken as long as its to a good home!

My roommate home today so the chicken went back in the coop early this morning. She hasn't noticed the coop has been cleaned, bedding has been supplied (I got a big bag, no excuses not to clean) chicken feed is provided, with some extra treats ( Greek yogurt, scrambled eggs, and spinich leftovers from last night)

Hopefully there is someone out there who loves chickens and is willing to give this bird the home she deserves! In the mean time I'm gonna keep a close eye on the chicken and make sure her health continues to improve (thank you all for your help with that, I don't even pretend to know the first thing about chickens, never had a bird in my life) it seems that her diet was one of the big contributors to her feathers, she isnt pulling them out anymore as far as I can tell (no loose feathers in her bedding) and is walking around doing normal chicken stuff, a wonderful turnaround from the laying on ice waiting for death thing she used to do.

I guess the plan is to continue to search for a happy home for the chicken, I've been looking for bird rescues, posted an add on Craigslist, and have been trying to get the word out. The part that kills me is she really is a sweet chicken, she deserves far better than this, poor girl!

Just for good measure, if anyone is near the northern colorado/Wyoming area, and has room for another hen who needs a little love but will give you plenty, I would love to get in touch with you! She comes with a big bag of feed, and bedding. And I will pay you 20$ to take her, as I'm pretty sure she needs to be dewormed, and will probably need to be kept separate from your flock for a while. She's a normal red hen, lays brown eggs (laid one this morning for the first time in a long while) and is sweet enough I would have no problems letting a child play with/pick her up. Please reply if your interested, pray for someone to come rescue this bird if your not.

Awww I hope you find a home for her. Good job with all you have done to help her out!

I am sure she is feeling much better for all your wonderful care.

 

[deserthotwings]

I sure would like to see this nightmare for this poor bird to end. I'm thinking you might be located in the Ft Collins area. If you are willing to spend $20 dollars to ease this hens missery, I will boot in another 20 if you think she could withstand shipment to south central arizona and you could get her shipped USPS for $40 bucks. I don't know if this would be too much of a problem for you or not, or wheather your room mate would agree. But my offer stands. I have a 860 acre cattle ranch with about 30 free rangeing chickens and a lot of pheasants. My daughter raises the birds for FFA and is deeply attached to anything with feathers. If I can be of any help please feel free to PM me. One thing for sure, the bird would never be cold again.

 

[Poultry Couture]

It's been a month now... How is she? Or where is she?