Our Hen is Freaking Out and Chasing Her Tail

[Littlesquare]

We have a 20 week old, one-eyed hen named Jo in our flock who lost her eye to a predator about 4 weeks ago. Recently, it’s started to open a little and glitter black in the sunlight, but we’re not sure if that’s because she still has an eye or what. Anyways, this morning, I went to let them out of their coop and one of the roosts had fallen on one side from a nailing malfunction, we assume. A few minutes into walking around a grassier part of the enclosure, Jo sounded an alarm and started shrieking and flying up and down. I went to check it out but the only other critter in the enclosure was a small frog in one of their water bowls who I thought was dead until he darted away from my hand.

So fast forward a bit more into the day and they’re strutting around our screened in porch where we’re brooding our 10 chicks and Jojo starts freaking out again and spinning around in a circle, kinda like a dog chasing their tail. It seems like she’s freaked out about something on the right side (her blind side) of her neck/back and she keeps trying to twist her head all the way around to see it. We’ve checked for any bugs/mites but the only thing there is is new feathers coming in.

We’ve hypothesized everything from she can see shadows and thinks her tail is a predator to mites to maybe she’s going to start laying soon to perhaps she was scared by the falling roost last night and is being extra paranoid. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I'm sorry no one answered you. These cases are pretty hard to pin down. Do you think you could get a video of her behavior? I'm inclined to agree with your hypotheses, and she is learning to navigate life with only one eye. A chicken's right eye is near-sighted while the left is far-sighted. If the right side is blind that means even from the left eye she cannot make out things close to her very clearly. Do you have an update on her?

 

[Littlesquare]

I'm sorry no one answered you. These cases are pretty hard to pin down. Do you think you could get a video of her behavior? I'm inclined to agree with your hypotheses, and she is learning to navigate life with only one eye. A chicken's right eye is near-sighted while the left is far-sighted. If the right side is blind that means even from the left eye she cannot make out things close to her very clearly. Do you have an update on her?

Hey! Thanks for replying! Unfortunately I didn’t get a video but she seemed to resolve it herself as it hasn’t happened since I posted this. We did get our first egg today, but we don’t know who layed it, so if it was Jo, that could’ve contributed to the behavior, but if not, I guess I’ll just keep an eye out and try to record it if she does it again. Thanks again!