ChickieMandy
In the Brooder
Hi Everyone,
My name is Amanda, and I'm new to the Chicken Mom life.. but have learned a lot in the last 3 months.. mostly from coming on here and reading ENDLESSLY! So to start - thank you for all those avid posters out there, and story sharers!
I plan to post more on my flock, building our coop, and other things in time.. but today I'm here to talk about our little Sophia (aka Sophie-Butt, Lil Princess.. etc)
Sophie is a Brown Leghorn, we picked her up when she was less than a week along with some friends and the journey began.
1 wk- 7 wks
From when we first got Sophie, she was always the smallest one. Very cute, and very sweet, but smaller than the others. I took the chickies out every night to play, she was always one of the first to hop on my lap and snuggle. Ate whenever I gave her food, hung out with the group, and acted quite normally.
~8 wks - May 6th
Just shy of 8 weeks, I come home from work one night to find her upside down wedged between the side of the box and a cardboard box. For a second I was afraid she was dead, but when I flipped her over she popped right up and seemed fine, maybe a bit wobbly.
Later that night:
I took out the chickens for play time and could immediately see Sophie wasn't doing well, stumbling and falling over. At first I thought perhaps the others pecked her when she was upside down or maybe the blood went to her head and she was struggling getting her equlibrium up. We brought her upstairs by us for isolation and careful watching that night.
May 7th
Her spirits were good and I watched her closely for symptoms:
Symptoms May 7th:
- Disorientation/Imbalance - stumbling, but still getting around.
- Slow development - others feathering was a bit further along, baby fuzz sticking around.
- Comb was very small and coming in floppy and crooked
- Scary skinny, she was always so small, but its as if she never gained the weight. Shes all feathers and this is so sad. (She weighed ~ 1lb, 4oz maybe at this point)
Observations:
Poop normal,
Personality Normal,
Eyes normal,
No bugs/mites/ticks found
Checked for injurys on both legs, and tried to determine if it was one leg of both she was fall on (both)
Appetite strong
I feared Mareks or another disease, but after almost 2 weeks her condition remained pretty unchanged! We were leaning mostly toward malnourishment and vitamin deficiency.
Some adorable pics of Sophie from between May 6th and May 11th:
...
TO BE CONTINUED
My name is Amanda, and I'm new to the Chicken Mom life.. but have learned a lot in the last 3 months.. mostly from coming on here and reading ENDLESSLY! So to start - thank you for all those avid posters out there, and story sharers!
I plan to post more on my flock, building our coop, and other things in time.. but today I'm here to talk about our little Sophia (aka Sophie-Butt, Lil Princess.. etc)
Sophie is a Brown Leghorn, we picked her up when she was less than a week along with some friends and the journey began.
1 wk- 7 wks
From when we first got Sophie, she was always the smallest one. Very cute, and very sweet, but smaller than the others. I took the chickies out every night to play, she was always one of the first to hop on my lap and snuggle. Ate whenever I gave her food, hung out with the group, and acted quite normally.
~8 wks - May 6th
Just shy of 8 weeks, I come home from work one night to find her upside down wedged between the side of the box and a cardboard box. For a second I was afraid she was dead, but when I flipped her over she popped right up and seemed fine, maybe a bit wobbly.
Later that night:
I took out the chickens for play time and could immediately see Sophie wasn't doing well, stumbling and falling over. At first I thought perhaps the others pecked her when she was upside down or maybe the blood went to her head and she was struggling getting her equlibrium up. We brought her upstairs by us for isolation and careful watching that night.
May 7th
Her spirits were good and I watched her closely for symptoms:
Symptoms May 7th:
- Disorientation/Imbalance - stumbling, but still getting around.
- Slow development - others feathering was a bit further along, baby fuzz sticking around.
- Comb was very small and coming in floppy and crooked
- Scary skinny, she was always so small, but its as if she never gained the weight. Shes all feathers and this is so sad. (She weighed ~ 1lb, 4oz maybe at this point)
Observations:
Poop normal,
Personality Normal,
Eyes normal,
No bugs/mites/ticks found
Checked for injurys on both legs, and tried to determine if it was one leg of both she was fall on (both)
Appetite strong
I feared Mareks or another disease, but after almost 2 weeks her condition remained pretty unchanged! We were leaning mostly toward malnourishment and vitamin deficiency.
Some adorable pics of Sophie from between May 6th and May 11th:
...
TO BE CONTINUED
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