Special needs chickens contest

[AinaWGSD]

Post pics of your "special" chicken friends! I know there are a few people here with cross beaks, chickens missing toes or wings, etc. so go ahead and show off your unique chickens.

This is buffy, a 9 week old EE w/a cross beak.

She's really grown on me and I'm just hoping she can continue to eat well enough to continue to thrive. Currently she's about 5% smaller than my other two EE and it's really sad to watch her pecking at things in the yard because no matter how hard she tries she just can't pick them up.

 

[Barrdwing]

This is Hoppy, a golden-laced Polish/millefleur Belgian Bearded cross. He's just under two years old now. At six months old he was grabbed by a hawk, but it dropped him. I found him hiding in the coop that evening, with the skin over his breast literally dangling and unable to put weight on his right leg. Both legs had multiple deep puncture wounds and he was covered in punctures and lacerations. We got his skin stitched back into place and started him on antibiotics, but unfortunately he went septicemic and that really left a mark on him. Somehow we got him through that (his feathers grew in half white for a while), but he never did recover use of both legs and he lost several toes. So . . . I built him this.

The frame is made out of scrap pine, the wheels are model airplane wheels (you should have seen the look I got from the hobby store clerk!), the axles are piano wire. The parts of the frame that he can contact are padded with cotton batting and heavy fabric. The sling is a double layer of fleece with cotton batting, and it is slung from the frame on strips of torn bedsheet; inelegant, but surprisingly effective. He has food and water cups on the front.

During the day Hoppy scoots around on our front walk if the weather is fine, on the porch if it's rainy, and he has his "nephew" Quercus in a nearby tractor for company. He has gotten pretty good at going straight ahead, but the cart has no capacity for controlled turns (a significant design flaw, if you ask him). He can't bring his left leg underneath him at all, so when he wants to move around he uses what is left of his right foot as a push, and flaps his wings. He can get up a pretty good head of steam doing that. At night he comes in, gets taken out of his cart, and is put to bed in a plastic tub on the washing machine. He has the routine down by now; if I'm late bringing him inside, he scolds me, and he knows to lift himself off the ground a bit in order to be picked up.

Hoppy has tons of personality, and is an attention sponge. That he survived his injuries at all is amazing, but he and I made a deal: if he wasn't going to give up, then neither was I. He didn't give up, so here he is!

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I have a special needs chicken too. Her name is Negu (Never Ever Give Up). I got her from my local TSC and she was given to me for free when I bought some other chicks. Negu is a bantam and was born with a leg deformity. Both of her legs are messed up. She can't walk. Despite trying many methods of correcting her leg, nothing seemed to work. I decided to make her comfortable the way she is and give her the best life possible. I bring her in the house everyday to help her eat (she eats on her own, but I bring her in everyday because she sometimes has trouble getting over to her food).

Negu as a young chick (as you can see I was trying to correct her leg).



Negu as a chick without her bandage:



Negu is kept in an elevated cage in my chicken coop. She can see the rest of my flock at all times. When the weather is nice, I bring her outside and put her in a bigger cage without a bottom so she can peck around in the grass during the day.




Here is another, more recent picture of Negu. She was wet in this picture because she had just had a bath. Negu loves to go swimming. I have an old ceramic crockpot that I no longer use. I fill it with water for her and let her go for a swim in it. She absolutely loves to float around in it. It's almost like her physical therapy!

 

[AV8RChick]

This is Hoppy, a golden-laced Polish/millefleur Belgian Bearded cross.  He's just under two years old now.  At six months old he was grabbed by a hawk, but it dropped him.  I found him hiding in the coop that evening, with the skin over his breast literally dangling and unable to put weight on his right leg.  Both legs had multiple deep puncture wounds and he was covered in punctures and lacerations.  We got his skin stitched back into place and started him on antibiotics, but unfortunately he went septicemic and that really left a mark on him.  Somehow we got him through that (his feathers grew in half white for a while), but he never did recover use of both legs and he lost several toes.  So . . . I built him this.

The frame is made out of scrap pine, the wheels are model airplane wheels (you should have seen the look I got from the hobby store clerk!), the axles are piano wire.  The parts of the frame that he can contact are padded with cotton batting and heavy fabric.  The sling is a double layer of fleece with cotton batting, and it is slung from the frame on strips of torn bedsheet; inelegant, but surprisingly effective.  He has food and water cups on the front. 


During the day Hoppy scoots around on our front walk if the weather is fine, on the porch if it's rainy, and he has his "nephew" Quercus in a nearby tractor for company.  He has gotten pretty good at going straight ahead, but the cart has no capacity for controlled turns (a significant design flaw, if you ask him).  He can't bring his left leg underneath him at all, so when he wants to move around he uses what is left of his right foot as a push, and flaps his wings.  He can get up a pretty good head of steam doing that.  At night he comes in, gets taken out of his cart, and is put to bed in a plastic tub on the washing machine.  He has the routine down by now; if I'm late bringing him inside, he scolds me, and he knows to lift himself off the ground a bit in order to be picked up. 


Hoppy has tons of personality, and is an attention sponge.  That he survived his injuries at all is amazing, but he and I made a deal:  if he wasn't going to give up, then neither was I.  He didn't give up, so here he is!

Barrdwing,
I was inspired by your chair as I have a special needs white leghorn rooster, Foghorn. I found a moving four wheeled cart thing at Harbor Freight for 3.99 and sort of modeled your design solving the wheel issue as the wheels on the moving dolly caster in all directions. Here are some photos of my design

Amy

 

[allen wranch]

I have two lovely old ladies who are eight years old, and each is blind in one eye. They can somehow get up onto their roosts at night, but do not have the depth perception to jump off in the mornings. Sooooooo every morning we have to "put the blind girls down" before we can start our day.

One has always been a special needs chicken anyway because she is so whiney and goofy. This is an old picture, but I trim her feathers into a mohawk so she can see better.

The other is my very very very favorite chicken. She also has cancer.

 

[carolina chicky]

This is my rooster Spike. He was born with a weird leg so I took him to the vet at 6 weeks old. Turns out it is dislocated and can only be fixed with surgery. But, he told me most birds don't survive surgery. His leg is completely backwards, but he can get around quite well. So now he lives inside with us and has become quite spoiled to sleeping on the back of the recliner and watching TV. He is a year old now.

 

[fishnet1971]

This is May, my special needs hen. She was a rescue from the Brooklyn NY SPCA that I rescued last fall. She only has half of her lower beak, and very little of her upper beak. She pretty much can do every day things. She does have a small problem preening sometimes, so i have had to give her a bath once or twice. I do make sure she gets her treats smaller and hand fed instread of thrown on the ground with everyone elses. she is such a doll. Seems like she KNOWS that i rescued her. She gives me such love back, and you can see it in her eyes, i swear you can.

On the day I brought her home.

Her first bath!

that's my Girl!!!!

 

[Barrdwing]

I've been meaning to ask if anyone else has had a chick hatch out with no eyes? This is my dear little Sonar. Her father was a white Silky and her mother a millefleur d'Uccle. (We didn't allow that cross again!)

She is nearly two years old, has never laid an egg, and lives in her own private flat in the barn. She swings her head like Stevie Wonder and pecks at the air, using her beak like a cane to find things. When she first hatched I had to take her away from her mother and teach her how to eat . . . it took days, we nearly lost her. I ended up hand-raising her, and she is the sweetest bird ever. She used to ride along with me to work in a cat carrier when she was little, tucked into a sour cream tub with a washcloth and a feather duster, until she was old enough and savvy enough to take care of herself in her apartment. At night I bring her inside and she sleeps in a plastic tub on top of the washing machine, where she exchanges comments with Hoppy and Quercus, who also sleep inside. We joke that she's flirting with her two mysterious beaus that she's never seen.

 

[Chickenberry]

Here is Petunia...She's a Dominique mix... She's not really handicapped... but she does have a deformity. Her whole head is covered in comb! It's like she has a swimming cap on!

 

[itspebbl]

The little Doms that got attacked and all are missing toes