Recent content by Janet Pesaturo

  1. Janet Pesaturo

    Leg or spinal injury? Hen with trouble walking and standing.

    I'd give it a few days longer, at least. I don't know what the timetable is, especially since we aren't sure of the cause, but I've been impressed with their abilities to recover, at least partly, from a variety of problems. Some have surprised me by living years longer, perhaps mildly...
  2. Janet Pesaturo

    Leg or spinal injury? Hen with trouble walking and standing.

    I don't know what is causing this, but I thought I'd throw in that I strongly doubt it's just leg injury or bumblefoot. I have had several hens with sprained legs and several cases of bumblefoot, and their legs don't shake and they don't have trouble maintening balance as you describe. My guess...
  3. Janet Pesaturo

    Old hen with bilateral leg weakness, otherwise healthy

    Bumping one last time. Maybe more people will see this now that the holiday weekend is over.
  4. Janet Pesaturo

    Old hen with bilateral leg weakness, otherwise healthy

    Any thoughts? Even if you have no idea what might cause this, have you seen it in your own hens? Do think hens' legs weaken with age?
  5. Janet Pesaturo

    Old hen with bilateral leg weakness, otherwise healthy

    I have an 8 year old barred rock hen, a fabulous layer back in the day, but with slowly worsening weakness of both legs over the last several months. She walks, but takes very small steps. She finds it very difficult to hop/fly to get up onto the 3 ft high compost bin, for example, something...
  6. Janet Pesaturo

    Impacted crop in baby chick - Please help

    The chick already died, but thank you very much for responding. We squeezed all the food out, palpated the crop, and could feel a small, hard thing, still stuck in the crop. Probably not grass. Maybe a too large piece of food (this chick food isn't ground as finely as stuff I've used in the...
  7. Janet Pesaturo

    Baby Chick, Impacted Crop!!

    I have a 4 day old chick with the same problem. Did your chick live? If so, how did you help her? I've been trying to massage the food downward, but it only comes up thru her mouth, which risks aspiration pneumonia. I am afraid to put oil or anything into her mouth because it seems that there is...
  8. Janet Pesaturo

    Strange Growth

    If it is at the base of the tail on the back, it appears to be the uropygial gland, aka the preen gland. It secretes an oily substance that the bird uses to preen its feathers. You might have seen your hens beaking around in that area. They're using the oil to preen.
  9. Janet Pesaturo

    Impacted crop in baby chick - Please help

    Looking for advice on helping my 3 day old baby chicks with impacted crop. She stands tall and looks like she's trying to vomit. Crop appears quite large. I picked her up and massaged the crop, hoping to move the contents southward, but instead stuff came up through the mouth. Diet is standard...
  10. Janet Pesaturo

    Treating bumblefoot with Tricide-Neo - black scab came off

    I'm not sure what you mean by "hole", so I would not necessarily recommend digging around in there. Is there swelling? Is it hot to touch? Is it red? If answer is "no" to all of those it may be healed, and digging around could simply re-infect it. Post a photo of that "hole" so we can see. My...
  11. Janet Pesaturo

    What type of Predator poop is this? (PICS!)

    Looks to be on the upper limit for fox, so I would say a large fox or small coyote. It's on the borderline, with diameter right around 1/2 inch.
  12. Janet Pesaturo

    coop bedding- what do you prefer??

    Shavings here. They're not perfect, but they do the job. Litter stays dry, and with a thick enough layer, it's a nice soft landing when hens dismount roost or exit nest boxes. That's good for foot and leg health. The only complaint I have is that the shavings decompose too slowly in my compost...
  13. Janet Pesaturo

    What type of Predator poop is this? (PICS!)

    I too think fox is most likely, but would be helpful to know width of scat. Definitely NOT raccoon, whose poops do not have that twisted appearance. Coon poop looks like it was squeezed from a giant tube of tooth paste. Opossum poop doesn't look like this, either. Possibilities include fox...
  14. Janet Pesaturo

    Chicks Pecking Each Other to Death

    I have never experienced a scenario like this, but given how protective mothers are of their young, I tend to think she would not join the chick pecking club. I would put the chick back with mom and watch carefully.
  15. Janet Pesaturo

    Egg eaters!

    I also suspect is rarer than what people think, and while I have not had it happen in my flock, it did happen to a good friend, and ALL the eggs were being eaten. She did not jump the gun - she waited for weeks and and put them down only after much observation of several hens eating the eggs. So...
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