The Tiny Homestead
Songster
I have a 12 week old Easter egger, Shenendoah, whose tongue never fully developed. Much of the front half of her lower beak is just empty space. She seemed fine until about 5 weeks when, one night she suddenly starting coughing and had mucus in her mouth. It got worse as the night progressed. At one point, she went into spasms, fell over, and stopped breathing. We revived her, and I spent the night swabbing the mucus, which had gotten thick, out of her mouth, and slept on the floor holding her on my chest. The next day, she wasn't eating or drinking. We thought we were going to lose her. I fed her with a syringe for a few days, mucus lessened and became clear, and eventually she started eating and drinking. She started gaining some weight, and I monitored it daily. On May 22nd, she weighed 12 ounces, compared to her "sister" Annalee, who weighed 1 lb 8 ounces. When I finally got her into the vet, specifically because she still had clear mucus, I found out she didn't have a fully developed tongue. The options were pretty bleak. Have her put down, or tube feed her for the rest of her life, with no outdoor time with the other chickens, to prevent foraging and choking. We took her home to think about the situation. There were a lot of tears. She was a happy, loving chicken, and She and Annalee stuck together like two magnets.
I bought every kind of food I could find to see if one was easier for her to swallow, and I still brought her outside to forage. If she started coughing, I would check her beak and swab it out for her. I noticed that she could handle things like worms and wood bugs, and centipede-like critters. Bigger things were actually easier for her. Small seeds kind of collected in the front of her beak. She has learned to adapt in several ways. I noticed early on that she seemed to move her beak back and forth sideways, and thought that was strange, but it's her way of moving the food in her mouth. She will go to water, and take a lot into her beak and let it run out to clear out small stuff and dirt.MY REAL QUEStiON is: How do I make sure she gets the right amount and balance of nutrients she needs. She has trouble with crumble, and wet food just clogs up her beak. She can handle layer pellets, but I can't find starter/grower in pellet form, and worry that layer has too much calcium. She can handle sunflower seeds, and larger bits of scratch grain. Every few days I have been giving her some meat, that I slice, then cut into strips, around small fishing worm size, and cook in a dry pan. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? Any good advice would be much appreciated. Oh, and today she hit the 2 lb mark. Annalee is at 3 lbs.
I bought every kind of food I could find to see if one was easier for her to swallow, and I still brought her outside to forage. If she started coughing, I would check her beak and swab it out for her. I noticed that she could handle things like worms and wood bugs, and centipede-like critters. Bigger things were actually easier for her. Small seeds kind of collected in the front of her beak. She has learned to adapt in several ways. I noticed early on that she seemed to move her beak back and forth sideways, and thought that was strange, but it's her way of moving the food in her mouth. She will go to water, and take a lot into her beak and let it run out to clear out small stuff and dirt.MY REAL QUEStiON is: How do I make sure she gets the right amount and balance of nutrients she needs. She has trouble with crumble, and wet food just clogs up her beak. She can handle layer pellets, but I can't find starter/grower in pellet form, and worry that layer has too much calcium. She can handle sunflower seeds, and larger bits of scratch grain. Every few days I have been giving her some meat, that I slice, then cut into strips, around small fishing worm size, and cook in a dry pan. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? Any good advice would be much appreciated. Oh, and today she hit the 2 lb mark. Annalee is at 3 lbs.
