- Mar 13, 2014
- 6
- 4
- 52
Hi everyone,
I'm new here but I have been keeping chickens for a long time. 18 years in fact, because the little bantam hen who is having a problem was amongst the first batch of chicks I ever received. This old girl has had increasingly worse cataracts for two years and is mostly blind at this point, but has been doing fabulously up until now. She lives inside with us and had no trouble finding her food and water. She has been been eating healthy amounts and drinking plenty, but in the past two weeks or so she started trailing off and not eating much, and then basically nothing except treats like cracked corn, peas, lettuce or egg which she still eats with gusto. But she refuses to eat chicken food at this point. It has been harder and harder to get her to drink, and I haven't had any success with it for a few days. She'll touch the water with her beak and just seem totally disinterested. I've been giving her a slurry of oatmeal, cracked corn, chicken food, and cream of wheat to get her to eat and obtain some moisture. She loves it, but she is still just not eating and drinking enough.
What's most concerning is that she is passing very watery poo and the food looks poorly digested, like big puddles of water with some urea and a bit of recognizable food in the middle. But then sometimes it will look almost normal? Her behind has been increasingly pasty, and she is losing weight fast. I am concerned that she must be very dehydrated... I am also concerned she might have an infection. As of today she has started passing gas, which I've never had a chicken do. Not sure what to do.... She is such a feisty old gal who has been super healthy up until now.
I'm new here but I have been keeping chickens for a long time. 18 years in fact, because the little bantam hen who is having a problem was amongst the first batch of chicks I ever received. This old girl has had increasingly worse cataracts for two years and is mostly blind at this point, but has been doing fabulously up until now. She lives inside with us and had no trouble finding her food and water. She has been been eating healthy amounts and drinking plenty, but in the past two weeks or so she started trailing off and not eating much, and then basically nothing except treats like cracked corn, peas, lettuce or egg which she still eats with gusto. But she refuses to eat chicken food at this point. It has been harder and harder to get her to drink, and I haven't had any success with it for a few days. She'll touch the water with her beak and just seem totally disinterested. I've been giving her a slurry of oatmeal, cracked corn, chicken food, and cream of wheat to get her to eat and obtain some moisture. She loves it, but she is still just not eating and drinking enough.
What's most concerning is that she is passing very watery poo and the food looks poorly digested, like big puddles of water with some urea and a bit of recognizable food in the middle. But then sometimes it will look almost normal? Her behind has been increasingly pasty, and she is losing weight fast. I am concerned that she must be very dehydrated... I am also concerned she might have an infection. As of today she has started passing gas, which I've never had a chicken do. Not sure what to do.... She is such a feisty old gal who has been super healthy up until now.
