Adopted a Special Needs Chicken...advice?

[KiKiChick]

So, a few months ago I had stray chickens show up and unfortunately before we were able to get a coop built we lost two of them to predators and we were left with our one and only who we adore and is currently on lockdown in her new coop. Although she has been doing great in her coop alone we arranged to adopt another chicken for her that is just a little bit younger than her that had been having a tough time adjusting to living in a flock...she was getting picked on. We picked her up yesterday and my son made the comment that she was shaking on the ride home...I assumed it was from being scared (I don't have a lot of chicken knowledge) but then last night she couldn't figure out how to get on her roost (she's in a temporary coop for now until I'm ready to introduce them and it has more of a covered area where I have a few different levels of roosts for her instead of a completely enclosed house the way our other chicken does). I assumed she was just confused since it was her first night and I helped her up. But this morning I looked out and she was looking down trying to get the courage to get out of it so I once again went and helped her get down. Later today, I noticed she was shaking again and immediately reached out to some friends who have chickens asking if this was normal nervous chicken behavior and they all said no...so I contacted her breeder. Turns out she has been having tremors since she was a baby....hence the fact, she was picked on and needed a special home. I'm not upset with the breeder at all for not telling me about the shaking, in fact....I'm happy I came along so I can hopefully give her a good home but has anyone dealt with this? She is a beautiful hen and has grown to a good size and seems completely healthy minus the shaking. We don't care about egg laying...they are more pets. In my opinion she has a neurological disorder. Has anyone dealt with this before?

 

[azygous]

A lot of different trauma can occur in the egg as it's incubating. It sounds like this hen may have suffered such trauma and has very slight neurological damage.

If she's normal in every other respect and has no other health issues, I wouldn't worry about her. After you've had her a while longer, you'll be better able to assess what her limitations are and how you'll need to assist her.

I have an aging flock myself, and I need to help a few of them down off their perches each morning. Years ago I had a hen who had gone lame, and I would carry her into the garage at night to sleep in a basket, and each morning I would carry her out to the run where she had a safe pen where she could enjoy being with the flock yet protected from them.

You'd be surprised how many others here have special needs chickens that they're more than happy to care for in special ways that they require.

 

[KiKiChick]

Awww....that's great to hear! I spent 3 months climbing an 8 foot ladder every night into the tree to help my other chicken (the stray) get to a safe place. We had bought a new farm and weren't where we could put a coop up because our previous farm was already under contract. So every night I climbed that ladder and took her to our boat barn where she roosted on our trolling motor hahahaha. This all started because a hurricane was hitting our area and I refused to let my strays ride it out in the storm so I got them into the boat barn which was hurricane proof and that's where they rode the storm out, on the boats trolling motor. So after that I spent every night making sure she got there. I don't mind helping our new chicken and thankfully my husband is a custom builder so we will be able to build her whatever coop she needs to make it easy for her.