Alarming Chicken Behavior After Dust-bathing

[Misfit Homesteader]

Hello there! I suppose this is not an emergency, and I don't know if this is a disease or injury, but something definitely isn't right and this seemed like the best category to post this under.

I have an adorable year-old Mille Fleur D'Uccle bantam hen. She is the sweetest little thing, so friendly and loves to be picked up and follows me around like a puppy (when I let her, that is, which isn't too often - she stays in a closed run 99% of the time since she is the perfect little size for a fox or hawk snack). I must admit she's my favorite of all my hens. She seems healthy (eats plenty of proper layer feed as well as fresh veggies, grass, and bugs, drinks enough, lays eggs regularly, gets enough calcium as well as sunlight, active, aware of her surroundings, breathing normal, poops normal, no mites or parasites as far as I know, vent looks fine, no swellings or bumps, etc.), but the problem is when she dust bathes. She loves to dust bathe in dry dirt, same as my other chickens, and I know how important it is for her skin and feathers, but I haven't let her do it more than a couple of times and I don't know if I can again.

The others dust bathe pretty quickly and move on to other things, but she likes to take her time. She likes to lean over and kick out her feet as well as rub her head around upside down to get her head feathers "clean" too. The problem is that I've noticed that if she bathes for more than a couple of minutes she starts to get lethargic (not just happy and sleepy - she looks peaky). She also starts to shake so hard she's practically vibrating. At that point I try to get her up and moving around, which she doesn't want to do at first - she won't stand up. But once she gets up she shakes herself and starts doing other chicken things. I just chalked it up to her getting low blood circulation while she was on her side and I just kept an eye on her and didn't let her bathe for more than a minute. But this last time was really concerning to me. I had temporarily gotten distracted while she was bathing, so she bathed for about 10 minutes. When I remembered and got back to her, she was really shaking and squinting her eyes. Her comb was also tinged with light purple on the edges. I got her onto grass and tried to get her to start moving around again. She kept pushing herself forward onto her chest to the point that her butt was almost pointing straight up, which she never did before. She also appeared to be straining, almost like she does when she lays an egg (she did lay one that morning so that wasn't it). I just kept gently picking her up and encouraging her to put weight on her legs, and after a minute, she got up and shook herself. She seemed to go completely back to normal - eating, drinking, alert, comb back to its usual color, did a poop. It wasn't a hot or sunny day, so not sunstroke. No gasping or wheezing, so not choking.

I tried to google this but nothing came up, so I thought I'd try asking all you fellow chicken people to see if anyone knew anything or had a similar experience. I love her like I do my dogs and don't want anything to happen to her, but I have no idea what it is or what to do about it. She's my only bantam hen (don't worry, she's separate from the big girls), so I don't know if it could be a breed oddity just like dog breeds can have odd breed-specific issues. I do have a bantam rooster (sweetest little guy), but he is a different breed and I have never had this problem with him.

Thank you so much!

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

Hmmm... so is this the only time she acts lethargic? When she dust bathes? Does the "dust" seem 2 smell like ammonia or mold? That's a really good ? What temperature is it where u live?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

That's very odd isn't it?

I have no clue as to why she would do that, perhaps she's experiencing vertigo if she's really turning over.

I'll tag in @Eggcessive and @coach723 to see if they have any suggestions.

Another thought is I wonder if she's somehow "hypnotizing" herself, but that would be strange too.
This "chicken hypnotizing" thing is still sort of trending around I suppose, thought it was long gone by now, but hey, people do stuff I guess. I don't agree with doing it, but look at the video and see if that's what she's doing. I like the first one best since the ending is great, the rooster let's him have it

https://www.facebook.com/furrytailsofficial/videos/chicken-hypnosis-/1390303728403513/

 

[Eggcessive]

Serve those guys right to get pecked by the rooster in the video, LOL. I was just wondering if the dust bathing actions of her head and neck might be causing some sort of neurological issue, possibly seizure like activity. I would probably keep letting her dust bathe normally though. Mille fleurs are set little pets. I had a hens and rooster in a mixed flock, and the hen acted like yours making me pick her up or she would fly up on my shoulder if she was ignored. She lived 10 years. They could fly straight up to the top of our barn like Harrier jets off of aircraft carriers.

 

[coach723]

I had one hen that had what appeared to be intermittent seizure activity, though hers manifested as freezing up, and then basically going comatose, completely unresponsive. Other than breathing, she just laid as if dead. Any kind of stress or excitement could trigger it, being mounted by a rooster, something moving past her quickly, a couple of times it seemed to be triggered by sudden bright light in the nest box when I opened the coop door. You could watch her and see it happening when it started. She would usually recover within a few minutes, I think the longest was almost 10 minutes, which seemed like forever. She would slowly come around and be off like nothing happened. This went on for about 6 months and then seemed to stop. Probably 8 months after that she started to fail and passed, from a reproductive cancer. I've no idea if those two things were related, but have to wonder. Birds can get epilepsy, but there isn't a lot of information about it out there. Initially that is what I suspected mine had.

In humans there is something called vasovagal syncope, which is often why some people faint, and animals don't seem to have the exact same issue (maybe fainting goats), but there are instances of excitement/stress where the flight/fight instinct kicks in and they can have some weird reactions, it has to do with the autonomic nervous system reaction to stress. So perhaps she so loves the dust bath and gets so stimulated by it, it brings it on. It's also possible that somehow the particular motions of dust bathing are affecting a nerve somewhere and that sets it off.

I have a rooster that starting at 6 months of age, started randomly having weird head wobbling and shaking, almost a weird kind of wry neck, but nothing made it better and nothing made it worse, it would just appear out of no where, and then go away a few seconds later. It appeared to be completely involuntary and uncontrollable. Sometimes it would happen many times over a day, some days it wouldn't happen at all. He was still able to eat, drink, do every thing normally. It went on for several years. Then suddenly stopped. No idea why. He's still with me, though getting pretty elderly now, and it hasn't happened in a very long time. And it has never shown up in any chick that was his offspring, so it doesn't appear to be genetic.

 

[Misfit Homesteader]

Hmmm... so is this the only time she acts lethargic? When she dust bathes? Does the "dust" seem 2 smell like ammonia or mold? That's a really good ? What temperature is it where u live?

I live in zone 5b, so spring and summer temps have been anywhere from low thirties (in the spring) to high eighties (in the summer). We have gotten so much rain lately that I wouldn't be surprised if it was some sort of bacteria or mold she's reacting to. She's bathed in a few different soils on my property as well as some finely shredded natural wood chips (I didn't sign off on the last one - I wasn't pleased when I saw the mess she'd made of the neat wood chip edging of my garden ) so if it is something like that it's in all of them. I might try getting some sterile chicken bathing material, seeing if she does better with that, and keeping it inside when she's not using it.

 

[Misfit Homesteader]

I had one hen that had what appeared to be intermittent seizure activity, though hers manifested as freezing up, and then basically going comatose, completely unresponsive. Other than breathing, she just laid as if dead. Any kind of stress or excitement could trigger it, being mounted by a rooster, something moving past her quickly, a couple of times it seemed to be triggered by sudden bright light in the nest box when I opened the coop door. You could watch her and see it happening when it started. She would usually recover within a few minutes, I think the longest was almost 10 minutes, which seemed like forever. She would slowly come around and be off like nothing happened. This went on for about 6 months and then seemed to stop. Probably 8 months after that she started to fail and passed, from a reproductive cancer. I've no idea if those two things were related, but have to wonder. Birds can get epilepsy, but there isn't a lot of information about it out there. Initially that is what I suspected mine had.

In humans there is something called vasovagal syncope, which is often why some people faint, and animals don't seem to have the exact same issue (maybe fainting goats), but there are instances of excitement/stress where the flight/fight instinct kicks in and they can have some weird reactions, it has to do with the autonomic nervous system reaction to stress. So perhaps she so loves the dust bath and gets so stimulated by it, it brings it on. It's also possible that somehow the particular motions of dust bathing are affecting a nerve somewhere and that sets it off.

I have a rooster that starting at 6 months of age, started randomly having weird head wobbling and shaking, almost a weird kind of wry neck, but nothing made it better and nothing made it worse, it would just appear out of no where, and then go away a few seconds later. It appeared to be completely involuntary and uncontrollable. Sometimes it would happen many times over a day, some days it wouldn't happen at all. He was still able to eat, drink, do every thing normally. It went on for several years. Then suddenly stopped. No idea why. He's still with me, though getting pretty elderly now, and it hasn't happened in a very long time. And it has never shown up in any chick that was his offspring, so it doesn't appear to be genetic.

I'm sorry about your hen! I certainly hope that my hen doesn't have cancer or something like that. She seems perfectly healthy the rest of the time, it's just the odd behavior when dust bathing. It certainly could be a nervous system reaction- she really does get into dust bathing and takes it very seriously. She also is so picky when it comes to egg-laying - my other hens just pop the egg out and go back to other things, but she has to test out multiple places to lay her egg each day (and ends up picking the same place as before every time), and then scoots around in the spot for about 10 minutes to make the nest "just right". Then afterwards she does her egg song, which sounds like she is being brutally murdered and makes my other chickens freak out! Chickens are so weird and wonderful.

 

[Misfit Homesteader]

That's very odd isn't it?

I have no clue as to why she would do that, perhaps she's experiencing vertigo if she's really turning over.

I'll tag in @Eggcessive and @coach723 to see if they have any suggestions.

Another thought is I wonder if she's somehow "hypnotizing" herself, but that would be strange too.
This "chicken hypnotizing" thing is still sort of trending around I suppose, thought it was long gone by now, but hey, people do stuff I guess. I don't agree with doing it, but look at the video and see if that's what she's doing. I like the first one best since the ending is great, the rooster let's him have it

https://www.facebook.com/furrytailsofficial/videos/chicken-hypnosis-/1390303728403513/

That's so strange about the line in the dirt thing! I suppose she could be hypnotizing herself, but she doesn't really look like that when it happens and that wouldn't explain the violent shaking.

 

[Misfit Homesteader]

Serve those guys right to get pecked by the rooster in the video, LOL. I was just wondering if the dust bathing actions of her head and neck might be causing some sort of neurological issue, possibly seizure like activity. I would probably keep letting her dust bathe normally though. Mille fleurs are set little pets. I had a hens and rooster in a mixed flock, and the hen acted like yours making me pick her up or she would fly up on my shoulder if she was ignored. She lived 10 years. They could fly straight up to the top of our barn like Harrier jets off of aircraft carriers.

I hope mine lives as long as that! I did recently learn that Peanut, the current oldest living chicken (21 years!) is half Mille Fleur D'Uccle, so that gives me hope!

 

[SourRoses]

Some good suggestions so far. But it's possible that it's just normal dust bathing... the only concerning thing you mentioned was the vibrating, which could be the mini-shaking they use to distribute dust in all the denser feather areas.
A video would help to be sure.
But taking a nap in the bath can be totally okay, and not wanting to leave can just be "Hey! It's still my turn!".


My family is full of 5 minute showerers. I take 45 minutes. They think I'm weird and I think they're allergic to water and must be missing spots.
How can you lather 3x, shave, shampoo, long condition, scrub your feet and toenails, wash your face and ears, rinse thoroughly, and wash your hands between the various body parts, in only 5 minutes??!!