Another sick hen..same symptoms

[aart]

Day three of a clear crop. This is looking good.

If she goes to roost tonite with her buddies might just leave her out there.

 

[vantain]

If she goes to roost tonite with her buddies might just leave her out there.

I think my best chance might be tomorrow night or Monday. Tonight’s low is supposed to be 6, but tomorrow is forecast to be in the upper teens. Monday night is supposed to be in the 20s. It’s 12 outside now, but 20 in the run. I may let her out there to mingle a bit this afternoon, and maybe longer tomorrow.

 

[vantain]

Day 4...clear crop again this morning. It is supposed to get up to around 22F today, and I’m going to take her out around noon. The low tonight is supposed to be about 15, so I think I’m going to see how she does outside tonight.

 

[vantain]

Well..she’s outside and roosting in the coop tonight! Except for some pecking order and roosting positions drama, she is settled in. She’s the one on the far right, which is normally reserved for, and taken by the girl at the top. Tonight, Winnie, decided it was time to take that spot back.

The hen in the middle is Gwyneth, normally the top hen as of late, and Daisy is on the far left. She’s ticked off at being so rudely pushed to the position on the left that NO ONE seems to want. Looks like she is protesting a bit by not snuggling up to the others like they normally do.

Anyway, Winnie, the subject of this post, is back outside. I’ll check her crop again in the morning, and hopefully we have a fifth day of that.

It’s been 22 outside for most of the afternoon, and only supposed to dip down to about 18 tonight, so I’m hoping she does ok. She looked fine all afternoon, keeping busy with the others. She did not look cold.

 

[vantain]

Oops..here is the pic of them tonight.

 

[vantain]

She did great outside last night, in the coop with the other hens, and her crop was clear again this morning. Hopefully this was just a odd occurrence of whatever caused this crop issue to begin with, and she is in the clear now. Since I know things like this can happen again, I will continue to check her crop daily for awhile to make sure she is doing ok, especially with the much colder temperatures coming in the next few days.

Thanks again everyone, for the comments and suggestions. It was all very helpful, as always. It was nice to have a success for once, dealing with an issue.

 

[aart]

She did great outside last night, in the coop with the other hens, and her crop was clear again this morning.

That's a relief, eh? WTG!!

 

[vantain]

Thought I would provide another update. She continues to do ok, but I have noticed that she doesn't appear to be eating as much lately. In fact, none of them seem to be eating very much. On my other post about feather pecking, I commented about the fact that I think they are molting. So I wonder if this is the cause of the earlier crop impaction. Is it possible this one hen was eating some of the pine shavings instead of the normal feed for some reason, due to a molt?

The run was awash in feathers today.....bad timing, with temperatures dropping into single digits and below in the coming days. Doesn't look like a hard molt though.

 

[aart]

Molting can make them act kind of lethargic, and may suppress their appetite.

 

[vantain]

Molting can make them act kind of lethargic, and may suppress their appetite.

Ha Ha..well...Not sure if having her inside for a few days to treat the crop issues triggered this or not, but she is definitely molting! This is what I found in the coop this morning. Whenever she flaps her wings, she explodes in feathers.