Any ideas what is wrong with this hen?

[philter4]

About 2 weeks ago one of my grey jungle fowl hens started acting strange, she became very shy and even though she was the dominant female (there are 2 in the pen together with a male) she is now so submissive I thought she might be getting beat up. A week ago, maybe less but not more then 7 days, she began to start physically acting differently as well, she just runs around flapping her wings and pacing back and forth along the back wire. She still eats but normally the first thing they do when I open the barn in the morning is to go to water then food, for the last week or so I have not seen her drink (I also can not spend all day up there watching her so it does not mean she is not drinking). If I put mealworms in her pen she goes right to them and feeds but as soon as they are gone she goes back to the strange behavior.

Here is a short video of her and what she is doing, any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. She has been in this pen for about 4 months, it has a heated barn with perches and an enclosed dog house for them to go into for privacy. It is 16 feet long by 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall totally enclosed. There is bamboo planted in the pen and perches all the way around the larger area, along with 4 different length perches in the barn so they can be away from each other if they need to get away. I am giving her batryl 10% solution in the water on my vets advice and I have sent her this video and am bringing her for an office visit on Monday.

Diet consists of a mix of flock raiser with scratch grains and oyster shell added, one a week I add food grade diatomaceous earth, they get mealworms and crickets daily ( I raise them myself and it is added to the food bowls daily as well as a tossed into the pen as a treat) along with fresh alfalfa. Fresh greens, fruits, and vegetables are added to a cooked wild rice and added to the pen 3 times a week.

http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/philter4/video/?action=view&current=PICT0650.mp4

Any advice or experiences with something like this would ease my mind until Monday, and thanks for looking

 

[Judy]

I suppose you have checked for lice and mites. I'm not quite sure why the added heat. I'm wonder ing if she is hot with all that wing flapping. Although, when I see an agitated, hyperactive animal, I think of pain, sorry to say. Please let us know.

 

[stoopid]

She looks like she wants OUT.
How old is she?
Maybe there is something on the other side of the fence. A cute roo, a nest you don't know about.
Maybe she wants to be a Guinea. I haer them screaming in the background.
Is she afraid of you with the camera?
This is a tuogh one, hopefully someone else can help.

 

[philter4]

I suppose you have checked for lice and mites. I'm not quite sure why the added heat. I'm wonder ing if she is hot with all that wing flapping. Although, when I see an agitated, hyperactive animal, I think of pain, sorry to say. Please let us know.

Thanks for the reply, there are no lice or mites that I can see, although she is a wild bird and you can not get close to her without restraining her so I have only looked once recently. I heat the perches because even though it was nice today I live in the mountains above Lake Tahoe and at night the temps drop down into the low 20's or upper teen's. The way I heat the barn is with high watt reptile heat lamps and I have all 3 of them on the same side of the barn so they can get away from the lamps if they get too hot, normally in the morning when I go out to feed and check them they are all under the lamps so if they were too hot I would guess they would go to the perches away from the lamps.

 

[philter4]

She looks like she wants OUT.
How old is she?
Maybe there is something on the other side of the fence. A cute roo, a nest you don't know about.
Maybe she wants to be a Guinea. I haer them screaming in the background.
Is she afraid of you with the camera?
This is a tuogh one, hopefully someone else can help.

She has a larger area to the left of where she is pacing that is planted with bamboo and has all sorts of perches and dowels for them to move around off the ground but she doesn't go over there any longer unless there is food or something chases her. She is in her second year and has produced eggs and chicks but this is new behavior. All 3 of them are weary of anything near the pen but normally they just become very focused and watch when something different is happening, this behavior occurs with or without me standing right at the pen fence.

 

[stoopid]

Poor girl. I had red jungle fowl, and still have a few hens, must be around 7-8 yrs old. Very wild bunch, but she looks very agitated.
I hope she isn't in pain. It looks like you are going to have to catch her and do a thorough inspection.
Try to do it when she is in the coop, and calmer. You won't catch her during the day without stressing both of yourselves out.
Good luck.

 

[spikennipper]

I can see nothing wrong with the hen in the video, she does just look like she wants out, either that or the roo is pestering her too much, she is not happy there.
You say she is a wild bird? this could by why, it does seem a little odd that she has been in there for 4 months and has just started acting in this way though, perhaps try to put some screening in front of the mesh to see if this makes a difference so she can't see out or remove the roo and observe her behaviour he may need more girls, I don't think she is ill not sure why the vet gave you Baytril did he examine her before hand or just go by symptoms? I do find that my hens get quite agitated before they are due to lay and then calm down after they have passed the egg maybe this is why? does she only do this behaviour at certain times or is it more or less constant?

 

[JoePa]

She is acting like an animal in a cage - she wants to be set free - you should let her out into the yard each day so she can run around - whatever it is she doesn't want to stay in the run or coup - I say let her out -

 

[philter4]

Poor girl. I had red jungle fowl, and still have a few hens, must be around 7-8 yrs old. Very wild bunch, but she looks very agitated.
I hope she isn't in pain. It looks like you are going to have to catch her and do a thorough inspection.
Try to do it when she is in the coop, and calmer. You won't catch her during the day without stressing both of yourselves out.
Good luck.

I have an appointment at my avian vet on Monday so she will be examined then. As per the vet's advice I add Tylonal to the water just in case she is hurt and in pain. I always catch the birds right at the break of dawn if I have to so they are sort of still asleep and it makes it easier.

I can see nothing wrong with the hen in the video, she does just look like she wants out, either that or the roo is pestering her too much, she is not happy there.
You say she is a wild bird? this could by why, it does seem a little odd that she has been in there for 4 months and has just started acting in this way though, perhaps try to put some screening in front of the mesh to see if this makes a difference so she can't see out or remove the roo and observe her behaviour he may need more girls, I don't think she is ill not sure why the vet gave you Baytril did he examine her before hand or just go by symptoms? I do find that my hens get quite agitated before they are due to lay and then calm down after they have passed the egg maybe this is why? does she only do this behaviour at certain times or is it more or less constant?

This behavior is new to her, and she was moved from a smaller pen to this one 4 months ago. She paces the corridor between the flight pen and the barn, she has a large area that is planted with live bamboo and has a dozen thick perches and dowels across it to give them something to climb on and hide in. Grey jungle fowl are very strongly pair bonded, they do not normally live in trios or harems like some other jungle fowl, the second female in the pen is there to give the rooster something to pick on instead of her so adding more females is not going to be helpful, although moving the other hen might help. She does this constantly unless there is food in the pen, she even flaps her wings while she is sitting on the perches in the barn.

Sorry, she is a wild type bird, she is actually an F1, both of her parents were wild but she is captive, my apologies for the confusion.

She is acting like an animal in a cage - she wants to be set free - you should let her out into the yard each day so she can run around - whatever it is she doesn't want to stay in the run or coup - I say let her out -

These are wild type animals and they fly very well, even though they are related to chickens they are not like a chicken at all, if I were to let them out they would just fly away and I might never see them again. Last year one of my hens got out and flew away, over all of the oak scrub and pine (I live in the mountains near Lake Tahoe) and she was spotted by a neighbor over 1/4 mile away as she flew into his yard. Eventually she came back because of food and the roosters crowing and I set a trap and caught her again but I can't just let them free range, they are not tame. As far as an animal in a cage, she is a captive bred bird and never been outside a pen along with the fact that this behavior is new, she was in a smaller pen until 4 months ago and this behavior started only 2 weeks ago.

 

[seminolewind]

If those birds get strongly bonded to a partner, maybe the 3rd bird being there is a problem? If she was alpha and now not anymore, she may not be wanted in that cage anymore.