Any ideas what is wrong with this hen?

[philter4]

Thanks everyone for the replies, even though I don't think any of them are what is causing the problem it is nice to know I was not missing something obvious, tomorrow she will be at the vet and I will let everyone know what if anything she can come up with.

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.

I thought of that myself but she is still dominant, if I put insects into the pen she feeds first and the other female waits for her to finish before she eats so I don't think that is the problem.

I did have an idea, maybe she has an ear infection? Wouldn't that cause balance problems? Maybe she thinks she is falling over because of the inner ear and flaps to try not to "fall" over? just a thought, anyone have any experience with ear infections?

 

[philter4]

Well, good news bad news from the vet. First the bad news, it probably has a parasite called Baylisascaris procyonis. She could not tell for sure while the bird is alive as it is a microscopic parasite that is in the brain. It is host specific to raccoons so the hen is a dead end host, but there is also no cure and so she will die at some point as the parasites damages the brain. The only good news is it can not be spread to any of my other birds.

 

[samouw]

I am so sorry to hear about your hen. I have one question for you - how did she get this parasite?

 

[seminolewind]

Sorry about your hen. I will have to look up this parasite. How sad!

 

[philter4]

I am so sorry to hear about your hen. I have one question for you - how did she get this parasite?

It is transferred through eggs in the raccoon stool so either I tracked some into the pen on the bottom of my shoes or a raccoon was on top or close enough to the pen that it's stool was at some point inside or near the fencing, close enough at least for the hen to accidentally ingest a piece of grain or mealworm that was in contact with the stool. I don't ever see signs of the raccoon (I guess it can infect possum as well) near the pens but I know they are around the property and have even though I have never seen stool in or near the pens (or I would have removed it), it got in there somehow. No one knows how long the incubation period is either and this hen came to me last September so there is the possibility that she had it before I got her.

My vet says it is not common and I don't have to worry about the other birds but that is like saying don't think about a train, for the rest of the day all of you who read this are going to be thinking about trains That means that since I found out what it is and how it gets into the pen every time I go up there I am going to look for raccoon or possum stool and that will be all I think about for the next 3 years!!!

 

[stoopid]

That is horrible news, however it must somehow comfort you that it is nothing that you did.
I'm sorry.

 

[philter4]

Thanks to all of the replies and well wishes. I am very happy to find out it was not something that I did but it doesn't make me feel any better about the prognosis. It is like I thought, when I was up there today I inspected just about everything I couldn't identify that was in the pen and I hate to think of what I was picking up and looking closely at :-(

 

[seminolewind]

That sounds alot like the disease a horse gets from opossum peeing or pooping on hay.