BA pullet sickly

[KelsiNS]

One of my BA pullets that was purchased yesterday was sort of a mercy buy. The gentleman had 30+ pullets in a wire-bottom cage, and openly admitted she was months younger than the rest. Her feet kept falling through the wire as the much larger birds trampled her and pecked at her. Her tail feathers are wiry and clumped with feces where they have matted together (these will be trimmed this evening so as to keep her skin from getting irritated). She is obviously terrified of the larger girls I got with her, as she drops low and turns away any time they come near (she has bonded with my much younger RIR, and Redbird is the queen of the castle despite her smaller frame). She also seems to be struggling with uncurling her toes as she steps forward (probably as a result of trying to walk on wire that was too gapped for her) once she gets going, she is fine-but you can see she is still searching for stable ground before she steps, despite it being solid dirt now.

When I rub the chest and legs of my other birds, they are filled out and very strong. Ebony (small BA) is very hollow through the chest. The man said they were recently wormed, though I fear she didn't get much due to the fight with the older birds she was housed with. I will be reworming this evening, but I was wondering if there were any foods I could feed her (we can separate her if need be) to help her build up a little more. We have them on a steady diet of grazing, bugs (yes...I catch june bugs for them nightly...I apologize for nothing) and a pelleted feed formulated for growing chicks and new egg layers. Ebony is a really sweet bird, I want her to succeed now that she's out of that cage.

 

[Eggcessive]

How old is she? She should not be on layer feed unless she is at least 16 weeks old or laying because it has too much calcium which can cause kidney damage. All flock, 20% flock raiser, or 20% chick feed would be a good feed with oyster shell in a separate bowl for the layers. Scrambled chopped up eggs are great to feed to your chickens for protein to help them grow and heal. There are ways to tape the toes and make shoes with duct tape and cardboard. It works better on young chicks, but you could try it. Just look for threads to searchhere on crooked toes.

 

[KelsiNS]

We were told "a few months". Shes just out of the baby feather.stage.

 

[KelsiNS]

Well, we made the heartbreaking choice to euthanise Ebony yesterday. When i went out yesterday morning, she was weak and disoriented so i brought her inside so i could watch her and she woud be out of the heat. She would eat out of my hand, but started going in and out of consciousness and declining rapidly. She finally became so weak she couldnt hold her head ir wings up on her own. She is buried in our yard. I called the man she was puchased from and explained that he should add a divider for chicks too old to be in the baby pen but still too small for the pen Ebony was.in.