tomcam
In the Brooder
- Sep 14, 2021
- 7
- 20
- 31
We have 5 easter eggers that just turned 6 months old. They have been laying for about 1 month. They live in a 4x8 coop inside of a beautifully built, fortified 30'x6' chicken run, which is enclosed because here in Seattle there are predators every damn where. Patience, the least strong and lightest of them, collapsed two weeks ago. We took her to the vet and $1,400 later learned.. she ate a lot of rocks, as shown by one of the X-rays below (although I have no idea if that is atypical for a hen; I assume it is). Blood work showed nothing else. No viral infection, Marek's, etc. They gave her Clavamox and Metacam. We put her in a bathroom and she's been improving every day. After a week she was indistinghuishable from normal. We're keeping her in the bathroom for another couple weeks because a) her eggs will be medicated until then since we stopped meds only yesterday, and b) we're slightly worried about putting her back with the others.
No one knows why she ate all the rocks. One assumes stress? She does not appear to be badly bullied at all by the other hens. She's lighter, and tends to keep her head down when we scatter food on the ground. She isn't missing any feathers, or explicitly bullied. Observing her here in the house for the last 2 weeks (we let her out of the bathroom often for walks in the house), she's.. different. She'll eat food the food we deliver her (crumbles, mealworms, fresh basil, salad mix). But when she gets out she resolutely tries to eat everything BUT food. We're remodeling so there's some drywall dust and she tries to eat that even if I've put fresh basil or mealworms near it. If we scatter food she likes when she's hungry she often sort of misses it when she pecks, yet somehow she unerringly finds pieces of drywall or grit from remodeling. Yes, of course I'm vacuuming up all the bits of non-food as I discover it but the point is, I'm afraid she'll just eat too much grit again, and yet somehow manage to eat the wrong stuff when she goes back out with her mates.
This is our first batch of chickens, and I must confess I am absolutely devoted to them. It surprised me TBH. I thought they'd be livestock, but they've become something close to family members. I adore them, and she the most. So the fact that she could very well end up like this again is heartbreaking. If I create another coop for her it will be small because we can't create another giant chicken run. Plus they're pack animals. It is not clear to me that if she had her own personal coop that she would be happy away from the others. I'm not even sure that the others are causing her that much trouble.
A little relevant background about me. I have endured a fair amount of hardship, maybe a bit more than normal (one of my kid calls my childhood "a quaint horror story"). Two weeks after we bought these easter eggers (originally 6) one died a horrible death from a staph infection and it was one of the worst experiences of my life, despite having gone through the deaths of many, many friends and family. Yet her death sent me into a tailspin. These creatures just captured my heart. It's dumb and unexpected. I'm not proud of being so attached to them because I'm normally a super practical guy, but... there you have it.
Any suggestions? I'm at a loss and way more attached than I should be. Thanks!
No one knows why she ate all the rocks. One assumes stress? She does not appear to be badly bullied at all by the other hens. She's lighter, and tends to keep her head down when we scatter food on the ground. She isn't missing any feathers, or explicitly bullied. Observing her here in the house for the last 2 weeks (we let her out of the bathroom often for walks in the house), she's.. different. She'll eat food the food we deliver her (crumbles, mealworms, fresh basil, salad mix). But when she gets out she resolutely tries to eat everything BUT food. We're remodeling so there's some drywall dust and she tries to eat that even if I've put fresh basil or mealworms near it. If we scatter food she likes when she's hungry she often sort of misses it when she pecks, yet somehow she unerringly finds pieces of drywall or grit from remodeling. Yes, of course I'm vacuuming up all the bits of non-food as I discover it but the point is, I'm afraid she'll just eat too much grit again, and yet somehow manage to eat the wrong stuff when she goes back out with her mates.
This is our first batch of chickens, and I must confess I am absolutely devoted to them. It surprised me TBH. I thought they'd be livestock, but they've become something close to family members. I adore them, and she the most. So the fact that she could very well end up like this again is heartbreaking. If I create another coop for her it will be small because we can't create another giant chicken run. Plus they're pack animals. It is not clear to me that if she had her own personal coop that she would be happy away from the others. I'm not even sure that the others are causing her that much trouble.
A little relevant background about me. I have endured a fair amount of hardship, maybe a bit more than normal (one of my kid calls my childhood "a quaint horror story"). Two weeks after we bought these easter eggers (originally 6) one died a horrible death from a staph infection and it was one of the worst experiences of my life, despite having gone through the deaths of many, many friends and family. Yet her death sent me into a tailspin. These creatures just captured my heart. It's dumb and unexpected. I'm not proud of being so attached to them because I'm normally a super practical guy, but... there you have it.
Any suggestions? I'm at a loss and way more attached than I should be. Thanks!