Daniellebell1
Songster
- May 14, 2020
- 68
- 207
- 136
Hello Chicken Brain Trust,
The short version of this post is that Maeve Wiley, 4-year-old New Hampshire Red, appears to have glaucoma or cataracts in one eye. (Who knew that was even a thing??) My biggest fear is that she has ocular Marek's and that I might need to cull her. Based on pictures on the interwebs, I don't think it is, but will someone please confirm that for me? Does it look like a pecking injury?
I think it's a new development, though it's difficult to be certain.
One thing that makes it tricky to know is that she is one of 9 chickens I have just inherited with a rental house. My family moved to Durham from New Orleans a week ago. We gave our Louisiana chickens to a lovely friend (since I didn't want to bring them across state lines,) and we are currently renting the home of a family who moved out of the country for a year and asked if they should re-home the chickens of if we wanted to keep them. Obviously y'all know what we chose! But the problem is, they're now out of the country and it's tough to get in contact with them. This is all a long way of saying, I don't have a lot of history for Maeve Wiley, and I just don't know them all as well as the hens I raised from chicks.
She is eating well. I haven't seen her drink or poop, but I feel confident she does both (will continue to monitor as able.) She does not appear in any way lethargic. She is definitely low on the pecking order (she and a scrawny Buff Orp get bullied all the time by four bossy Plymouths.) I saw her bonk into a barbecue pit once while she was trying to get away from another chicken, but otherwise she seems able to navigate perfectly well.
The other thing is that she's a bit tetchy. For all the other hens, when I catch them and hold them, they calm down pretty quickly and let me check out their combs and feet, etc. But Maeve Wiley struggles the whole time. I can't tell if it's just her personality or if she's extra scared because she's in pain. She also is the most reluctant to go into the coop at night, and at bedtime will try all manner of escape maneuvers (hence: "Wiley"). And to be fair, the coop is definitely too small for 9, and she's probably getting bullied even more in the early evening and early mornings before we let them out to free range. I wouldn't want to go to bed either if I were getting pecked in the eye.
So what do you think, friends? Injury? Ocular Marek's? Glaucoma? Cataracts? Latent mutant super powers?
The short version of this post is that Maeve Wiley, 4-year-old New Hampshire Red, appears to have glaucoma or cataracts in one eye. (Who knew that was even a thing??) My biggest fear is that she has ocular Marek's and that I might need to cull her. Based on pictures on the interwebs, I don't think it is, but will someone please confirm that for me? Does it look like a pecking injury?
I think it's a new development, though it's difficult to be certain.
One thing that makes it tricky to know is that she is one of 9 chickens I have just inherited with a rental house. My family moved to Durham from New Orleans a week ago. We gave our Louisiana chickens to a lovely friend (since I didn't want to bring them across state lines,) and we are currently renting the home of a family who moved out of the country for a year and asked if they should re-home the chickens of if we wanted to keep them. Obviously y'all know what we chose! But the problem is, they're now out of the country and it's tough to get in contact with them. This is all a long way of saying, I don't have a lot of history for Maeve Wiley, and I just don't know them all as well as the hens I raised from chicks.
She is eating well. I haven't seen her drink or poop, but I feel confident she does both (will continue to monitor as able.) She does not appear in any way lethargic. She is definitely low on the pecking order (she and a scrawny Buff Orp get bullied all the time by four bossy Plymouths.) I saw her bonk into a barbecue pit once while she was trying to get away from another chicken, but otherwise she seems able to navigate perfectly well.
The other thing is that she's a bit tetchy. For all the other hens, when I catch them and hold them, they calm down pretty quickly and let me check out their combs and feet, etc. But Maeve Wiley struggles the whole time. I can't tell if it's just her personality or if she's extra scared because she's in pain. She also is the most reluctant to go into the coop at night, and at bedtime will try all manner of escape maneuvers (hence: "Wiley"). And to be fair, the coop is definitely too small for 9, and she's probably getting bullied even more in the early evening and early mornings before we let them out to free range. I wouldn't want to go to bed either if I were getting pecked in the eye.
So what do you think, friends? Injury? Ocular Marek's? Glaucoma? Cataracts? Latent mutant super powers?
