Button hen harassed--very lethargic!

[TheWeeBee]

Last week I accidentally trimmed one of my BQ hen's nails a bit short. I saw her sitting off by herself in the pen the next day, so I put her in my 10 gallon rehab tank (used for all my small birds). She gimped around for a few days and seemed better.

So I put her in the main pen but, knowing she'd be seen as an intruder since she was away from them for so long, I put her in a wire enclosure (top half of a parakeet cage) so she could be "with" her flock, but they couldn't bother her.

Today I figured that the others should have gotten re-used to her by now, so I let her out. There was some chasing, as to be expected, but nothing seemed too serious. Then I come home today to find her utterly exhausted, with a bald patch on her backside and lots of feathers having been plucked out. I took her out right away and was able to pick her up. Considering that she isn't tame, that was not a good sign. I put her back in the tank and she just stood there with her head down. I pushed a dish of food right under her and she took a few bites, and now she's back to standing there nodding off. I have a ceramic heat lamp clamped to the top of the tank, and a heating pad underneath it. Is there anything else I can do for her at this point, other than let her rest? I didn't see any bloody injuries.

 

[TwoCrows]

She is probably stressed. If she were my bird, I would keep her under the heat lamp set at about 85 degrees until she perked up. I would feed her what ever she will readily eat. So if she is only picking at her gamebird food, I would offer her some hard boiled egg. Eggs are emergency food and they can survive on it quite well until they are healed. And they seem to eat it readily and the quicker she eats, the faster she heals.

If she still gets picked on after she is returned to the colony, I would find who is doing the bullying and remove them. Or, find the few that do get along with her and keep them separate in a different area.

 

[TheWeeBee]

I've got dried eggfood mixed in with her regular crumble, along with some freeze-dried mealies. She did take several slow sips of water, and was moving around a little. I had to turn the heating pad down to low, I think it was getting uncomfortably warm for her