Can I help my depressed hen?

[sorce]

I believe in animal mental health.
It just seems a bit extreme to be mental health alone.

I don't know what else to check.

I would flip back to caring for that mental health, as love can heal physical wounds too!

Sorce

 

[Sequel]

I have Salmon Faverolles too and all of them so far get very depressed when they molt. You said you saw new feathers coming in so this could be compounding things for her. Give her good protein rich food and maybe some vitamins. I hope she perks up soon and there are no internal injuries!

 

[AnonPaperclip]

No. It sounds like you need to observe her for a few days. I agree with idea to separate when feeding and giving water. You need to make sure she is eating/drinking/ pooping ok for a few days. But, I would not separate 24/7 bc that would be stressful along with the re-introduction. If you have a dog crate or big box, use that for morning/evening feed. About 1/2 hour each time, she should eat/drink/ poop during that time. Then put her back in with the flock.

glad she doesn’t have any outward injuries! Hopefully she’s just recovering from the shock and changes to her routine.

That sounds like it could work. We've got a large dog crate that can be used.

The main problem would be my schedule. When I leave for school, it's still dark outside which means they're not up and probably don't want to be bothered. Then I don't get home until around 3pm. Then some days I don't have much time till I have to go to work (though it's usually only a few days out of the week)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you check her crop to make sure it's empty in the morning before she eats/drinks.
While she may be a little mopey because of the loss of a flockmate, it sounds like there is more to it.
If she's not eaten or drank in a few days, then I would suspect illness or injury. It's very possible you won't see any obvious injury like puncture wounds, but chickens can injure themselves when frightened, they run into fencing, fall off roosts, etc.

I would encourage her to drink, check the crop and see how she does.
Is she pooping at all?

 

[AnonPaperclip]

Can you check her crop to make sure it's empty in the morning before she eats/drinks.
While she may be a little mopey because of the loss of a flockmate, it sounds like there is more to it.
If she's not eaten or drank in a few days, then I would suspect illness or injury. It's very possible you won't see any obvious injury like puncture wounds, but chickens can injure themselves when frightened, they run into fencing, fall off roosts, etc.

I would encourage her to drink, check the crop and see how she does.
Is she pooping at all?

I believe I saw her poop at least once after the incident, though we've been in and out of the house due to other reasons, so I haven't been around them long enough to see her do it again. Her crop seemed alright earlier, but she's always seemed a little skinny. Poor thing gets picked on a lot. It was the first time I checked it since Friday night I'll make a note to check it tonight after work to see if it's full.

Like I said, I got her to drink, and she always looks like she wants to eat and drink. I'm gonna try and separate her soon and get her to eat and drink on her own so she doesn't have to deal with the others getting in her way.

 

[aart]

This is what I do to isolate for observation.
It won't hurt her to be confined for one school day,
put her in crate off the roost at night, then leave her until you get home from school(on a non work day).

I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor their intake of food and water, crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed), and their poops. Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling. Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.

Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

 

[lissalischicks]

She could be just depressed. One of my girls died from and internal issue and her 2 buddies were depressed for about 2 months. They even started to molt a bit.

 

[AnonPaperclip]

Update: I just got home from work and checked on them as soon as I walked in the door. It's like 11pm here, so of course, they were all ready to sleep. Like I expected, the faverolle was on the bottom bar, away from the others. I reached in to check to see if her crop was full or not, and she started backing away and got off the bar (which is not what she did last night). I take it it's better that she's more responsive, because she was moving around the coop quite a bit while I was there. Eventually, she went back to the bars and hopped up to the middle one, closer to the other hens.

Her crop didn't seem that full but it also wasn't empty. My guess is that she was able to get some food sometime before going to bed.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm a big believer in checking all over for hot spots, which can indicate soreness and bruising under the skin. Feel your bird as best you can under the feathers, using both hands and feeling symmetrically on both sides for comparison. See if anything strikes you as hotter than other places, like is there heat along one side of the back but not the other? Is there heat in one breast but not the other? Is one leg unusually hot or tender? Maybe the skin is not broken but it could be bruised. A dog or other predator can damage a chicken by shaking it without breaking it. It takes a few days to recover from such rough and painful treatment.

 

[slordaz]

Update: I just got home from work and checked on them as soon as I walked in the door. It's like 11pm here, so of course, they were all ready to sleep. Like I expected, the faverolle was on the bottom bar, away from the others. I reached in to check to see if her crop was full or not, and she started backing away and got off the bar (which is not what she did last night). I take it it's better that she's more responsive, because she was moving around the coop quite a bit while I was there. Eventually, she went back to the bars and hopped up to the middle one, closer to the other hens.

Her crop didn't seem that full but it also wasn't empty. My guess is that she was able to get some food sometime before going to bed.

I had 2 that were off food like normal for about 3 days, they would drink but eat very little moped around, then they were fine, but they each dealt with it differently 1 went perma broody but refused chicks or eggs finally got her to accept 1 chick that was just starting to pip from the brooder, but she sat on it for about 5 minutes after it hatched and was done. layed 1-2 eggs a week was all, the other quit laying for 6 months. Had to send some hens with an extra couple of roosters and explained to them what had happened and the issues these 2 had had since, just simply moving them to another flock seemed to help them, within 2 days of being moved to new flock and a bunch of free ranging roosters the report on them is wow they are laying machines now.