Thank you so much for that story and all the information. I have had blind dogs that did learn to get around. Well. I am so impressed with Ethel's determination to get stronger and walk again. I'm going to post another video below because she is now wanting to perch. I will look into finding some pullets to put in with her and see if they help. Ethel will always be a house chicken except going outside to enjoy the fresh air and sunlight. I did read about keeping the food in the same place and hopefully I will hear from azygous about the tube feeding. If not, I will tag her. Thank you again for all that information. Also, I am not so much interested in egg production as I would be just companions for her.Hi @Gotalotofpetstoo , I've been away for a week, and it sure is good to see Ethel's videos showing her improving mobility. I don't know if you have ever dealt with a blind animal, but I've had two. An elderly dog that gradually went blind, and a hen that was born mostly blind due to cataracts on both eyes. With the old dog, he used my younger dogs as "seeing eye" guides. And my younger dogs somehow understood he needed them as a guide. When I opened the door to let them inside the house, the two younger dogs would brush next to my elderly dog as they ran past, & he would follow them up the steps. IF Ethel will tolerate young pullets, hopefully she can use them as her Her "seeing eyes." Re the blind hen, she lived to age 5 before dying a natural death. (I didnt necropsy to know the cause.) She was unfortunately bullied by some other hens. For that reason I provided her separate housing (a rabbit hutch) to sleep in at night to make sure she got enough to eat. She was still out with other hens during the day. (Only a few bullied her.) If Ethel can overcome everything else she has faced, she will be able to deal with blindness too, even more so if she will accept pullet friends. The main thing is always have her food, water, housing, etc in the same place.
To answer your question about the chick breeds, Rhode Island Reds usually live to at least age 5; I have a RIR hen that recently turned 8 and is going strong. Brown leghorns tend to live longer than white leghorns since they are not quite as high production layers. As stated earlier, black sexlinks are high production layers, and while they may live longer than red sexlinks, the higher egg production will shorten their lives. A hen laying an egg nearly every day is somewhat comparable to a mammal giving birth nearly every year. Most people want high-production layers and not hens that live a long life. But I have quite a lot of hens of various breeds that are now ages 5 and up, and there are many chicken breeds that should live to at least 5. Of course there are no guarantees, and one thing I've learned (and you probably have too) is that when we love a human or animal, we are never ready to see them go.
I saw that azygous helped you a lot this past week. If you don't hear from her soon, tag her to address your tube-feeding questions; she won't mind.
I know. I am still in awe of the fact that I ended up with a chicken to begin with that was sick, almost dead, and instead of doing what the average person would do, crazy me decided to try to rehabilitate her. I can't even begin to explain how happy I am with this decision because I've made so many bad decisions in my life, especially here lately and Ethel has just warmed my heart in a way like no other has in a long time. Every day that I see her making more improvements makes me know that we made the right decision to help her stay alive. I can't wait until she is back to 100% as far as walking anyway. I can already see my husband sitting in his recliner watching TV with her in his lap, LoL!!! I could not have done any of this without all of you. You are all so special and I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this site. I did see azygous comment about tube feeding. We are going to try to monitor her food intake very closely which may be hard because she does spill it from time to time. But we're going to try to monitor it and if it doesn't appear that she is eating enough, which I guess for her size she should eat about one cup of crumbles per day? But if not, we are definitely going to tube feed her again. I can't see getting this far with her and her going down hill again. She has truly brought so much joy into my life these last few difficult months and made me smile and feel excitement that I haven't felt in so long. Thank you again to all of you and I will most definitely keep posting updates. And we are going to build her a roost in her indoor and her outdoor enclosures.It warms my heart to see Ethel making such progress! She was definitely attempting to perch atop her food bowl. If you can rig some type of wooden bar in her wire cage for her to roost on, I'm sure she would appreciate it. I would place a roost bar that she can easily step up on same as she did with her food bowl. After you show her a few times where it is inside her cage, she should have no problem finding it.
Wyorp Rock did respond to your tube-feeding question last night, and she is also a very knowledgeable medical educator who's input you can trust.
The rule of thumb is that the average large-fowl chicken should consume about 4.1 ounces of feed per day. Ethel may currently need less than that since she is less active. The most common way people check to see if a chicken is underweight or overweight is to feel their breast bone, also known as the keel bone. If the bone feels prominent and pointy with very little muscle on each side of the bone, the chicken is underweight. If you can't feel the keel bone at all, or have to press very firmly to feel it, the chicken is overweight. Of course it helps to have something to compare to, and if you are able to feel the keel bone of other chickens that are active and healthy, that would be of great help.
It has become evident to me (and I suspect others here witnessing Ethel's journey) that you (and your husband) are very special yourself. In the two months since you took Ethel under your care, you have learned more and done more in caring for an ailing chicken than many people with years of experience know/do. However long Ethel may live, I hope her lasting legacy will be that you choose to have future chickens in your life to know and love. But meanwhile, Go Ethel Go!
I think I could watch that video of Ethel eating from the perch all day! What a great idea! She is such a cutie and obviously thriving in your care! I think her legs look normal, has she had a warm epsom salt bath recently? Now that she is stable you may want to gently wash her, you can use an old tooth brush in the water to scrub her legs. As for the new coop- I would agree to let the sun blast it, but feel free to clean it with warm water and white vinegar, you are correct that you don't want anything harmful to be by your flock. Chickens have very sensitive respiratory systems.
I honestly doubt she has ever been dewormed. I was just reading up on that last night while I was reading up on scaly leg mites. I have some dewormer I use for our goats called cydectin, but I didn't find anywhere that said it could be safe for chickens, so I'm going to look into dewormers specifically for chickens and get that done this week.
