Young chicken mama
In the Brooder
- Jan 30, 2021
- 11
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Does this chicken have a third leg on the chest? From the photo on its back it kinda looks like that. If so that might be a start to those problemsSo my mom has small mini farm and she has some hens and a rooster. She had a stroke about 3 months ago so we're all trying to take care of her animals for her. My stepdad pointed out that one of the chickens had been laying under the ramp in the chicken coop for 4 days and not moving. On the 5th day, I went out there to check on her and she seems to be paralyzed. I brought her to my house and put her in a crate with some food and water. She is eating some and drinking but she does not move at all so we move her around to different spots in the cage several times a day. We also cut all the feathers underneath her around her vent because her poop had gotten caked on her when she was laying there for several days before I was alerted to the situation. We also have horses and they do go down and eat the horse feed that the horses drop. So I'm thinking possibly she got stepped on by 1 of the horses. I palpated her spine and as I got closer to her tail she squalked. Is there such thing as doing an x-ray on a chicken? I'm an animal lover but never saw myself falling in love with a chicken until we brought her up here and my husband named her Ethel. I've done a lot of reading and I'm thinking Marek's disease. Maybe? My mom has gotten her chickens from different places over the years. She's not a chicken farmer or anything of sorts. She just has a few chickens and collects the eggs. Another thing about this hen is that most of the time her beak is down in the ground but she does have the ability to lift her head. And her head is not twisted like what I read about wry neck. I feel like she's losing weight. I've never really held a chicken to know how their bones feel, but she just looks skinny looking at her breast bone. I have an appointment tomorrow morning for my mother's Great Pyrenees and I thought about taking the chicken with me but I know she will just tell me to put her to sleep. She's a country vet and knows farm animals well, but she's also very conservative. Any thoughts on what I can do to give this girl a chance would be greatly appreciated. Something else I noticed tonight is that when I held her in my lap upside down and stretched her legs, she would try to pull them back, not quickly or with any strength, but there is some resistance there. She has been at my house in the crate since Jan 3rd with little if any improvement. View attachment 3373001View attachment 3373002