Background: Marilla is part of a small flock of eight chickens + one rooster that freerange during the day and shut up in a coop at night. They are generally all healthy and give us 6-7 eggs a day, taking turns skipping. They are all about one and a half years old.
Their free-range diet is supplemented by soaked red wheat; we've recently started fermenting it as well. Since we live in a third world country, this is the only 'chicken food' available here.
Ten days or so ago we got a soft shell egg, laid on a path the chickens like to follow between coop and house, and the same day an egg with an extremely thin shell in the nesting box. We figured it must be calcium deficiency, and they have had all the eggshells they will eat since then. Oyster shell and other commercial calcium-containing products for chickens are not available here.
Problem: Everyone was away for nearly the whole day, so the chickens stayed shut up as protection from predators (this happens very seldom). They had water and fermented red wheat to eat. When we came back they door was opened and they all jumped out (1 foot up to the door) and went running off to find food. Marilla started stumbling a few steps out, fell down around twenty meters from the coop, and was unable to get up. One leg, in particular, seemed always collapsing under her.
We brought her to the house to try to find out what was up and examined her leg. No obvious wound or problem. She was very disturbed about being in the house so we brought her back to the chicken coop, closed the door partially so she'd stay, and provided her with food, water, and a (human-intended) calcium tablet.
That was two days ago, and she has been in the coop since. During the day, when she is the only one there except for those who come in to lay, she is peaceful: mostly sitting and eating, but also walking around a little bit, very, very carefully. If she walks very carefully she often manages without collapsing. If she tries to go faster her right leg collapses under her. If she is scared and tries to run away she can manage a tiny run in a circle, veering right as she continually falls that way, until she collapses completely.
Yesterday she laid an egg; smaller than usual, round, and with a sandpaper shell.
Today I offered her egg scrambled with eggshells; she ate a little but not much. She does eat her fermented food well.
She doesn't like the company of the others, and when she hears/sees the rooster fluffs up her feathers and tries to look big and aggressive. It seems generally effective.
Any ideas? The current thoughts going around my head are calcium deficiency? muscle sprain from being squashed by an over-eager rooster? But honestly I don't know. As mentioned we are in a third world country so solutions that use simple tools and ingredients are needed (we don't have any brand-name products here, and almost nothing meant for chickens).
Their free-range diet is supplemented by soaked red wheat; we've recently started fermenting it as well. Since we live in a third world country, this is the only 'chicken food' available here.
Ten days or so ago we got a soft shell egg, laid on a path the chickens like to follow between coop and house, and the same day an egg with an extremely thin shell in the nesting box. We figured it must be calcium deficiency, and they have had all the eggshells they will eat since then. Oyster shell and other commercial calcium-containing products for chickens are not available here.
Problem: Everyone was away for nearly the whole day, so the chickens stayed shut up as protection from predators (this happens very seldom). They had water and fermented red wheat to eat. When we came back they door was opened and they all jumped out (1 foot up to the door) and went running off to find food. Marilla started stumbling a few steps out, fell down around twenty meters from the coop, and was unable to get up. One leg, in particular, seemed always collapsing under her.
We brought her to the house to try to find out what was up and examined her leg. No obvious wound or problem. She was very disturbed about being in the house so we brought her back to the chicken coop, closed the door partially so she'd stay, and provided her with food, water, and a (human-intended) calcium tablet.
That was two days ago, and she has been in the coop since. During the day, when she is the only one there except for those who come in to lay, she is peaceful: mostly sitting and eating, but also walking around a little bit, very, very carefully. If she walks very carefully she often manages without collapsing. If she tries to go faster her right leg collapses under her. If she is scared and tries to run away she can manage a tiny run in a circle, veering right as she continually falls that way, until she collapses completely.
Yesterday she laid an egg; smaller than usual, round, and with a sandpaper shell.
Today I offered her egg scrambled with eggshells; she ate a little but not much. She does eat her fermented food well.
She doesn't like the company of the others, and when she hears/sees the rooster fluffs up her feathers and tries to look big and aggressive. It seems generally effective.
Any ideas? The current thoughts going around my head are calcium deficiency? muscle sprain from being squashed by an over-eager rooster? But honestly I don't know. As mentioned we are in a third world country so solutions that use simple tools and ingredients are needed (we don't have any brand-name products here, and almost nothing meant for chickens).
