Chicken jumping off roost at night and sleeping on floor of coop - why??

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Video picked movement at 4:10am, she was on the floor of the coop. Went out there and put her back up. Then caught this video where you see her fall off. She looked up, then fell backwards. We took her inside, she's acting totally normal. Going to give her more vitamins. Thoughts??

*recall, she has a history of wry neck/paralysis. Maybe this is in the wrong forum section, but we weren't sure if this was related until we saw her fall backwards in this video*

https://ring.com/share/985d8500-f093-49db-a4c7-956e65366dec
 
Sarahh_Janeyy said:
Video picked movement at 4:10am, she was on the floor of the coop. Went out there and put her back up. Then caught this video where you see her fall off. She looked up, then fell backwards. We took her inside, she's acting totally normal. Going to give her more vitamins. Thoughts??

*recall, she has a history of wry neck/paralysis. Maybe this is in the wrong forum section, but we weren't sure if this was related until we saw her fall backwards in this video*

https://ring.com/share/985d8500-f093-49db-a4c7-956e65366dec
Click to expand...
She doesn't move her head too far before falling.
With her past issues, she might have neurological issues affecting her balance that may never resolve.
 
Update, 2 months later: I think it's a vitamin issue. After some heavy treat-covered-with-vitamins administering, she's stopped doing this. Unfortunately she's just a special needs chicken - she gets Poultry Cell every day-every other day and hasn't fallen off again since. Unfortunately she won't just eat a bunch of treat on her own (she thinks we are trying to trick her) unless all the other chickens are eating the treat, too. So I guess all the girls get extra vitamins!
 
Sarahh_Janeyy said:
Update, 2 months later: I think it's a vitamin issue. After some heavy treat-covered-with-vitamins administering, she's stopped doing this. Unfortunately she's just a special needs chicken - she gets Poultry Cell every day-every other day and hasn't fallen off again since. Unfortunately she won't just eat a bunch of treat on her own (she thinks we are trying to trick her) unless all the other chickens are eating the treat, too. So I guess all the girls get extra vitamins!
Click to expand...

Good that you found a solution that seems to be working. Is the vitamin supplement in a liquid form? If you want to ensure that only she gets it (as the others don't need it, it's best to not keep dosing them with vitamins), you can try isolating her for a private breakfast. Serve a small bowl (like 1 Tbsp is fine) of wet or fermented feed with the vitamins mixed in. Should only take her a minute to eat and after that she's free to go.
 
rosemarythyme said:
Good that you found a solution that seems to be working. Is the vitamin supplement in a liquid form? If you want to ensure that only she gets it (as the others don't need it, it's best to not keep dosing them with vitamins), you can try isolating her for a private breakfast. Serve a small bowl (like 1 Tbsp is fine) of wet or fermented feed with the vitamins mixed in. Should only take her a minute to eat and after that she's free to go.
Click to expand...

Tried that 😂 she would eat like 2 bites and stop. I tried scrambled eggs, flygrubs, yogurt, peanut butter, different things - she would either be very apprehensive or didn't want it after a bite or two. If I mix it up for the whole flock, she goes to town. The vet had said it wouldn't hurt. Just more expensive. 😅 I think she just got very suspicious after spending over a month inside with us forcing her to eat medicine.
 
This reminds me of a special needs hen @Shadrach had a year or so back, but I don't remember the details. Shad, is this anything like your little hen that was falling off the roost if I remember correctly?
 
Sarahh_Janeyy said:
Our 10 month old pullet has had a slew of health issues in the past, so whenever she is acting strange we freak out. Especially if she's off the roost at night- since back when she had wry neck we found her on the bottom of the coop wedged behind a PVC pipe.

The last few nights she has gone up to roost like normal, but then after it gets dark, she jumps off. I have a camera in there so I know when some movement has happened. Two nights ago, we freaked out after going out there and turning on the light- thinking she just fell off and couldn't figure out how to get back up in the dark. She wanted to be on the floor. I put her back up- a few times, before turning off the light. But she ended up on the floor again so we took her inside. The next morning we gave her vitamin supplements- afraid of wry neck coming back- and put her outside. She's acting normal, she's not broody, she's laying eggs normally, eating and drinking, and we also checked her feet to make sure she didn't have bumblefoot (3 of ours currently have it). Last night we went to bed around 10pm and she was up there on the roost. I woke up at 6:30am to see the camera went off at 12:30am, and she was on the floor wedged against a pipe again. I went out there and turned on the light, and she was fine, she got up, walked around, she was acting normal. But it really freaked me out.. I left the light on in the coop and went back inside. (We have an auto door that opens when it's light out).

Why the heck would she be doing this?? Any thoughts??
Click to expand...
Does she look like this when she's on the floor?
P6241610.JPG

If so perhaps this thread might be of interest.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nuerological-or-something-else.1318208/
 
No, she had wry neck in the past when she was 3 months old, but she doesn't have it now. Just sometimes she looks up and loses her balance and ends up on the floor. But she'll keep trying to go back up to the roost. She doesn't stay with her head up like that when she falls off the roost. She goes back to normal and tries to roost normally, until she falls off again.
 

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