One of my hens has been acting strange for the past month or two. She's 2 years old and otherwise healthy, but lately she's been looking and acting a little off. She has a great appetite, shows interest in regular chicken life, comes into my lap to hang out. Her comb is very pale, but most of them have pale combs right now because of molting so I didn't think much of that. The strangest thing has been how she moves - she moves in a slow and fluid manner, like a mammal instead of like a bird. You know how birds move their heads in jerky increments, instead of in single fluid movements? And mammals move more smoothly? It looks odd on a bird. None of the other chickens move like that. She's walking slowly, too. Not limping, just everything about her movements is like she's in slow motion. Her crop empties overnight and is full at bedtime, and her appetite is great, so eating is going well. She's not currently laying, but then again none of the rest of them are either because they've started their winter break already. She has a defective tail (that's how she's always been) which is immobile and perpetually points down, so that makes it harder to judge her posture. It also makes her butt chronically messy and in need of regular baths and trims, which she accepts peacefully. She needs a bath/trim right now, but I can't tell if it's because of her tail or because of something wrong with her poop. Looks normally messy from regular poop.
So after a month or two of her plateauing like this, today I noticed a change - she was losing her balance when walking
Not enough to fall over, but enough to sway and catch herself when making turns. No other changes today, but the balance issue is new and is worrying me. It's very hard for me to get a hold of a chicken vet around here, so while I wait, I wanted to ask the almighty BYC. What do you guys think? Is there anything you know of that presents like this?
So after a month or two of her plateauing like this, today I noticed a change - she was losing her balance when walking
Not enough to fall over, but enough to sway and catch herself when making turns. No other changes today, but the balance issue is new and is worrying me. It's very hard for me to get a hold of a chicken vet around here, so while I wait, I wanted to ask the almighty BYC. What do you guys think? Is there anything you know of that presents like this?
