Chicken walking backward-video-how to help her?

[Aliceinwonderland]

I’ve just found this thread after a quick google. My hen is doing the exact same thing, she is bottom of the pecking order & I’ve noticed her doing this a few weeks ago but it’s becoming more frequent. I bring her in on a night for ten mins to feed her up as her crop is always empty, I’ve seen the others bully her off the food. It’s very odd behaviour but I can’t help but think it is behavioural, rather than health related. Just very submissive behaviour poor girl! From, Alice & Tabatha hen UK

 

[coach723]

@Aliceinwonderland , if you can post a video it would be helpful.
If your hen is being kept from food on a regular basis, then vitamin deficiency is very possible. They need to eat many times through out the day, so once in the evening is probably not enough. I would supplement the vitamins, 400 iu of E with some sunflowers or cooked egg or canned tuna for selenium to help with the uptake of the E, and a super B complex tablet once a day. See if that helps. Vitamin deficiencies are not uncommon and can present with very odd symptoms sometimes. Once they are deficient it can take higher doses to get it reversed, once reversed the feed will maintain it. It would also be a good idea to add more feeders and waterers, so she has more opportunity throughout the day to eat and drink. Enough that your more dominant birds can't guard them all. Space may also be an issue, if they are too confined she has no room to avoid the others.
If vitamins don't help, then a disease or head injury could be the cause.
Without actually seeing what she is doing, those are my best guesses.

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

@Aliceinwonderland , if you can post a video it would be helpful.
If your hen is being kept from food on a regular basis, then vitamin deficiency is very possible. They need to eat many times through out the day, so once in the evening is probably not enough. I would supplement the vitamins, 400 iu of E with some sunflowers or cooked egg or canned tuna for selenium to help with the uptake of the E, and a super B complex tablet once a day. See if that helps. Vitamin deficiencies are not uncommon and can present with very odd symptoms sometimes. Once they are deficient it can take higher doses to get it reversed, once reversed the feed will maintain it. It would also be a good idea to add more feeders and waterers, so she has more opportunity throughout the day to eat and drink. Enough that your more dominant birds can't guard them all. Space may also be an issue, if they are too confined she has no room to avoid the others.
If vitamins don't help, then a disease or head injury could be the cause.
Without actually seeing what she is doing, those are my best guesses.

Thank you for replying @coach723 that’s very kind of you to do so. I’m not sure how to post a video, I have actually just taken one of her doing it this evening when she was on her own in my kitchen.

That would make total sense a vitamin deficiency through lack of food. I’ve been giving her sunflower seeds & a vitamin boost tonic but will cook some eggs & give her some tuna as well as buying some vitamins.

I will definitely add a few more feeders around in their run too. They free range most of the time just in my garden but it’s been constant rain lately & getting dark earlier so they are having less time out foraging. So again another contributing factor into why she’s being bullied off food.

I’m so glad you replied! It must be what’s wrong with her poor girl, hopefully with some extra tlc she’ll turn a corner. I’ll see if I can work out how to post a video! Thanks again for your help it’s greatly appreciated!

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

I’ve uploaded the video of her to YouTube

 

[coach723]

Glad you could post the video, she's a pretty girl! I do think you need to get vitamins in her, see if that helps. If it's a form of wry neck, the E will treat that, and the B's will cover other neurological symptoms that can happen from those, thiamine and riboflavin being the most common deficiencies. How is her weight? Is her keel bone well muscled or is it very prominent? Also, how old is she?

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

Glad you could post the video, she's a pretty girl! I do think you need to get vitamins in her, see if that helps. If it's a form of wry neck, the E will treat that, and the B's will cover other neurological symptoms that can happen from those, thiamine and riboflavin being the most common deficiencies. How is her weight? Is her keel bone well muscled or is it very prominent? Also, how old is she?

I’m looking online now for the vitamin supplements for her, dumb question but can you just give them smaller doses of human vitamin supplements?

She’s extremely light, the lightest she’s ever been - just under 600g!! She was 800g in September, I’ve taken my eye off the ball with her poor girl. Her keel bone isn’t too bad, not great, but not extremely prominent. She’s around 3.5years.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it! I feel like I’ve got a plan of action now for her poor little thing!

 

[coach723]

You can use any B complex or super B complex for humans. The B's are very safe, no risk of too much, extra will be excreted. Human ones are the easiest thing to find for straight B's. Same with the E, any human capsule is fine. Sometimes you can find E that already contains selenium, but not often.

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

Great to know thank you! I’ve ordered a liquid form for both E & B designed for avians. Thanks again for all your help!

 

[coach723]

Vitamins are vitamins, when you buy something for a specific species it can be sometimes in a form that is easier to get into that particular species, but the vitamins are the same. Sometimes buying the human ones are much more economical.

 

[townchicks]

When this happened to my EE, I fed her tuna right away, then went to get vit E. I never ended up giving her the vit E, as she stopped doing it after getting the tuna. Now I give my girls tuna as a treat every few months. She never had that happen again. She was head hen all her life, and never bullied.