chippycheeks
Chirping
- Oct 1, 2021
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Hi everyone, my favorite chicken Summer has been acting weird after being pecked enough to draw blood. Please help!
Name: Summer, Breed: Buff Orpington hen, Age: about 16 months (1 1/3 years), Weight: I don’t know, doesn’t feel drastically lighter than the others
Summer (my favorite chicken) has been the victim of some bullying and pecking for a few months, but blood has never been drawn and it seemed to be getting better. Yesterday evening I noticed that there was a patch of blood and bloody feathers under her vent. Her actual vent seems fine. I separated her from her flock (two Australorps and a Buff Orpington), tried to get rid of the blood as best as I could, and put cornstarch on the bloody areas. I put her into the nesting box for the night (it can be closed off from the main coop area.) This morning, there was no fresh blood. She was very willing to eat meal worms, but didn’t really eat her actual feed. She is drinking water.
What concerns me is that I noticed starting today that she very often lies down in the bushes or in other places and just stays like that for a long time. You have to pretty much touch her to get her to stand up, but she will still come running if you’re holding worms. She is less skittish and active than she normally is. While she’s lying down, I can see her breathing and it kind of looks like she’s struggling, but when she standing up, you can’t really see her breathing. When she’s lying down, her tail goes up and down and it’s really obvious that she’s breathing. She also has a swollen/bloated abdomen/under vent area. I compared it with the other chickens, and she’s definitely a lot more bloated than they are in those areas. No other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. I saw a normal poop yesterday, but today I haven’t seen anything. There is a trace of poop below her vent that wasn’t there yesterday, it looks runny.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the vet is an option right now. Thank you so much for reading this and helping!
-chippycheeks
Edit: She seems to have a “heavy” footfall/walking heavily, and when I stuck my finger up her vent to check for an egg, I felt a lot of tissue under my finger. It was also very warm inside her vent.
Name: Summer, Breed: Buff Orpington hen, Age: about 16 months (1 1/3 years), Weight: I don’t know, doesn’t feel drastically lighter than the others
Summer (my favorite chicken) has been the victim of some bullying and pecking for a few months, but blood has never been drawn and it seemed to be getting better. Yesterday evening I noticed that there was a patch of blood and bloody feathers under her vent. Her actual vent seems fine. I separated her from her flock (two Australorps and a Buff Orpington), tried to get rid of the blood as best as I could, and put cornstarch on the bloody areas. I put her into the nesting box for the night (it can be closed off from the main coop area.) This morning, there was no fresh blood. She was very willing to eat meal worms, but didn’t really eat her actual feed. She is drinking water.
What concerns me is that I noticed starting today that she very often lies down in the bushes or in other places and just stays like that for a long time. You have to pretty much touch her to get her to stand up, but she will still come running if you’re holding worms. She is less skittish and active than she normally is. While she’s lying down, I can see her breathing and it kind of looks like she’s struggling, but when she standing up, you can’t really see her breathing. When she’s lying down, her tail goes up and down and it’s really obvious that she’s breathing. She also has a swollen/bloated abdomen/under vent area. I compared it with the other chickens, and she’s definitely a lot more bloated than they are in those areas. No other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. I saw a normal poop yesterday, but today I haven’t seen anything. There is a trace of poop below her vent that wasn’t there yesterday, it looks runny.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the vet is an option right now. Thank you so much for reading this and helping!
-chippycheeks
Edit: She seems to have a “heavy” footfall/walking heavily, and when I stuck my finger up her vent to check for an egg, I felt a lot of tissue under my finger. It was also very warm inside her vent.
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