As some of you may have read from my other thread, my 24 week old buff orp got back from quarantine today, after being successfully treated for mycoplasma.
She's soooooo much better - worryingly so in fact.
Thing is, she's gained about a third of extra body weight in the five days she's been gone, and is behaving like a totally different pullet. I had been thinking she was just not a very hungry bird, and that she was lazy and lethargic, and perhaps a little picky, but now she's charging our other hen out of the way to get to the food, foraging with great interest, and strutting around really actively. Her crop is also completely full tonight, whereas it never seemed to be before she got ill.
I feel dreadful that I didn't notice that she was getting thinner and more lethargic for weeks before she came down with the respiratory problems.
The breeder who took her in and nursed her back to health for me has very politely hinted towards feeding too many regular treats being the problem - it seems possible that she became picky with her food because there was too much choice and eventually developed some sort of chicken-eating-disorder, got frail, and that's why she came down with the mycoplasma.
After tempting her for the last few weeks with ever-more delicious treats in an effort to get her to eat more, it seems utterly bizarre that she's recovered and started to gain weight by being put on a regime of layer's pellets and plain water. Nothing else. A kind of 'eat that, or starve' type of therapy!
When she was at home I couldn't even tempt her to eat tuna or scrambled egg, let alone pellets! They were completely ignored (although she did perk up a little interest briefly when I soaked them in milk and made them into mash).
Has anyone had an experience with an anorexic pullet like this before? I'm fearful she'll go back to her old ways now she's home again and want to do everything I can to prevent it, especially as this darn mycoplasma could now come back at any time when she's run down.
Weird, hey?
She's soooooo much better - worryingly so in fact.
Thing is, she's gained about a third of extra body weight in the five days she's been gone, and is behaving like a totally different pullet. I had been thinking she was just not a very hungry bird, and that she was lazy and lethargic, and perhaps a little picky, but now she's charging our other hen out of the way to get to the food, foraging with great interest, and strutting around really actively. Her crop is also completely full tonight, whereas it never seemed to be before she got ill.
I feel dreadful that I didn't notice that she was getting thinner and more lethargic for weeks before she came down with the respiratory problems.
The breeder who took her in and nursed her back to health for me has very politely hinted towards feeding too many regular treats being the problem - it seems possible that she became picky with her food because there was too much choice and eventually developed some sort of chicken-eating-disorder, got frail, and that's why she came down with the mycoplasma.
After tempting her for the last few weeks with ever-more delicious treats in an effort to get her to eat more, it seems utterly bizarre that she's recovered and started to gain weight by being put on a regime of layer's pellets and plain water. Nothing else. A kind of 'eat that, or starve' type of therapy!
When she was at home I couldn't even tempt her to eat tuna or scrambled egg, let alone pellets! They were completely ignored (although she did perk up a little interest briefly when I soaked them in milk and made them into mash).
Has anyone had an experience with an anorexic pullet like this before? I'm fearful she'll go back to her old ways now she's home again and want to do everything I can to prevent it, especially as this darn mycoplasma could now come back at any time when she's run down.
Weird, hey?
