Chickadee7790
Chirping
First, let me start off by saying...no one warns you about the emotional roller coaster ride it is to own backyard chickens!
Secondly, bear with me, as this will be a long post.
I have three sets of pullets/roos - 11-weeks, 8-weeks, and 6-weeks. The two roos are part of the 6-week group.
I began integrating my 8-week olds with the 11-week olds a few weeks ago. First with keeping them enclosed full-time, then graduating to supervised part-time enclosed, then fully out of the enclosure. Things did not go well at first. My big girls, who are the sweetest group, turned into massive bullies, who would torment the littles. I thought things were finally improving; however, on Saturday, while I was cleaning the coop, I heard a commotion outside. I ran to see most of the bigs attacking one of the littles, Xena. I'm not sure if they just attacked her or if she had tried jumping up to the coop and missed, injuring herself and then they just dog-piled on her (yes, there is a ladder, but these goofs like to test their jumping/flying skills). Her legs were splayed terribly. I got them all off of her and put her back in the coop. Unfortunately, she was not able to stand up at all. I rushed her to the house to do a thorough check on her. Nothing felt broken and she did not show any signs of discomfort while I was examing her. She just doesn't seem to be able to put any weight on either leg. She just basically drags herself around to get where she wants to go. I thought maybe she had just sprained her leg, so I made a little brace for her with a popsicle stick, gauze, and stretchy tape. That seemed to make her ability to move around worse. She would end up on her back with no ability to turn herself upright. Then I thought I may have misread which leg was injured, so I switched the brace to the other leg. Sadly, it was the same result. Next, we bought one of the purse slings off Amazon (yay for 1-day shipping!). It's a little large for her, but with some ingenuity we got it to work. At first she seemed to like it as she tucked in and went right to sleep, but on subsequent usages, she just didn't seem comfortable. She would not eat or drink while in the sling, even though they were right in front of her at the appropriate level. She just seems much happier to not have anything on her and the last thing I want to do is cause her any more discomfort. She seems to be a little bit more stable this morning, as she can rest with both legs under her, without flopping over to one side.
We currently have her in isolation in a separate section of the brooder box. We brought one of her sisters up from the coop to keep her company. Our brooder is 4X8 feet and is divided in two sections. Our baby group of 5 are in the larger section, while she and Giselle are in the smaller section. She eats and drinks just fine, and bless her heart, she tries to dustbathe with her sister, though she is not able to kick any dirt up on herself. Let me just say, Giselle earns the best sister award. She cuddles with Xena, stands guard over her, and makes sure that she is covered in dirt when in the dust bath.
Now to the actual questions:
Secondly, bear with me, as this will be a long post.
I have three sets of pullets/roos - 11-weeks, 8-weeks, and 6-weeks. The two roos are part of the 6-week group.
I began integrating my 8-week olds with the 11-week olds a few weeks ago. First with keeping them enclosed full-time, then graduating to supervised part-time enclosed, then fully out of the enclosure. Things did not go well at first. My big girls, who are the sweetest group, turned into massive bullies, who would torment the littles. I thought things were finally improving; however, on Saturday, while I was cleaning the coop, I heard a commotion outside. I ran to see most of the bigs attacking one of the littles, Xena. I'm not sure if they just attacked her or if she had tried jumping up to the coop and missed, injuring herself and then they just dog-piled on her (yes, there is a ladder, but these goofs like to test their jumping/flying skills). Her legs were splayed terribly. I got them all off of her and put her back in the coop. Unfortunately, she was not able to stand up at all. I rushed her to the house to do a thorough check on her. Nothing felt broken and she did not show any signs of discomfort while I was examing her. She just doesn't seem to be able to put any weight on either leg. She just basically drags herself around to get where she wants to go. I thought maybe she had just sprained her leg, so I made a little brace for her with a popsicle stick, gauze, and stretchy tape. That seemed to make her ability to move around worse. She would end up on her back with no ability to turn herself upright. Then I thought I may have misread which leg was injured, so I switched the brace to the other leg. Sadly, it was the same result. Next, we bought one of the purse slings off Amazon (yay for 1-day shipping!). It's a little large for her, but with some ingenuity we got it to work. At first she seemed to like it as she tucked in and went right to sleep, but on subsequent usages, she just didn't seem comfortable. She would not eat or drink while in the sling, even though they were right in front of her at the appropriate level. She just seems much happier to not have anything on her and the last thing I want to do is cause her any more discomfort. She seems to be a little bit more stable this morning, as she can rest with both legs under her, without flopping over to one side.
We currently have her in isolation in a separate section of the brooder box. We brought one of her sisters up from the coop to keep her company. Our brooder is 4X8 feet and is divided in two sections. Our baby group of 5 are in the larger section, while she and Giselle are in the smaller section. She eats and drinks just fine, and bless her heart, she tries to dustbathe with her sister, though she is not able to kick any dirt up on herself. Let me just say, Giselle earns the best sister award. She cuddles with Xena, stands guard over her, and makes sure that she is covered in dirt when in the dust bath.
Now to the actual questions:
- Any suggestions on other things to try to help her stand or is this just a wait and see situation? I am so hoping this is just a sprain and with time, she will recover.
- How long should I keep her in isolation? I feel like she would do better with being able to see the rest of the flock, so I would like to move her to the grow-out pin in the coop, so she is still isolated somewhat.
- I also want to go ahead & move the babies down to start their integration process. Would putting up a divider in the grow-out pin to keep them away from Xena be alright, or should I wait until she is doing better before moving them on down? There is sufficent room for both; however, they are so much smaller than the big girls, so it will be a while before they get full access to the coop/run.
