Hello folks! I have a black Americana hen that I got from a poultry fair last November. She has recently started acting weird.
1. Hen, age unknown, a litlle lighter than usual.
2. She is bobbing and rolling her head and neck around, has a hard time getting her face in the bowl, stumbles and bumps into everyone, and has recently started falling over forward. Her eyes seem dialated and last night looked unreponsive to light. They seem better today. She kind of looks drunk or like she's got vertigo.
3. I've been noticing the head/neck roll for a couple weeks, and the stumbling gait about a week. Hard to say, sometimes they have gone to roost by the time I get home from work.
4. All the other birds are fine and dandy.
5. No obvious trauma- maybe she got pecked and it got her all loopy. She doesn't seem to be egg bound although I will check her vent again tomorrow.
6. What has happened--- hmmm I'm thinking its not contagious or all the others would be sick. Nutritional deficiency? Again, other chickens would show signs. Head trauma, maybe. Maybe she has an ear infection. Maybe she had a stroke or has a tumor. I have not wormed her yet.
7. She is eating and drinking on her own.
8. Poops look normal.
9. So far I have given her liquid vitamin drops at night (4 nights now) and monitored that she is indeed eating and drinking. Right now she is in the bathtub on a towel sleeping. She was falling down today and it is so wet and cold I just felt terrible. She drank a ton of water from the big bowl I gave her, and ate pellets on her own.
10. I plan on calling the vet on Monday- ours is also an avian vet. If it is an infection she will need medicine. I feel like this may be something curable so I'd like to give it a go.
11. I will try to post a short video of her that I took of her in the tub.
12. She has been staying in the main coop with the other birds. There are 18 total. She has stopped roosting on the high perch and the last few nights I've found her roosting with the silkies on their low roost. Just deep litter pine shavings.
Thanks a bunch everyone, for any insights you have. Monday seems a long way off!
1. Hen, age unknown, a litlle lighter than usual.
2. She is bobbing and rolling her head and neck around, has a hard time getting her face in the bowl, stumbles and bumps into everyone, and has recently started falling over forward. Her eyes seem dialated and last night looked unreponsive to light. They seem better today. She kind of looks drunk or like she's got vertigo.
3. I've been noticing the head/neck roll for a couple weeks, and the stumbling gait about a week. Hard to say, sometimes they have gone to roost by the time I get home from work.
4. All the other birds are fine and dandy.
5. No obvious trauma- maybe she got pecked and it got her all loopy. She doesn't seem to be egg bound although I will check her vent again tomorrow.
6. What has happened--- hmmm I'm thinking its not contagious or all the others would be sick. Nutritional deficiency? Again, other chickens would show signs. Head trauma, maybe. Maybe she has an ear infection. Maybe she had a stroke or has a tumor. I have not wormed her yet.
7. She is eating and drinking on her own.
8. Poops look normal.
9. So far I have given her liquid vitamin drops at night (4 nights now) and monitored that she is indeed eating and drinking. Right now she is in the bathtub on a towel sleeping. She was falling down today and it is so wet and cold I just felt terrible. She drank a ton of water from the big bowl I gave her, and ate pellets on her own.
10. I plan on calling the vet on Monday- ours is also an avian vet. If it is an infection she will need medicine. I feel like this may be something curable so I'd like to give it a go.
11. I will try to post a short video of her that I took of her in the tub.
12. She has been staying in the main coop with the other birds. There are 18 total. She has stopped roosting on the high perch and the last few nights I've found her roosting with the silkies on their low roost. Just deep litter pine shavings.
Thanks a bunch everyone, for any insights you have. Monday seems a long way off!
