How to care for my aging chicken?

[Chrissyroo]

Hi! So we are new to having chickens and they are part of our fam now. (My husband may disagree)
One of our chickens I think is aging as she no longer can get up on the roost and sleeps in the floor under the roost bar. Her comb is flopped over but she is still moving about and eating/drinking water however this causes some feces to get on her butt which I wash with a warm bath once a week. Is this what I should be doing? Or how can I care for her so she is comfortable? I just want to make sure she lives out her life comfy

 

[Peaches Lee]

What I've noticed in my years of chicken keeping is that a sick bird does not roost. Now, that can't be taken as a hard and fast rule, but it's my general observation.

Take for example my EE hen.

She will be 12 this year and is partially or mostly blind. Somedays she can roost, other days she's on the floor.

Her overall quality of life is pretty good. She still eats with vigor, drinks and will make it outside. So I just amend my care to suit her needs. I have to usually bring her back in the coop in the evenings, but it's no big deal.

With your hen, I would ask yourself if her quality of life seems to still be good. Does she do normal things, dust bathe, eat/drink etc.? Or do most of her days consist of sitting in the corner away from everyone and everything?

I think you are doing really great with her. Care and compassion to even the smallest of creatures to me is a mark of humanity!

Good luck.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Hi! So we are new to having chickens and they are part of our fam now. (My husband may disagree)
One of our chickens I think is aging as she no longer can get up on the roost and sleeps in the floor under the roost bar. Her comb is flopped over but she is still moving about and eating/drinking water however this causes some feces to get on her butt which I wash with a warm bath once a week. Is this what I should be doing? Or how can I care for her so she is comfortable? I just want to make sure she lives out her life comfy

You said you’re new to chicken keeping, how old is this hen? Did you get her as an adult?

 

[Chrissyroo]

What I've noticed in my years of chicken keeping is that a sick bird does not roost. Now, that can't be taken as a hard and fast rule, but it's my general observation.

Take for example my EE hen.

She will be 12 this year and is partially or mostly blind. Somedays she can roost, other days she's on the floor.

Her overall quality of life is pretty good. She still eats with vigor, drinks and will make it outside. So I just amend my care to suit her needs. I have to usually bring her back in the coop in the evenings, but it's no big deal.

With your hen, I would ask yourself if her quality of life seems to still be good. Does she do normal things, dust bathe, eat/drink etc.? Or do most of her days consist of sitting in the corner away from everyone and everything?

I think you are doing really great with her. Care and compassion to even the smallest of creatures to me is a mark of humanity!

Good luck.

Thank you for the reply! She does great so far. Eats and drinks often, forages for worms a bit. She is a little slower to grab a worm as the other chickens are very quick so often I will save a few just for her to eat on her own time.
She has just started to sleep in the hemp below the roost for the past couple weeks. We added a lower roost bar but she seems to like the floor? It’s warm and the help keeps is cozy. I just have to bathe her bum as she gets poop on it.
Also our roost bar is a high jump from the roost door so I don’t know if that is because she is old and can’t jump up that night anymore?
Other than that, she seems good just aging. Her comb is starting to flop over too.

 

[Chrissyroo]

Thank you for the reply! She does great so far. Eats and drinks often, forages for worms a bit. She is a little slower to grab a worm as the other chickens are very quick so often I will save a few just for her to eat on her own time.
She has just started to sleep in the hemp below the roost for the past couple weeks. We added a lower roost bar but she seems to like the floor? It’s warm and the help keeps is cozy. I just have to bathe her bum as she gets poop on it.
Also our roost bar is a high jump from the roost door so I don’t know if that is because she is old and can’t jump up that night anymore?
Other than that, she seems good just aging. Her comb is starting to flop over too.

Thank you for your kind words. I couldn’t agree more, how a person treats animals says a lot about character