How to re integrate a sick hen?

[Toffael]

i have a flock of 10 hens and 2 roosters who have lived together for 5 months. The hens had an established and stable pecking order.

a few days ago, one of the hens, a black maran, who was high up in the pecking order was lethargic and had bad Diarrhea, so i segregated her out of sight and sound in a separate coop.
it’s been 36 hours, and she’s getting better.

How do i re integrate her? just put her straight back in or re introduce via free ranging and then put back in, or place in a caged off area inside coop for some time and then allow her to join?

 

[orelsi]

Day and a half is not enough to disrupt the order. I would let her free range with the rest of the girls while monitoring for aggression. If there's trouble you can do the caged off area for a day.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My guess is she can just rejoin the others since it was only 36 hours. But yes if possible, best to monitor just to make sure no problems pop up.

In the future unless there's a reason for isolating a bird away from the flock, it's best to do isolation inside the coop or run/free range area in order to avoid issues with having to reintegrate.

 

[Toffael]

Day and a half is not enough to disrupt the order. I would let her free range with the rest of the girls while monitoring for aggression. If there's trouble you can do the caged off area for a day.

thanks for advising.

this was my main plan: to allow her to join them in free range and see if they notice she was gone.

My guess is she can just rejoin the others since it was only 36 hours. But yes if possible, best to monitor just to make sure no problems pop up.

In the future unless there's a reason for isolating a bird away from the flock, it's best to do isolation inside the coop or run/free range area in order to avoid issues with having to reintegrate.

as she had white liquid poop, i didn’t want to take risk that the poop might infect other birds

 

[rosemarythyme]

as she had white liquid poop, i didn’t want to take risk that the poop might infect other birds

Makes sense and nothing wrong with taking precautions. Though my thinking is by the time they show symptoms of anything infectious, it's already in the flock, so separating is usually only necessary if the bird requires special care that cannot be easily rendered outside.

 

[Toffael]

Makes sense and nothing wrong with taking precautions. Though my thinking is by the time they show symptoms of anything infectious, it's already in the flock, so separating is usually only necessary if the bird requires special care that cannot be easily rendered outside.

thanks for educating me and will bear that in mind next time!