Greetings!
My sweet New Hampshire Red, Rusty, is not really eating much. She recently recovered from egg yolk peritonitis, and was gaining weight back, but now she's sort of wasting away again. She is on hormones to prevent laying, as she is at risk for recurrence of the egg yolk peritonitis, so anything lay related should be out.
She heartily eats live meal worms and scrambled eggs, but is not really eating her feed, nor treats like scratch or hulled sunflower seeds. When the girls are out for freerange time, she does seem to be foraging, and I have definitely seen her eat greens.
Her poop is scant and watery. Her feathers look good. Eyes are bright, comb-wattle have decent coloring, and she acts like a normal chicken, besides the eating, and she is just ever so slightly standoffish with the flock. She is scary skinny with pronounced keel. Bullying is an issue with a flock mate, but I'm mot set up separate them proberly, so I'm giving them as much free time as possible.
I did take her back to the avian vet, as she had been puffing her feathers and dropping her tail, but his opinion was she had tecovered from the peritonitis and looked great. She does look great, but feels like a skeleton with feathers. I think she weighed 4.1 pounds, but has always been a small chicken, even before getting sick.
Any ideas for stimulating her appetite? She's been through so much, I really want her to make it and have a great life. Plus, we have chicks, so in a couple months when I integrate them, she won't be lowest in the pecking order.
The feed store recommended blending in some performance pellets, but all the girls are ignoring it. They are used to crumble, so I smashed some with a meat hammer, but they're still not eating it.
Any ideas are welcome. Thank you!
My sweet New Hampshire Red, Rusty, is not really eating much. She recently recovered from egg yolk peritonitis, and was gaining weight back, but now she's sort of wasting away again. She is on hormones to prevent laying, as she is at risk for recurrence of the egg yolk peritonitis, so anything lay related should be out.
She heartily eats live meal worms and scrambled eggs, but is not really eating her feed, nor treats like scratch or hulled sunflower seeds. When the girls are out for freerange time, she does seem to be foraging, and I have definitely seen her eat greens.
Her poop is scant and watery. Her feathers look good. Eyes are bright, comb-wattle have decent coloring, and she acts like a normal chicken, besides the eating, and she is just ever so slightly standoffish with the flock. She is scary skinny with pronounced keel. Bullying is an issue with a flock mate, but I'm mot set up separate them proberly, so I'm giving them as much free time as possible.
I did take her back to the avian vet, as she had been puffing her feathers and dropping her tail, but his opinion was she had tecovered from the peritonitis and looked great. She does look great, but feels like a skeleton with feathers. I think she weighed 4.1 pounds, but has always been a small chicken, even before getting sick.
Any ideas for stimulating her appetite? She's been through so much, I really want her to make it and have a great life. Plus, we have chicks, so in a couple months when I integrate them, she won't be lowest in the pecking order.
The feed store recommended blending in some performance pellets, but all the girls are ignoring it. They are used to crumble, so I smashed some with a meat hammer, but they're still not eating it.
Any ideas are welcome. Thank you!