Injured hen's health is declining

[Shabana]

So glad to hear penny's doing a little better.
I use wet fishy cat food as a boost as well as hard boiled eggs and meal worms. All are good for protein.

I am so glad she has you caring for her

Keep up the great work xx

 

[theawesomechick]

Thank you for your support! Her crop is much larger now, but she's still not laying eggs, which makes me think that she might not be doing so well.

 

[theawesomechick]

Sorry I haven't been updating! I've been feeding Penny buttermilk, which she sort of liked, as well as the occasional egg, which she likes. Her appetite's been great, which makes me feel much better.

I'm considering making Penny a sling. I'm afraid that she might injure her legs if she's always putting weight on them like that, but I don't think she'd like being confined to the sling all the time. Opinions?

Has anyone ever successfully nursed a riboflavin-deficient hen back to health? If so, what did you do and how long did it take?

 

[theawesomechick]

Has anyone ever had a sick hen who wasn't even laying eggs decide to go broody?

Yesterday, Penny seemed very distressed, and kept calling to me from the back porch. I couldn't figure out what she wanted. I also found a very, very large poop next to her feeder. Later, she slipped into her makeshift nest box for a while, so I assumed she was going to lay an egg, but after a while, she was out again. She didn't seem to be egg bound, in fact, I couldn't feel an egg at all. However, I took her to the nest box in the coop to see if she liked that better. She immediately climbed into the box and settled herself down. About twenty minutes later, I checked back to see that she had neatly tucked the egg that was already in there under her, and she was making broody noises. She didn't peck me when I took out the egg, though. This scared me. If she was going to go broody in her current state, I was afraid it would kill her. I didn't to have to break her from being broody by placing her in a cage, so I decided to give her a nice, warm bath and see if that would help. After a very relaxing bath, Penny seemed to lose all broody behavior.

 

[chickenz500]

I have had a few chickens that don't lay go broody. They do hold their poop so that is normal. I had a hen who also didn't peck, we decided to let her sit hidden in her bush with a cage over her too. Also if you don't want her to go back, put a cage around her best so she can't get back.

 

[theawesomechick]

She's all cured of being broody now! The reason I didn't want her broody was because she wasn't in full health.
One of Penny's legs is nearly back to normal! I'm hoping she'll be fine within a few weeks.

 

[chickenz500]

Oh good!