Issues with advanced age chickens

[azygous]

Just as I was prepared to start a thread in the Emergencies forum, Lilith's prolapse finally resolved. It took eighteen days this time, and I was fearing something even worse since she's had it so long. Overnight, for the first time in over three weeks, Lil produced a big puddle of cecal poop. All this time it's been plain poop and her urates have been liquid and profuse. It remains to be seen if she will start to produce normal urates now.

It's been a real juggling act keeping her with the others yet protected. Twice, someone managed to peck her prolapse and that set us back each time. I will tell you in no uncertain terms, chickens feel pain and they holler whern you hurt them. Twice daily cleanings and treatments with cortisone, antibiotic ointment and Vetericyn created opportunities to hurt her.

Lil was on penicillin for eight days, and then I switched to amoxicillin and doubled the dose since she was slipping away from a possible infection from the egg remains. She got well, and steadily stronger. Today, it appears she's beat yet another serious issue that should have killed her. Age eleven and still rolling along. Whew!

 

[azygous]

Interesting tidbit: Lilith's cecum (the glands jutting off the digestive tract near the end) that produce the evil smelling cecal poop) were likely blocked, and that's why she was producing no urate crystals (the white "frosting" on regular poop).

Instead of the cecum absorbing fluids that aren't needed in digestion which is normal, the urates were excreted as liquid urine (and it had an unbelievable acrid odor.) This causes extreme thirst, which was plaguing Lilith, and there were no cecal poops for over two weeks.

As soon as the blockage was resolved finally, the cecum began to function again, absorbing excess fluids, and so Lilith is now pooping normal "frosted poops again and not drinking tons of water. Oh, and the evil cecal poop is also baaaaack.

 

[Shadrach]

Who would have thought that the possibility of dementia might arise in my flock? And how about just discovering another old girl may be going broody?

My three-fourths blind twelve-year old Light Brahma Lady Di is displaying signs of dementia, or whatever you would call it when an old fat hen makes constant noises of grumpy discontent. Mostly she lies about on her Cleopatra cushions with her other ancient friends. In between, she's sending out fog horn signals and stumbles around searching for, I don't know what.

She is mostly blind now, but she can locate the food bowl, most of the time, but actually hitting the target can be a prolonged exercise. I make food available where she can find it, and also water, since it's gotten hard for her to target the vertical water nipples. But this morning, instead of going directly to the big bowl of fermented feed in the coop where the old biddies are fed, she stumbled off to a corner as if she wasn't sure of where she was heading. She eventually came back to the water bowl. Her health is good in every other respect other than for the tumor on her head she's had had half her life.

The other hen, my ten-year old GLW Su-su has been laying regularly for the past three or four weeks, even some acceptable egg shells among them. Yesterday, she laid a shell-less egg, and last night she spent the night in the nest and there was another shell-less egg under her this morning. None of this is remarkable. What has me in a state of wonder is that Su-su is now displaying all the signs of being broody. Who can mistake that broody clucking?

The reason I'm posting this, and I know I would be in rare company here, but have any of you had old hens with these issues? Or heard of these things going on with old chickens? I mean, going broody at age ten? Heck, I feel as caught off guard by this as I would if I'd just found out I was pregnant, a damn rare event for a 78 year old woman.View attachment 2162315Su-su and Lady Di are the ones in the rear and far right.

Fat Bird is ten and some months and she laid an egg a couple of weeks ago and promptly stood on it and broke it. She's taken to spending a few hours a day in the house nest box.
She is still very much playing with a full deck though.
Blue Spot (dead now) was still laying and hatching at eleven years old. Full deck with her as well.

 

[Shadrach]

Who would have thought that the possibility of dementia might arise in my flock? And how about just discovering another old girl may be going broody?

My three-fourths blind twelve-year old Light Brahma Lady Di is displaying signs of dementia, or whatever you would call it when an old fat hen makes constant noises of grumpy discontent. Mostly she lies about on her Cleopatra cushions with her other ancient friends. In between, she's sending out fog horn signals and stumbles around searching for, I don't know what.

She is mostly blind now, but she can locate the food bowl, most of the time, but actually hitting the target can be a prolonged exercise. I make food available where she can find it, and also water, since it's gotten hard for her to target the vertical water nipples. But this morning, instead of going directly to the big bowl of fermented feed in the coop where the old biddies are fed, she stumbled off to a corner as if she wasn't sure of where she was heading. She eventually came back to the water bowl. Her health is good in every other respect other than for the tumor on her head she's had had half her life.

The other hen, my ten-year old GLW Su-su has been laying regularly for the past three or four weeks, even some acceptable egg shells among them. Yesterday, she laid a shell-less egg, and last night she spent the night in the nest and there was another shell-less egg under her this morning. None of this is remarkable. What has me in a state of wonder is that Su-su is now displaying all the signs of being broody. Who can mistake that broody clucking?

The reason I'm posting this, and I know I would be in rare company here, but have any of you had old hens with these issues? Or heard of these things going on with old chickens? I mean, going broody at age ten? Heck, I feel as caught off guard by this as I would if I'd just found out I was pregnant, a damn rare event for a 78 year old woman.View attachment 2162315Su-su and Lady Di are the ones in the rear and far right.

Lovely looking bunch.

 

[Shadrach]

Su-su is still acting broody, but I've decided it is a "partial" broodiness like the time a number of years ago when she did the same thing to care for chicks I had in the run at that time. Those were about the age of these, five or six weeks old, and she cared for them until they were four months old. She's been showing the same signs of "caring" for the present chicks, even though they really require no care at this point.

I should call her Granny Su.

Lilith, by the way, the eleven-year old SLW hen in the rear left, has been laying shell-less eggs. There was one on the poop board under her this morning. This got her into trouble last year when an egg collapsed inside her. She survived a nasty infection and prolapse that time. That she's still alive and in good health is miraculous.

Thin shelled eggs is something older hens produce. Strangely Blue Spot kept up shell strength right up until she got an oviduct malfunction. Fat Bird's eggs last year; all seven of them
were right on the limit but suffered from that elongated shape older hens tend to lay.
Ruffles at nine years old still laid almost full strength shelled eggs.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I clicked on and read thru this thread earlier today, because i saw it directly under Su-su's nanny hen thread. I expected topic here to be about reproductive issues, & coincidently spent much of my free-time yesterday brushing up on ascites. (One of my top favorite "puppy dog" hens, a 6- year-old red sexlink, is definitely in early ages of Something reproductive-system related.) No ascites, EYP, or similiar subjects here, but thats ok.
I dont know if u still have Lady Di, but after reading thru thread, saw u got no answers to your inquiry. No surprise there, u are on the leading edge of keeping elderly chickens. I dont want to waste your time stating things u already know, but will quickly mention 2 things.
1) A medication for dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction (anipryl) works fairly well for elderly dogs. But i couldnt find any info re whether it is compatible with birds, so i doubt it. 2) Re some of your elderly hen issues, u MIght find helpful info on various parrot forums. I had 2 parrots decades ago, & a lot IS known re parrot care, elderly and otherwise. But only thing i came across today re parrot dementia was essentially "parrot dementia hasnt been studied." So i cant offer any helpful info for Lady Di. Meaning i did just now waste your time. But i tried!

 

[azygous]

Lady Di is still alive and well and will soon turn thirteen. I decided her issues of confusion and agitation are related to her blindness. This isn't to say this hen is helpless and aimless. She is assertive and quick to scold any chicken not giving her the respect she feels she deserves.

However, she will vocalize loudly on occasion when she can't seem to get her bearings. She eventually finds her way out of the coop or into the coop or to a feeding bowl, as the case may be, in her own good time. About the only help she requires is when I distribute treats. She never gets any unless I put some in a bowl so she has a "target" to shoot for. She can't find a thing if it's on the ground.

She does have a benign tumor on her head, and it's putting pressure on the optic nerve, causing complete blindness in her right eye, and the left eye doesn't see all that well anymore. I took her outside today for a dirt bath in the warm sun, and she managed to find her way back into the run on her own. She's not showing signs of declining in her general health. I expect she'll be around for some time.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Glad to know Lady Di is alive and well. Age 13 is incredible, even more so for a large fowl breed, & hard to wrap my mind around. Hoping some of my hens reach age 10 in next 3-4 years, but can't conceive them living longer than that. I hope they do. Nuthin better than collecting social security benefits in good health long after retirement from laying eggs.
I knew about the med anipryl, because my friend's old dog had behaviors similiar as u described in Lady Di, including her dog getting lost in corners and behind furniture, then unable to find her way out. Tho i didnt dig deep, apparently a bird's brain is not suseptible to dementia. Yet another way birds are different from mammals.
Chickens can certainly get squawky and indignant when things aren't exactly to their liking and just so. I would have thought no more of Lady Di's occasional confusion and agitation symptoms, until u mentioned "benign tumor on her head putting pressure on the optical nerve."
Your mention of the tumor immediately led me to think the questions, 1) "Does Lady Di's confusion and agitation only happen when something has changed in her living quarters, such as items brought into or removed, rearranged, etc.? Or do her symptoms ocur randomly and out of the blue, for no obvious reason? 2) In what order did her symptoms appear, and how much time passed before u noticed the head tumor, dimming sight, and confusion and agitation?
No matter the reason for her symptoms, the only thing more incredible than her reaching age 13, is her reaching age 14, 15, etc. Go for it Lady Di!

 

[azygous]

Lady Di has had this tumor for seven years. When I first noticed it, I wasn't sure what it was. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-it-an-eye-infection-or-tumor.734528/

It's been growing slowly over these years and hasn't caused her any pain that I can see, although she scratches at the eye sometimes when it gets to bubbling. Then I wash her eyes with saline and she feels better.

She loudly vocalizes when she's left alone by her close friends, and first thing in the morning, she is very loud while left in the coop alone after all the others have gone into the run. She's a typical old gal who feels she's earned the right to be as crabby as she feels like. (I identify) She finds her food and water just fine. It's always in the same places. She is well fed and healthy as an aging hen could possibly be.

We had a close call a few weeks ago when she injured a feather shaft on her very gnarly foot and lost so much blood, I found her collapsed in the run, unable to pick herself up. I treated her for low blood volume with electrolytes and fluids and tubed some liquids and food into her. Then fixed up the bloody foot, which healed well in just three days.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Sounds like Lady Di is doing just fine. I didnt see any confusion in your info, just an "agitated" girl proclaiming loudly to anyone within squawking distance, " i am not happy, and i demand it be fixed right NOW. (Older age isnt a requirement to feel that way). The info u wrote about her feather shaft issue is very informative. Shows that like older people, older chickens usually dont reach advanced ages without some assistance. Sometimes medical treatments and even hospitizations are required.