Issues with advanced age chickens

[azygous]

This morning, only vestigial signs of the torticolis. But Di is weak. She likely didn't eat or drink as much as she should have yesterday. I gave her some scrambled eggs with cottage cheese and grated carrot and a few live meal worms to liven up the food presentation. She consented to eating a couple of the meal worms, but was uninterested in the rest.

I'm going to need to tube some fluids. I really hate to, but she isn't drinking that I've noticed.

 

[azygous]

I plan to tube fluids several times today and see how that affects her. Torticolis could be aggravated by not only her head tumor but dehydration and weakness.

After I tubed fluids, I returned Di to the run and she immediately took a few bites of egg. She's at the very least holding her head in an upright position.

 

[Mrs J]

I plan to tube fluids several times today and see how that affects her. Torticolis could be aggravated by not only her head tumor but dehydration and weakness.

After I tubed fluids, I returned Di to the run and she immediately took a few bites of egg. She's at the very least holding her head in an upright position.

I really hope she recovers sending you and Lady Di love and strength!

 

[azygous]

Lady Di is spending some sunny time in my garage grow window. I gave her a bowl of dead meal worms beetles, live meal worms, dry feed, and a bit of cracked corn to work on. As you can see, she's a very messy eater. But it's great she is trying to eat. This is after she was tubed with more fluids.

And you might have noticed her feathers look frizzled. It's from the flock feather pickers working her over on the few times I haven't confined her to the jail pen for her own safety.

 

[azygous]

Lady Di has made good progress getting her strength back after her wry neck ordeal. Today, she had an actual appetite and was eating throughout the day. I hope she's drinking, as well. I did catch her shaking water from her beak a couple times out of the corner of my eye.

Pearl, the "Forrest Gump" of Chicken World who is in everybody's business all the time everywhere was spending a bit of time in with Lady Di and Millie and the Buttercups, something she has peacefully been doing for a few weeks. All of a sudden, Lady Di was in a fight with her. This is how I know Di is feeling better. But alas, Lady Di lost the fight, . She lay unmoving with her head skewed crooked. She was unhurt, but her pride got seriously dented.

I picked her up and she immediately returned to normal. I kicked Pearl out, and Di was fine after that. I'm pretty sure it was Lady Di that attacked Pearl since Di had been doing the chicken version of taunting, a repetitive series of truncated moans. Whenever I hear a chicken make that noise, a fight generally materializes. But it goes to show how much better Lady Di is feeling when she's feeling up to reclaiming her rank as top hen.

 

[azygous]

This morning, how I found Lady Di stuck behind her low perch in the coop was funny and not funny. Well, certainly not funny to her.

Poor old gal is mostly blind, and her wry neck is still sometimes flaring up when she's discombobulated. Especially if a misjudgement when trying to dismount her eight-inch high perch literally lands her butt in the small eight-inch diameter molt feathers plastic pail.

So, when I opened the coop door and looked down and found Lady Di humiliated with her neck awry and her butt crammed into the small bucket, yeah, I had to laugh. I could tell it was far from humorous to her, although she's fine and no lasting consequences.

She's recovering her appetite, and she's behaving normally for an old chicken who's probably, for all practical purposes, the equivalent of a one-hundred and ten-year old human.

 

[azygous]

Lady Di has been doing so well the past few days. Yesterday I even declared her fully recovered. Then this morning I found her crumpled up like a discarded sweater under her perch. She was limp as a sweater, and I carried her around to the run and slipped her under the heat lamp. (It's 15F) She revived, but is still lethargic with the head "whirlies" from her chronic torticolis. I stuffed a vitamin E into her beak.

I've been thinking about designing a sort of "walker" or guard rails that would go over her roosting perch at night to keep her from falling off. I've been checking on her before I go to bed to be sure she's still on the perch, and last night she was nestled firmly between two other hens and she had her head snugly and happily tucked under one's neck. I don't have a clue how long she was crumpled up under the perch. Hopefully, it wasn't all night.

Lady Di and Millie are the only two elderly hens now, but it still feels as though I'm running a nursing home for old chickens.

 

[azygous]

This should keep her from falling off her perch during the night. It's anchored at the side for stability.

 

[azygous]

Over night, Lady Di did great on her perch with the guard rails. I think why I was finding her crumpled under the perch so often lately was due to the way she sleeps. She lets her head and neck hang straight down, and the weight of it was throwing her off balance and she would tip over forward and end up on the floor under the perch. The guard rail across her front worked nicely to keep her on the perch.

 

[azygous]

Lady Di is dying. But not just now. In the mornings, from all appearances, she looks like she's going to take her last breath at any time.

Last night, she couldn't stick her perch and kept falling off in spite of her nifty guard rails. So I got the old cat bed out and stuck it in the corner of the coop and put her in it for the night. She seemed to be unconscious. I figured she be dead by morning.

Nope. There she was looking out the window this morning as I got to the coop. But she didn't seem to have any more strength than it took to remain somewhat upright as I stuck her under the heat lamp in the run.

A few hours later, she's wandering the run, eating out of every bowl that still has food in it. She's like that old relative of yours that is old and falls asleep in the recliner and you're so sure they're dead because they haven't moved in an hour.