Lavender18
Chirping
- Jun 22, 2020
- 79
- 223
- 88
On June 27, 2019, I saw my hen, Honeycup laying on her side on our deck, not sunbathing, but just like she fell on her side. When I tried to stand her up she collapsed. I brought her inside and put her in a bin, with bedding, food, and water. (Picture
)
It was getting late so I went to bed, hoping that she would last through the night. I came back in the morning and she was still laying down, in the same place I had left her the night before. I took her outside, grabbed a lawn chair, and put her in the grass as I sat in the chair. Every 30 minutes or so I moved Honeycup and adjusted her position because she couldn’t move herself at all. I brought her a water feeder, and a few of the other hens (Picture)
I sat outside with her for hours, but she never seemed to get any better… She mostly slept while we sat outside. After a while I brought her inside so that she could rest. This continued for a few days, and then we had to go on a trip, so I had to leave her in the care of our neighbor. I wasn’t able to enjoy the trip, because I was so worried about her. Every day our neighbor texted “Shes still alive, not eating or drinking, but alive!” As soon as we arrived back at our house I ran out to the chicken coop to go check on Honeycup, and when she saw me she struggled to her feet, and took a few wobbly steps toward me and then collapsed. I was so excited because she had just stood up for the first time in over a week! Once she was back in my care she started eating and drinking again, and soon made a full recovery. During all of this Honeycup held her tail down, and she now always holds her tail down.
Well, she already had a weak immune system from that, but heres what happened a while ago, (maybe a month or so) I noticed that her comb was floppy and laid on her head weird. Soon after that she got really lethargic, and wouldn't eat. She also had a florescent green poop. after a few days of standing in the exact same place and not eating, I figured I had to do something, so I took her out of the coop, and dipped her beak into some yogurt. She opened and closed her beak, but not trying to eat, just out of wanting to get the yogurt off. Within the next week, I had coaxed her to start eating yogurt on her own. I would say that she ate about 2 teaspoons a day and that's all she would eat for the next 24 hours or so. This is when I noticed that her comb was getting paler and paler by the day. But, soon she started eating and drinking fine, (although she had already been drinking a TON throughout all of this) Soon she was walking around more. My only concern was that she still had florescent green poop. But within the next few days she was pretty much back to normal, (All except for her poop and her pale comb) and that's when I started to relax and realize she was gonna be fine. When I went out the next day to check on my hens, she was standing in the nesting box with her head to the corner, and she had a brownish, reddish liquid all over her backside's feathers, and she smelled like a wet dog. I now think that the reddish part of the liquid might have been blood. I lifted her tail feathers to look at her vent and she had SO. MANY. MAGGOTS. all around her vent. It was so disgusting. I ran inside to look up what to do, and the website said to give her a bath, and then put Vaseline to suffocate the maggots. I gave her a bath, just up to her vent, which resulted in a murky, brownish-reddish water, and then I applied the Vaseline. The next day I went to go check on her and she itched her vent area with her beak, and LIVE maggots literally poured off of her... it was NASTY. I thought that the Vaseline would've killed the maggots...? She still had a few maggots the next day, so I applied more Vaseline. The following day she had no maggots that I could see, but she had a hole that was just a line that dragged from the right part of her vent to like an inch to the right. I was afraid that was gonna get infected. The other thing is the top half of her vent was VERY SWOLLEN and bright red... But she was just standing around, she was eating well, and drinking well, but she wanted to sleep CONSTANTLY, but... as I stated, this hen is a miracle hen... and she SURVIVED!!! I’m grateful to say, she’s happy and healthy to this day!! Thanks for your time!!
(Also, sorry for any grammar errors or misspellings...)
-Lavender
)It was getting late so I went to bed, hoping that she would last through the night. I came back in the morning and she was still laying down, in the same place I had left her the night before. I took her outside, grabbed a lawn chair, and put her in the grass as I sat in the chair. Every 30 minutes or so I moved Honeycup and adjusted her position because she couldn’t move herself at all. I brought her a water feeder, and a few of the other hens (Picture
)I sat outside with her for hours, but she never seemed to get any better… She mostly slept while we sat outside. After a while I brought her inside so that she could rest. This continued for a few days, and then we had to go on a trip, so I had to leave her in the care of our neighbor. I wasn’t able to enjoy the trip, because I was so worried about her. Every day our neighbor texted “Shes still alive, not eating or drinking, but alive!” As soon as we arrived back at our house I ran out to the chicken coop to go check on Honeycup, and when she saw me she struggled to her feet, and took a few wobbly steps toward me and then collapsed. I was so excited because she had just stood up for the first time in over a week! Once she was back in my care she started eating and drinking again, and soon made a full recovery. During all of this Honeycup held her tail down, and she now always holds her tail down.
Well, she already had a weak immune system from that, but heres what happened a while ago, (maybe a month or so) I noticed that her comb was floppy and laid on her head weird. Soon after that she got really lethargic, and wouldn't eat. She also had a florescent green poop. after a few days of standing in the exact same place and not eating, I figured I had to do something, so I took her out of the coop, and dipped her beak into some yogurt. She opened and closed her beak, but not trying to eat, just out of wanting to get the yogurt off. Within the next week, I had coaxed her to start eating yogurt on her own. I would say that she ate about 2 teaspoons a day and that's all she would eat for the next 24 hours or so. This is when I noticed that her comb was getting paler and paler by the day. But, soon she started eating and drinking fine, (although she had already been drinking a TON throughout all of this) Soon she was walking around more. My only concern was that she still had florescent green poop. But within the next few days she was pretty much back to normal, (All except for her poop and her pale comb) and that's when I started to relax and realize she was gonna be fine. When I went out the next day to check on my hens, she was standing in the nesting box with her head to the corner, and she had a brownish, reddish liquid all over her backside's feathers, and she smelled like a wet dog. I now think that the reddish part of the liquid might have been blood. I lifted her tail feathers to look at her vent and she had SO. MANY. MAGGOTS. all around her vent. It was so disgusting. I ran inside to look up what to do, and the website said to give her a bath, and then put Vaseline to suffocate the maggots. I gave her a bath, just up to her vent, which resulted in a murky, brownish-reddish water, and then I applied the Vaseline. The next day I went to go check on her and she itched her vent area with her beak, and LIVE maggots literally poured off of her... it was NASTY. I thought that the Vaseline would've killed the maggots...? She still had a few maggots the next day, so I applied more Vaseline. The following day she had no maggots that I could see, but she had a hole that was just a line that dragged from the right part of her vent to like an inch to the right. I was afraid that was gonna get infected. The other thing is the top half of her vent was VERY SWOLLEN and bright red... But she was just standing around, she was eating well, and drinking well, but she wanted to sleep CONSTANTLY, but... as I stated, this hen is a miracle hen... and she SURVIVED!!! I’m grateful to say, she’s happy and healthy to this day!! Thanks for your time!!
(Also, sorry for any grammar errors or misspellings...)
-Lavender
