sloanbychoice
Crowing
So, I’ve got a lady who suddenly looks terrible.
i got home and went to the coop to find her standing inside the coop with no tail feathers.
My first thought was that something terrible had happened. After getting the rest of the flock back inside, I went in to inspect her. She was already up on the top roost, bossing the others around quite sternly. Not sure if she had injuries, I plucked her off carefully and took her to the house and into a cage.
I’m looking her over, and she’s got almost a fourth of her feathers missing, bald spots, and places where shafts are showing weird.
She’s eating and drinking (the light is on), and mostly seems ok. She even put up a struggle when I pulled her from the roost. She acted like it was painful when I carried her.
I see no obvious injuries, and it looks like a hard molt.
But, can this happen literally overnight like that??! I’ve only had one hen go through a hard molt, and I remember it being horrible for her. She looked like death. But not suddenly in one day.
Her comb looks very red and normal.
EE so no wattles. Appetite is strong!!
I would appreciate any experience here.
Thanks!
i got home and went to the coop to find her standing inside the coop with no tail feathers.
My first thought was that something terrible had happened. After getting the rest of the flock back inside, I went in to inspect her. She was already up on the top roost, bossing the others around quite sternly. Not sure if she had injuries, I plucked her off carefully and took her to the house and into a cage.
I’m looking her over, and she’s got almost a fourth of her feathers missing, bald spots, and places where shafts are showing weird.
She’s eating and drinking (the light is on), and mostly seems ok. She even put up a struggle when I pulled her from the roost. She acted like it was painful when I carried her.
I see no obvious injuries, and it looks like a hard molt.
But, can this happen literally overnight like that??! I’ve only had one hen go through a hard molt, and I remember it being horrible for her. She looked like death. But not suddenly in one day.
Her comb looks very red and normal.
EE so no wattles. Appetite is strong!!
I would appreciate any experience here.
Thanks!