My dad thinks it's a brain tumor...

[Moochie]

I don't feel it in her earlobe anymore but she's kinda swollen in her chin area. Is the way she behaves because she might be retarded? All I know is that where we got her from, the lady kept her in a kind of dark cage type thing with shavings for flooring and with a blind hen. I remember she wasn't moving much in there. She had a lot of dingleberries and was kinda dirty. That's why it looks like her tail is stubby, we had to cut alot of feathers off because of the poop and dirt. When we got her outside with Skippy, all she was doing was looking around, while standing in one place. She was looking at plants, at rocks, at mounds of dirt, at her feet, she looked up at the chicken wire mesh. Haha she pecked at Skippy's tail feathers and pecked at his face occasionally. The original owners said that she doesn't lay eggs either.
I wonder what goes on in that head of hers.

 

[NewToFarming]

Wow! You are a very brave person and you are doing an awesome job with her!! I hope you can get her fixed up. How long have you had her? It sounds like she did not come from a very good place! I am so glad you found her!!!
I use the pedipaws for like the dog toenails on my cross beak girl. It is battery powered and really does a nice fast job. She seems to tolerate the filing much better than clipping and it works pretty good. You just have to be careful of her tongue too and my girl likes to stick her tongue every so often when doing that.

It does sound like there might be more going on with her....do you know how old she is? If she is of laying age and she isn't laying then something else is going on unless she is either too young or too old to lay?

 

[Animalian]

Quote:
It's probably just the infection popping up and moving around as her body/the antibiotic fight it.

I don't think she's retarded! It reminds me of what they say about ex-battery hens, they either freeze or panic when first shown grass or outside. By the sound of it she had never seen any of these things before, when she looked up she might of been looking through the wire wondering why it was blue and so far away! She's probably afraid of the possibilities in such a large place being as she's used her entire world being confined to the cage. She probably didn't lay eggs because she didn't get enough hours of light per day for her body to start producing them in a dark cage! If she had all the poop attached to her that could also be why she hadn't laid, probably not getting the right nutrition or the food wasn't staying inside her long enough for her to absorb the nutrients!

I expect she'll come out of her shell soon and start exploring, then eventually lay eggs when she's healthy again and less stressed thanks to your wonderful care!

 

[Moochie]

By August she will be a year old. Actually her previous owners were pretty nice people. They run a horse rescue. Sugar was in that cage because the lady didn't want any of the other chickens hurting her. Plus I don't think she looks quite normal for a bantam buff orpington, but I think she looks like a cute stuffed animal at times.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Who knows what effect having that thing on her head had. It doesn't sound to me like she is quite right. A lot of times when there is one thing going wrong with a bird that you can see, there are things inside the bird that you can't. She may be damaged physically and that is why she is not laying and behaves oddly. If she is your pet and you understand that she is not laying and may never lay, that is fine. You are taking great care of her and doing your best to make her existence more comfortable.

A little personal side note. I had put some younger juvies in a pen with some older ones a couple of days ago, and they are still running and hiding and scared of the bigger birds. Last night, this one little Buckeye/Cornish cross cockerel who is a pretty sweet fella, was so scared that I picked him up and was holding and petting him. I had to finish chores, so I put him down. I had to bend down into the pen and he flew up on my shoulder. I thought I would let him perch there a minute. No more than did that thought pass through my head when he pooped down my back. Sometimes you gotta wonder. Here I was rescuing him from the big, scary chickens (who really aren't) in the pen, and he poops on me!

 

[Moochie]

She's getting the red back in her face!

 

[heatherindeskies]

How is her energy level? Is she eating? Any other news?

 

[PAchickenlover]

Sorry lost track of you for a few days. How is she diong?

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
Yeah! I'm so happy she's still alive!

 

[Moochie]

Her energy level is quite well. I let her and Skippy out of the duck enclosure today. One of the young cockerels tried to mate with her and... Lol. She got away from him and then chased him with her wings up (like a mad broody basically) and flanked him. Another young cockerel also mounted her and she chased him too. Sugar has got alot of spice lol.
Even though they're larger than her, they know she is boss. She pecked one of the roos out of his dusting hole and she proudly took it.