My hen is walking strangely, any idea why? **MOULTING is the answer

[5Leepy!]

No, we've never used grit as we let them free range in our backyard during the day. Would sand work?

 

[5Leepy!]

Quote:
Kbackel88 - how do I check her ears? I have no idea where to even start on that.

 

[kbackel88]

You can find her ears just behind her eyes, just above the ear lobes. They are just openings straight into the ear canal covered by a small tuft of feathers. If you can push aside the little tuft of feathers covering just to see if there is any discharge or waxy build up. You should be able to see just into the ear canal. If you have a small pen-light you can attempt to get a better look at the ear canal. Look for reddness/puffiness. I think that an ear infection might be a stretch, but if you're lucky and it is, antibiotics may help.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

5Leepy! :

No, we've never used grit as we let them free range in our backyard during the day. Would sand work?

Sand is not big enough to grind up tuna etc. Do you have any small gravel bits?​

 

[5Leepy!]

I found her ears and they look fine. Added small pebbles to her food dish.

This afternoon she started showing MARKED improvement!!! She is still a bit shakey but can now get to where she wants to go without having to make a huge loop around the room, etc... We are keeping her inside for one more night and continuing the homeopathic stuff untill she's 100% better but if she continues improving at the rate she is, that should only be another day or two.

So happy! Was thinking we were going to have to euthanize her soon!

Whew!!

 

[svalentine]

That's exactly how one of mine walked when she was molting. I was so frightened at first thinking something was terribly wrong. It got really bad for a few days. But then the feathers started coming back in and she's back to walking normally.

 

[CheekyChicky44]

Glad she’s doing better . So that scary symptom is associated with malting? Wow, mine was doing that kind of walking this morning too and I am glad to think that molting might be all that it is. If anything changes or you find out anything more, please post it. The information would be valuable to me too. Thank You!

 

[KMHunter]

That's exactly what my two oldest ones are doing! They didn't moult last year when they should have so are going through a pretty hard one this year. Bith started doing it today. I am assuming that I should up their protien? And I am giving polyvisol drops. I was so scared when I saw them. But it is hard to believe that if it was something else they wouldn't both be doing it at the same time during a hard moult.

 

[5Leepy!]

Yes, my Hen is still doing the strange walk but now mostly only in the mornings when she wakes up. She gets better throughout the day. Her feathers are coming in strong right now, the cooler weather around here is what set this off, I think. She's been losing feathers for months but not really regrowing any and now she's regrowing like crazy. I'm giving extra protein but I'm guessing her body working on the feathers so hard is what is causing this. She looks like a pincushion right now! Such a relief but still so scary to see it happen. Glad mine isn't the only one doing it.... lolololololol

5Leepy!

 

[tdgill]

how's things?