My little girl is still underdeveloped and walks in reverse... Any thoughts?

[alltransmogrify]

Hello!

My partner surprised me with this frizzle-bantam mix a few months ago. Her name is Saffron.He noticed that she kept to herself at his Aunt's house and asked if we could adopt her. She is the sweetest little thing. It'd been a rough road to get her to acclimate as a young chicken - see below.

We think she is about a year old by now and is still incredibly underdeveloped. Her feathers have barely grown, her wings are still super duper small (their ends have broken feathers like they can't seem to grow in). Another odd behavior is she seems to get stuck in reverse. I cannot upload a video here, unfortunately, to show you all but she drops her head and backs up almost uncontrollably until she bumps into something. It happens a lot.

She eats well. I have to make sure she drinks water throughout the day because her reverse walk keeps her from swallowing as much as I think she should be drinking..

Has anyone ever had a chicken that is like this? Backs up uncontrollably? Is super underdeveloped still? I'm worried she won't make it very long, and she is so sweet! She's definitely not the smartest chicken I've ever had, but her lack of growth, feather development, and reverse walking concerns me.

We got her a sweater because it's cold (pic below). Her crop gets so full and quite hard during the day. It sits off to the side. It goes down during the night thankfully and she poops fine. Poops are usually not very liquidy I've noticed. She walks about and pecks around and digs and LOVES the sun. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, just cold sometimes. She doesn't really stick with the flock much, keeps to herself mostly.

Any thoughts?

 

[Welshies]

Maybe she was inbred. Was she fed layer feed as a youngster? Or really low protein (14%)?

 

[lazy gardener]

She looks like she is frizzle feathered. She also looks like she has scaly leg mites. That's an easy treat with a couple applications of mineral oil. Do a thread search for specifics to treat for that. As for the retropulsion: most likely a neurological issue could be caused by many different issues. Try giving her Poultry Nutri-Drench. If she responds to vitamins: Vitamin E, B vitamins, and Selenium have shown the best likelihood of helping the issue.

 

[chickens really]

Dwarfism?...Strange..Oh well, you like her..

 

[Sagenovese]

Poor little thing. It is good of you to care for her. Her sweater is cute! It is good hearing that she loves the sun and doesn't seem to be in any pain. My guess is she is better off not mingling with other chickens, she probably knows she is an underdog. I agree with attempts with nutrition. It does seem neurological to me and that may mean there is no fix. But, since you are going to attempt to help her, I agree on vitamins (esp. E,B,Se), e-lytes, Nutridrench. Best of luck with her. Would love to hear updates!