My Messed up little Flock... Birds who have survived all odds.

[CoopedChik]

I have raised birds for almost 18 years. I'm just now finally seriously showing birds. Any way during my years of chicken adventures I have magically been able to bring some birds back from the brink of death (don't know how though, just thankful I usually can) but becuase of this I have had so many birds dropped off on me.

So my current messed up birds consists of only 4, which is low from passed years.
1.) O.T (short for Oliver Twist) she came from a feed store who ordered in a batch of 1 day old baby New Hampshire chicks for Easter. The store clerk noticed one chicks leg was sticking out wrong called us up and told us he had a chick with a broken leg. I said that's fine we could try and reset the leg. He came in with a baby chick with an entire backwards leg!. I then noticed the other leg stuck out oddly. and upon further inspection, what I thought was just her standing slightly off balance from her bad leg was actually an entire crooked body. Her wing was actualy almost attached to her back and her entire body was just off centered. I didn't think the crooked bird would make it. But she's 1 yr old now, her growth is slightly stunted, she doesn't seem to be capable of laying eggs, and even thought she gets around by pulling herself by her wings since her legs are to crooked to stand on. She is the one of the strongest and sweetes little birds I have known. She lives in small cage on the back porch, she has mothered 8 baby silkies for me and helped another special chicken of mine beat his problems. Although she'll never live in the run with the other hens. She lives a full chicken life she has some chicken best friends who she goes out in the back yard with and pecks around with

2.) Chicken number two came from a box of Buff Laced Sebrights When I first got the chicks my pit bull puppy found them in their little box on the table he selected the 1 chick and very gently carried her around the house when I saw him carrying I freaked out thinking he had killed the little chick. But no he just like her. He put her down and obsessively licked the screaming and soaked little chick, but my puppy loved the little chick ever since. On the first day that I put her out in the bantam run, I heard the Puppy barking, I went out to see what was wrong, the puppy was barking at a crow who had slipped into the run and had my little Sebright hen by the head flinging her around. I ran into the pen to rescue her, got her loose. Crow flew away. Ran with her inside and she was so disoriented and out of it I though she wouldn't make it. So after doing everything I could medically possible to save her I put her down to rest in a box. The next morning she was perfectly fine but as she grew some more her face slightly twisted. She now has a crooked face, almost slack jawed. She is almost a year now she has never stopped peeping like a chick. She also responds to certain instances as a chick would, so I'm fairly certain she has minor brain damage from the ordeal. (her name is crook now btw)

3.) This was just a day old chick I ended up with it free, her name is Fionna and I was planning to raise her to sale, but at day 4 she started having little head spasms, I thought she just had wire neck but it didn't exactly the systems. I asked around but now one knew what was wrong with this chick. Then a very wierd thought came to me. I wondered if my little chick was having seizures. So one day I turned off the lights and flicked a flash light in her face she went right into a spasm. So yes I indeed I ended up with an epileptic chicken... I found out some home remedies to give her and now she only seizes when ever a light flickers directly in her face. Other than that she's a picture of health.

4.) My fourth bird just became a special case. His name is Reginald Featherbottom the third. He's a show Brahma. I went into his pen one day to find him passed out with his head completely twisted backwards. Some how, I don't know how, but he broke his neck. I magically healed him over a few weeks and now he has a slight crook to his head and he occasionally falls over but honestly that just happened, I think in a few monthes you may never know he was hurt... We'll just see.


So does any one else have any extreme special birds they have who have survived all odds? If so please post I'd love ot hear some more.

 

[SuperChickenDude327]

Oh, yes. Practicly all my birds are at least a little messed up. Not as miraculous as yours, but:

1: Georgia. She was probably my most miraculous chicken of all. I think she was in the jaws of a fox. When I came home early one day, I went out back and found 4 chickens dead. Scruffy and Gracie were the only ones to be seen. I sat around for a while, wondering what to do, when another seemed to walk by. I didn't realise it was Georgia, so I wasn't all excited that I had another. I went inside, and for a while I just sat around, checking on the coop at least 4 times every minute. Later, when I checked again, I saw that Samantha and Georgia were outside. I was extremely happy that two survived. I herded them into the coop. Samantha was limping, but who I was truely worried about was Georgia. She was making an odd gurgling sound, and trying to walk into a wall. She would press herself against a wall, making that creepy gurgling sound. When I picked her up, I saw she had wounds on her that looked like she was bitten. I thought she was a goner, because my aunt thought her lungs were peirced. Eventually though, she survived. But she never flew around again. She would open her wings, but not fly. She always roosts on one side because she can get to it without flying. She also weezes whenever you pick her up.
2: Scruffy. She has some sort of inability to grow her feathers back. She has barely any feathers on her left side, just pinfeathers.

She also has some sort of growth stunting. She is not a bantam, but she is smaller than the others. She's been like this since we got her. I hope I don't have to keep her inside during colder days.
3: Gracie. She's not all that interesting, all she has is a terrible limp. She broke her toe or something during her chick days, and now she walks around with a limp.
4: Samantha. She's my only paranoid chicken. She'll run from a bug that jumps, or if I throw food for her, she'll race off. She may have suffered a trama from seeing her fellow chickens get killed.

 

[rwbwfarm]

We have Hope, Ginny, and Ladybug. Hope is a Cuckoo Maran (almost 4 now

) that has (had) seizures. I say had because since I put her & Ginny on organic food, she hasn't had them

. She is also stunted, has crooked toes, and been a house chicken from the get-go. She spends the night with Ginny in a wire dog crate & they have their own room for the day. She's a hoot, too.
Ginny is a porcelain d'culle (sp?) that I got from a woman ~2 yrs. ago. she is about 90% blind but can see some shadows. Loves to sunbathe

. She'll still occasionally lay an egg, too (she's 7 yrs.).
Ladybug is a Golden Comet that still lives outside but is spoiled even more than the others outside. Not sure what happened to her but I went out one day & she was thrashing in the barn. I confined her & just let her rest & she's fairly normal now except she walks with a limp & seems a little 'off'. A true character

.
Oh, and Autumn... She's a mutt chick (about 3 mo.) but always comes running when I'm outside & LOVES to be held - she usually falls asleep in my arms. She's a normal chick & hopefully she'll stay as affectionate as she is now. We have quite the conversations....

 

[CoopedChik]

2: Scruffy. She has some sort of inability to grow her feathers back. She has barely any feathers on her left side, just pinfeathers.


I had a chicken like scruffy once he was picked bald by my cochin hen, it took him a year just to grow back fuzz. It's been 2 years now and he finally looks... a little "normal". I just didn't know if he was wierd enough to post about.


lol it's funny how everyone has their little odd birds, and it amazes me what they survive.