- Apr 16, 2010
- 66
- 5
- 58
We have a Tetra Tint hen that we got from TSC in March 2014. We got two at the time - one we found dead in the coop a couple of months ago for no apparent reason. This one is now acting quite strange and we have no idea what is wrong...
She is quite skinny, so obviously she hasn't been eating for a while. We have had her in the house for a couple of days now - she will not eat or drink anything at all on her own. I've been force feeding her chicken food mixed with vitamin water and made into balls that I put down her throat. Followed by vitamin water. She is pooping, so I know she's digesting stuff...
She doesn't walk around much at all. Sometimes she is very tipsy, and other times she does ok and perches on the box we have her in. She is not having any breathing issues at all. Her comb is quite droopy.
She has a weird thing she is doing with her head - not sure I can describe it, so am including a video of when we took her outside today and tried (to no avail) to entice her with bugs we found under a rock.
I just don't know what to do! It's so hard to know if this is something she can recover from, or if she is suffering and should be put down!
We initially thought she might be egg bound, but having felt around I don't think that's the case?
One of the things that I just read about and feel like could be a possibility is lead poisoning. My kids run around with their BB guns all the time and they have shot into the huge wood chip pile that we have and the chickens do go outside the fence sometimes and scavenge through there. She might have ingested one or more BBs, but I don't know that for sure.
And of course, this is my youngest son's pet chicken.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
She is quite skinny, so obviously she hasn't been eating for a while. We have had her in the house for a couple of days now - she will not eat or drink anything at all on her own. I've been force feeding her chicken food mixed with vitamin water and made into balls that I put down her throat. Followed by vitamin water. She is pooping, so I know she's digesting stuff...
She doesn't walk around much at all. Sometimes she is very tipsy, and other times she does ok and perches on the box we have her in. She is not having any breathing issues at all. Her comb is quite droopy.
She has a weird thing she is doing with her head - not sure I can describe it, so am including a video of when we took her outside today and tried (to no avail) to entice her with bugs we found under a rock.
I just don't know what to do! It's so hard to know if this is something she can recover from, or if she is suffering and should be put down!
We initially thought she might be egg bound, but having felt around I don't think that's the case?
One of the things that I just read about and feel like could be a possibility is lead poisoning. My kids run around with their BB guns all the time and they have shot into the huge wood chip pile that we have and the chickens do go outside the fence sometimes and scavenge through there. She might have ingested one or more BBs, but I don't know that for sure.
And of course, this is my youngest son's pet chicken.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
