Official BYC Poll: Special Needs Poultry

[triciayoung]

Just to make it plainly clear, you mean a chicken should have all of those to be considered disabled, or just one or two

ANY one of those. Any one of these things require human help to do basic chicken things and stay alive.

 

[triciayoung]

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Probably my oldest living case: Larry. He'll be turning 2 years old on September 4th. A few months ago a young Bantam Cochin roo pecked his eye, he's blind in that one, needless to say. He's had quite the misfortune: at 2 days old he got a cut at the base of his tail that caused wry tail and at 2 weeks old he got fowl pox that ended up causing damage to his "good" eye's eyelid.

He's one tough cookie though: at 1 year old a pitbull got into the chicken yard and he rushed it head-on and kept it busy long enough for me to run in there and get the dog. He walked away caked in mud with just a small puncture wound on his rump. He did enjoy the blow-dryer after his bath
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He's afraid of the other roosters but he has his own enclosure with his own silkie ladies that he loves to spoil. He even has a sweet daughter that recently turned 4 months
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How sweet he is.

 

[NanaK]

Interesting responses and pretty much what I expected.
Special Needs; it needs some definition. I would go for a permanent disability that prevents the bird from living a normal life for the duration of that life or requires supportive care on a permanent basis.

I think Special Needs does mean permanent disability or at least long term as in meaning more than a few months.

Sometimes a bird can start out with an injury (question for Emergencies Forum) that ends up needing extra support for months or permanently. It could turn into a long term disability at a point they do not recover completely. That is when those experts in the Emergency Forum could refer to a Long Term Disabilities Forum. I think this would free up time for them.

In this Disabilities Forum, there would be topics pertaining to feeding issues, mobility assistance devices, management of pressure sores, enrichment activities, depression (yes this is real) and so many other topics. The experts in Emergencies would not have to keep up with so many of these different issues (links) as there are many of us who have figured out some of this stuff so we can share.

Most interesting is there has been no mention of mental health as a disability or special needs.

I really understood this thread to just be a poll of how many members kept disabled birds. Not an extensive list of every issue and treatment we used . My bird Dixie has been like this for a few years now. In the beginning, I read everything I could find trying to help her. I still read the Emergencies Forum hoping to be able to recognize problems in my flock early as we all know chickens hide their pain very well.

In human society mental health problems account for a large proportion of special needs support. What happened here? Doesn't BYC accept chickens can have mental health problems?

I did not go into details about this. It was just a poll.

Personally, there have been times our decision to cull has been because the bird didn't have the will to want to fight the ailment. I still tried for a while. Sadly these birds were culled for that very reason....depression. When I have a fighter, that shows a clear will to live, I give them my all. I am retired. I have the time to do this. If it was not for BYC, I would be lost with these issues.

However this thread does illustrate some of the problems of having a forum section for special needs chickens. Lots of disabilities but not that many that require supportive care for life.

As I am making this post, this thread is barely 24 hours old. We have many members and guests that only check this site weekly or occasionally. I was actually surprised at how fast posts to this thread and the other on this topic were really starting to add up!

@Shadrack Please do not think I am picking on you! I always enjoy reading your posts and have been trying to work through your thread but it is taking time. I like your style!

That was my attempt to catalog everyone's "special need"

This is what I thought you were asking. Dixie's had her problems for a few years now. I would need a whole thread and some time to think back to tell everything! I also didn't mention my older birds, who I know if they live long enough, may need help one day too. I'll be there for them!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Sometimes a bird can start out with an injury (question for Emergencies Forum) that ends up needing extra support for months or permanently. It could turn into a long term disability at a point they do not recover completely. That is when those experts in the Emergency Forum could refer to a Long Term Disabilities Forum. I think this would free up time for them.

In this Disabilities Forum, there would be topics pertaining to feeding issues, mobility assistance devices, management of pressure sores, enrichment activities, depression (yes this is real) and so many other topics. The experts in Emergencies would not have to keep up with so many of these different issues (links) as there are many of us who have figured out some of this stuff so we can share.

I wonder if maybe a subforum under emergencies would be better for this rather than an entire forum of its own? People could click into emergencies with their questions regarding long-term disability, see that there is a subforum specific to that, and go there to make their posts. It may have the same issue of different definitions of what is a long-term disability, though.

Maybe even just a pinned thread there. Can threads be pinned to multiple forums? A thread pinned to both emergencies and managing your flock would be a start at least.

I tend to agree with others that an entire forum specific to this probably isn't necessary. In the grand scheme, even with as fast as posts have come to this thread, I can't imagine that there will be so many disabled chickens that a forum specific to that would be anything more than a ghost town with the occasional post, or maybe one or two active long-term threads. Maybe I've just not seen as many active posters with disabled birds out there, though.

 

[NanaK]

I wonder if maybe a subforum under emergencies would be better for this rather than an entire forum of its own?

Maybe even just a pinned thread there.

A sticky that stayed on top of the thread? That would help if there were no posts for a while. People would see it. The first post could be updated occasionally to point to specific posts like @casportpony listed in the first post to this thread.

I understand that the decision was made about this but appreciate the discussion about it being allowed. I also realize keeping needy animals is not for everyone. A forum or even a sticky topic would let those interested know they are not alone and sometimes there are options even if culling is one of them. People ask about culling humanely too.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You are a saint. That is a lot of work.

Honestly they don't take much work. The blind one is the difficult one usually just because she wanders and panics if she's not ready to be touched. The leg amputee and the one missing all her toes do just fine. The one missing Most of his toes was just retired to a coop with another retired male so he wasn't walking on gravel and being run by younger males.

But they show no lessening of quality of life. If they did, or if they needed assistance that I could not provide, then they would have been put down.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I should have clarified, I meant on BYC itself. But of course it could be pointed out that if there was a dedicated section for them, it could draw more of those people in here.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If we are including chickens that have a mental disability, I do have one (no, not David, he's just several knives short of a drawer) that had a raccoon bite her head, with a tooth puncturing her ear the July before last. Since then, she's had several times, especially with chicks, where she has just seemed to forget instinctive things

 

[triciayoung]

I wonder if maybe a subforum under emergencies would be better for this rather than an entire forum of its own? People could click into emergencies with their questions regarding long-term disability, see that there is a subforum specific to that, and go there to make their posts. It may have the same issue of different definitions of what is a long-term disability, though.

Maybe even just a pinned thread there. Can threads be pinned to multiple forums? A thread pinned to both emergencies and managing your flock would be a start at least.

I tend to agree with others that an entire forum specific to this probably isn't necessary. In the grand scheme, even with as fast as posts have come to this thread, I can't imagine that there will be so many disabled chickens that a forum specific to that would be anything more than a ghost town with the occasional post, or maybe one or two active long-term threads. Maybe I've just not seen as many active posters with disabled birds out there, though.

I don’t really think the forum would be a ghost town any day.of the week. Disabled birds are very complex and caring for them for the rest of their lives is life changing for the chicken keeper.

I think the reason why many of you don’t see how many of us are dealing with disabled birds, is because there is not a place to go for us to discuss solutions, increasing the birds quality of life ideas, and time-saving ideas for the chicken keeper. So those of us with these birds do the best we can and creatively figure it out. @TwoCrows basket idea I need, @janiedoe propping to eat with a towel over the bird I need, @BDutch idea about the kangaroo pouch. So many more. Just in a few days.

In the past few days, I have learned more about what people with disabled birds are doing to “make it work well”, than I have the entire time I have been a member. Opening a forum provides a platform to discuss our challenges and help each other. Discussing it anywhere else is out of place, hence the reason you don’t hear much.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Disabled birds are very complex and caring for them for the rest of their lives is life changing for the chicken keeper.

I think the reason why many of you don’t see how many of us are dealing with disabled birds,

I did make a post about one of my disabled birds here and I have two others right now that I did not mention (more than if you count the geriatric birds I have), plus have had several in the past, so I am not entirely in the dark about what people with disabled birds go through, for the record. I've been on BYC for a very long time at this point and have checked the forums pretty much daily that entire time. People do post about their disabled birds. Just not that many people, not that often. I just don't see how that's enough for an entire forum for them when a subforum or even a pinned thread would seem like plenty of space for that.