Official BYC Poll: Special Needs Poultry

[maeflower1992]

Bookmarking this. This could be very helpful to someone dealing with the loss of a foot or feet.

It definitely has been a learning curve. I figure when it starts to get cold again I will probably have to wrap them to make sure she doesn't get anymore frostbite with them. I was actually thinking about trying to sew her some booties but just haven't figured out what would be best yet. I would be happy to answer any questions. Maybe need to write up an article on caring for her.

She is a super sweet chicken. I actually keep her with my babies I have been raising she is like a momma hen to them. My kids love holding her also.

 

[NagemTX]

I no longer have her but Sister was a sever cross beak Ameraucana. Lived from Aug 3 2022 to Feb of 2023.

If I had had the time to invest into her feeding I believe she would still be with me. She wanted to live and I did what I could to help with that but it wasn't enough. I miss my little feather dog.

I do have another with a crooked face and wry tail. Dr. Girlfriend a gold sebright. Pic is on my phone so I'll up date later with her photo. She doesn't require any special treatment tho.

 

[-Shade-]

I have a one-year-old EE crossbeak hen named Bella. She is the second crossbeak ever to have appeared in the generations of our farm, the first being a young, golden crossbeak poult from the first batch of EEs ever to come to our farm. Precious died at about 5 weeks of age from heat stroke, and I decided I would not let it happen again to the next crossbeak I raised.

 

[Perris]

I had a partially sighted pullet, about whom I wrote an article. I've had a couple of roos that needed special care after fox attacks, one of whom I wrote a thread about.

I'm currently dealing with the ex-dominant roo, who I think caught avian encephalomyelitis, or something that has very similar symptoms, and who is making a gradual recovery. At his worst he could only lift his head, he couldn't even sit up, though his legs retained all their strength and flexibility. The first photo was taken at the start of that phase, when I had found him on the floor of the coop and brought him in, having no idea what was going on. I had popped him in a washing up bowl but he kicked and tried to stand, only to fall out and over.

I should add that I had never handled him before this time; he was used to ranging free since he hatched.

He endured about a week lying on his side - only the right side; if I tried to turn him over to avoid pressure sores, he'd go into a frenzy to get back onto the right; he never lost his strength or use of his legs and wings; he just couldn't control them. He was not capable of standing, sitting or pecking, but his comb and wattles stayed red and his eyes bright. His whole body had tremors, intermittently. If it was AE, I think the tremors were caused by inflammation on the brain. The nadir was 5 days later. He needed intensive care, getting water by syringe to the side of his beak and live mealworms, tinned sardines, wet dogfood, milk-soaked bread, banana and suchlike to the beak to eat, little and often, when he was not in tremor and receptive to it. If the senior hen came in to visit him, he chatted enthusiastically to her.

By the end of the first week he'd turned the corner and after 8 days inside he was trying to right himself. We found he could sort of prop himself up in the bowl against the units.

The weakness was in the right side only. After another week he could sit. And he resumed crowing. He tried to stand to eat but fell heels over head for the next couple of days. His balance is still not right, and he still cannot scratch, but he just resumed preening this morning - another milestone on his road to recovery. When a hen or two comes to visit (some of them have been in to see him [or rather his food bowl ] almost every day, and he likes to pretend he found those goodies ) he stands up straight, flaps his wings, even tries to do a dropped wing shuffle, and it's the best physiotherapy session imaginable.

He came inside on 22 June and is still a work in progress. This was taken at the start of this month, when he got first dibs gleaning the mealworm drawer; he jumped out of it afterwards.

If we did not have 3 other roos he would have been back outside last month. But they won't tolerate him like this, and I am still working on a long term solution.

This was him before he fell ill, and how I hope he will be again one day.

 

[kurby22]

I have had a few! Some due to strange ailments, others due to dumb mistakes on my part.

My current special needs girl is Peg Leg Peggy! She is a self blue bantam EE that lost all of her toes by day 3 because I was out of town and my husband tried to help put bands on their legs so I could keep track of them when I got home. He just put the band on funny and it was too tight and her little toes died :-( I felt so very bad. But I cleaned it daily, wrapped it in vet wrap, and eventually the foot pad healed. She is my most friendly and inquisitive bird with the best beard from that hatch and you'd never know she’s handicapped!

I also had Nohope, my giant Lavender Cuckoo Orpington, who came down with something that caused him to not be able to walk. He stopped walking in December, and finally passed away in May after living in a box in my house for those 6 months. He was always special from the time he was a baby living in a brooder of bantam babies. The bantams would all snuggle under his wings and he took care of them He grew up to be a bit afraid of fighting any other rooster so he would hide on me whenever I visited. That connection was even more special when he spent all day with me in a box. He went on road trips, stayed in hotels and ate crappy road food with me (loved him some ramen noodles and hotel eggs!), slept in the box next to me in bed at night, and sat with me all day while I worked from home on the couch. His favorite spot was in my lap with his head on my shoulder and when I had to leave the room he would yell at me till I came back. I did everything I could think of to make him better. Daily mash with hemp hearts, Greek yogurt, eggs, vitamins E, B, and Selenium, poultry cell…he was tested for every ailment I could think of…he got every other day baths to keep things as clean as possible, and he even started to get better enough he was almost walking again and then he was just gone. I miss him so very much. He was a super special boy.

And lastly, I adopted an EE hen that ended up being mostly blind. She was just the sweetest girl and just loved to be with you and spend time in your lap when you would visit. Although it was the result of some unknown eye infection, I just adored her heart shaped pupil. I had to make special accommodations for her by only using red and white waterers, lifting her into the treat bin so she could find the scratch like everyone else, and she lived with my bantam flock of friendly weirdos (silkies, satins, Polish, and d’Uccles). Her name was Honey and it fit her perfectly

I can’t imagine my chicken experience without these special babies. It’s worth every minute of time you put in and I really do believe that they know. They know you are doing your best to love them and keep them safe.

 

[Paz]

I don’t think I have a picture. But my first cock Tzvi had feet problems. He kinda limped, but nothing too serious.

 

[Shadrach]

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've had a couple with disabilities but those disabilities didn't prevent them from running with their tribes.
Able, he had a limp caused by getting his foot caught n some wire when he was a chick. He had a limp until he died. However, he was completely independant and lived a normal life despite his limp.

I would not consider many of the birds posted in this thread as special needs. Some may have a disability but otherwise recovered (then they were sick or injured birds) or their disability didn't prevent them from having a normal life.

I may well have had special needs chicks at various points but I found that with broody hatching in free rang/ranging conditions the mother would leave them at the nest. If mother didn't want such chicks then I wouldn't let them live. Many will disagree with this no doubt. It has meant that the chicks that leave the nest are physically healthy and can keep up with the others.

Most interesting is there has been no mention of mental health as a disability or special needs. I've had a couple of those. While they were physically capable their mental health did not allow them to fuction fully in chicken society and with one in particular, Cheepy, if she had been a human in modern society she would have been supported by a medical professional for her entire life.

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? Disappointed frankly.

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.

 

[fluffycrow]

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've had a couple with disabilities but those disabilities didn't prevent them from running with their tribes.
Able, he had a limp caused by getting his foot caught n some wire when he was a chick. He had a limp until he died. However, he was completely independant and lived a normal life despite his limp.

View attachment 3610574

I would not consider many of the birds posted in this thread as special needs. Some may have a disability but otherwise recovered (then they were sick or injured birds) or their disability didn't prevent them from having a normal life.

I may well have had special needs chicks at various points but I found that with broody hatching in free rang/ranging conditions the mother would leave them at the nest. If mother didn't want such chicks then I wouldn't let them live. Many will disagree with this no doubt. It has meant that the chicks that leave the nest are physically healthy and can keep up with the others.

Most interesting is there has been no mention of mental health as a disability or special needs. I've had a couple of those. While they were physically capable their mental health did not allow them to fuction fully in chicken society and with one in particular, Cheepy, if she had been a human in modern society she would have been supported by a medical professional for her entire life.

View attachment 3610575

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? Disappointed frankly.

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.

Depends on the definition of normal chicken life. Koutsos was unable to mate. Other than that, he lived perfectly normal. I don't think he was special needs. For Koutsi... I'm not sure where she stands. She was bullied by every single flock except the bantam flock. She could not keep up with the free range flock as well. She could walk ok, but flight or any kind of serious jump would be a problem. She technically didn't need any supportive care, but if she wasn't high up at night she'd stress about it, as you can imagine

 

[DonyaQuick]

I have an extremely far sighted hen called Dingus. She's about 2.5 years old now and a very sweet hen. Her vision issues were there as a chick. I knew something was off when she was the only one who couldn't jump out of the brooder and kept jumping straight up in the air instead.

Dingus can spot a predator a mile away and can see bugs and treats across the enclosure, but once she's closer than 4ft she can't find it anymore unless the color stands out. For her environment, she has to touch things to know where they are and will have to try a few times to get treats from a hand (or gets excessively close and turbo slams my palm...). She has a LOT of trouble jumping into things if she can't go bump it with her chest or beak first to figure out how high it is. She's also bad about jumping down and has tried to casually step off of things 2ft+ high in the past.

Accomodation-wise, I had to do a lot of training with her to help her learn the coop and run setup when she was young. I also had to add a low perch for her in my run. I'm converting and old shed into a big coop upgrade right now and will have to design the interior features like roosts and ramps in the low side to accommodate her, and will probably have to go through a similar training phase with her when the flock moves in.

 

[triciayoung]

View attachment 3610017
Sweet Pea.
She lost both her feet from frostbite. She was given to me when her feet turned black because the people no longer wanted her. She is only a year old. She lays a beautiful blue green egg almost every day.

She is so beautiful. Thank you for helping her.