Official BYC Poll: Special Needs Poultry

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Hello all my chicken friends!! I was honestly surprised there was no community for people with disabled animals. People come up with the most clever ways to help and these tips and tricks need to be shared. If nothing else, a place for these people to go to find support. I loved the idea about the aquarium filter to add noise to help her hen find the water by sound. Amazing!! I recently had a hen get attacked by a fox. Fortunately, shes alive, but cant run or jump or scratch. Shes tryin' her best, so I will too. I came on ByC yesterday looking for some advice and was disenchanted at the lack of 'chicken with disability' topics. This featured poll is perfect! I felt so much better after reading everyones story. It feels good when your 'not alone'. Some of you are AMaZINg. Hats off to all the people that go above and beyond to help all their friends.

 

[Maddcatter]

I have a mostly blind hen. She's a total sweet heart, and I think the blindness came from being in a hatchery box where 60% of the chicks died before they got to me.

She lives in my sectioned off chicken coop and run (it was my original chicken home until we built the massive coop we have now). She has hens in there with her, as the pen she's in is also my chickens-that-need-something-special pen... And I have a few hens with rooster wear, and I'm feeding them more protein than the rest of the flock gets.

I call the blind chicken eyebright, and she runs into my legs everytime I go into that run, as I tend to hand feed her treats, so I can make sure she gets some.

I have a duckling (3ish months old) with a puff on the back of it's head. It's not supposed to be a crested duck, but that's kind if what the puff looks like. The puff developed suddenly, and doesn't seem to have affected anything... But I'm keeping an eye on it.

Other than that, I have a couple of roosters with crooked toes that don't really seem to affect how they live, and a couple of hens that have bumblefoot right now... Which I don't think really count for this thread.

 

[Emma_Bruffy]

My first chicken was a rescue from someone who had to many roosters. He was blind because his eyes were pecked out so I saved him and kept him

 

[NuggetMama]

Ehhh. Don't know if it counts as a serious disability. I had one ISA brown who was left with quite a few less toes in a predator attack, while she was recovering in the sick birds coop. That left her with a very slight limp, so she was named Koutsi, which means limp, or the one who limps in Greek. Probably the same night she broke her wing. I never noticed, because there isn't room to fly, and she held her wing fine. One year later when it had healed, she'd moved coops, tried to fly on the roost in front of me and failed. I picked her up (after struggling to catch her) and found her wing problem. She spent the rest of the days flightless and slightly limp. She passed away at 3 and a half some days agoView attachment 3610015

Aww she was gorgeous! She lived a happy life with you even if it wasn’t as long as some others have birdies.

 

[fluffycrow]

Aww she was gorgeous! She lived a happy life with you even if it wasn’t as long as some others have birdies.

Thank you! I hope she did. Her life was relatively long for an ISA brown, unfortunately

 

[NuggetMama]

I think I've mentioned I had a disable chicken before but I never felt there was anywhere in particular that was suited to discussion about her, or if there was anyone even interested in talking about her
I think I'm also a little hesitant to talk about her in case someone tells me she'd be better off dead.
I don't mind a thread but also like the idea of at least a subforum.
Thanks to the staff for doing this thread though and keeping a list of links!

I’d love to hear about your baby! I have my boy , Rugby, who is blind in one eye from a genetic problem that caused him to get injured and a huge abscess to almost take the side of his face.

We can talk little raptors c:

 

[triciayoung]

Hello all my chicken friends!! I was honestly surprised there was no community for people with disabled animals. People come up with the most clever ways to help and these tips and tricks need to be shared. If nothing else, a place for these people to go to find support. I loved the idea about the aquarium filter to add noise to help her hen find the water by sound. Amazing!! I recently had a hen get attacked by a fox. Fortunately, shes alive, but cant run or jump or scratch. Shes tryin' her best, so I will too. I came on ByC yesterday looking for some advice and was disenchanted at the lack of 'chicken with disability' topics. This featured poll is perfect! I felt so much better after reading everyones story. It feels good when your 'not alone'. Some of you are AMaZINg. Hats off to all the people that go above and beyond to help all their friends.
View attachment 3611816

You are amazing also. Well done and your post is well said.

 

[JewelBirds]

I have a blind Golden Laced Wyandotte hen, Blue. She is 6 years old currently.

She has been blind since she was a chick (from at least 6 weeks, when I first noticed something was off). Not sure if she hatched that way or lost her sight sometime after that. Her flockmates helped her find her food and water (by the noises they made eating and drinking).

When they moved from their brooder to the coop, I helped Blue find her food and water by simulating the noises her flockmates made (tapping the food, splashing the water) and calling her name (she knows and recognizes her name). After that, it was just a matter of keeping an eye on her to make sure she continued to eat and drink, make sure her flockmates weren't picking on her too much, etc.

I also made a roost lower to the ground so that she could roost at night (she uses it half of the time, sometimes just preferring to sleep on the ground). I keep the food and water in about the same place so she can easily find them each time, close to the roost, which she walks along and eats and drinks from sometimes.

She spends most of her time in the coop, but she comes out a few times. I'll bring her out in the grass and sunshine to sunbathe once a week, sometimes more, while I keep an eye on her. I have dirt inside the coop so that she can dustbathe if she wants, which she does every so often (maybe once or twice a month).

 

[triciayoung]

I have a mostly blind hen. She's a total sweet heart, and I think the blindness came from being in a hatchery box where 60% of the chicks died before they got to me.

She lives in my sectioned off chicken coop and run (it was my original chicken home until we built the massive coop we have now). She has hens in there with her, as the pen she's in is also my chickens-that-need-something-special pen... And I have a few hens with rooster wear, and I'm feeding them more protein than the rest of the flock gets.

I call the blind chicken eyebright, and she runs into my legs everytime I go into that run, as I tend to hand feed her treats, so I can make sure she gets some.

I have a duckling (3ish months old) with a puff on the back of it's head. It's not supposed to be a crested duck, but that's kind if what the puff looks like. The puff developed suddenly, and doesn't seem to have affected anything... But I'm keeping an eye on it.

Other than that, I have a couple of roosters with crooked toes that don't really seem to affect how they live, and a couple of hens that have bumblefoot right now... Which I don't think really count for this thread.

What a great idea to have a separate safe area for your chickens needing more care. Thank you for caring for them - All of God's creatures are important.

 

[triciayoung]

I have a blind Golden Laced Wyandotte hen, Blue. She is 6 years old currently.
View attachment 3611376
She has been blind since she was a chick (from at least 6 weeks, when I first noticed something was off). Not sure if she hatched that way or lost her sight sometime after that. Her flockmates helped her find her food and water (by the noises they made eating and drinking).

When they moved from their brooder to the coop, I helped Blue find her food and water by simulating the noises her flockmates made (tapping the food, splashing the water) and calling her name (she knows and recognizes her name). After that, it was just a matter of keeping an eye on her to make sure she continued to eat and drink, make sure her flockmates weren't picking on her too much, etc.

I also made a roost lower to the ground so that she could roost at night (she uses it half of the time, sometimes just preferring to sleep on the ground). I keep the food and water in about the same place so she can easily find them each time, close to the roost, which she walks along and eats and drinks from sometimes.

She spends most of her time in the coop, but she comes out a few times. I'll bring her out in the grass and sunshine to sunbathe once a week, sometimes more, while I keep an eye

Thank you for the extra work you do to give her the best life possible. I know it is a lot of work, but somehow God gives us the energy to do it. She is very beautiful.