peahen acting odd

chicknmania

Free Ranging
17 Years
Jan 26, 2007
6,293
1,825
582
central Ohio
Hello, we have a 5 year old IB hen. Last week, she (we think) went broody outside. She has never gone broody outside before, but we could not find her anywhere for three days, and she'd been acting broody before she disappeared. During the three days and nights she was gone, we had very cool weather...in the low 70's to high 60's during the day, and low 60's to high 50's at night, with frequent storms and torrential downpours, or just steady rain, a LOT, during those three days and nights. The fourth morning, (this past Friday) she showed up, honking and begging to come in and have breakfast. She seemed fine, just damp, and was acting a little tired, and was very hungry. Yesterday she acted normal, except not quite as active. She ate normally. Today, she has been acting very tired...not lethargic, exactly, but...lying down for most of the day, and did not eat breakfast. I tried to tempt her with dry catfood (this is her favorite treat) and she wouldn't touch it. I decided to add Poultry B & K vitamins to the water, and I'm pretty sure she drank some. This evening, she was roosting before I fed the flock dinner, which is normal. She got down, and ate.. acted hungry, but only ate for a few minutes, and then acted odd...her head very upright. her tail towards the ground, like a penguin. Again, she wouldn't touch any treats. I have not been able to catch her yet, she is not very tame. I wondered about worms, but we deworm quarterly; alternating dewormers, and the flock was just dewormed with Levasol in mid April; their last dose was April 22. The rest of the flock is acting normally. We have always dewormed quarterly, and she has never had a problem with worms before. What concerns me is the odd posture, and she seems weak. Could she be egg bound? She free ranges and is usually pretty active. Her head feather is straight up, (not droopy) and she is not dragging or drooping her wings. Her eyes are bright and she acts fairly alert.

I should probably add that she's been under some stress for a period of weeks, she lost her friend, our other peahen, to sudden death in April, and she quit eating well back then for a couple of days and was obviously missing her friend. We got a new peahen to keep her company, but they have not really bonded well; the new hen is dominant.
 
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If I can catch her today I might just get her off to a vet. I am worried as last night after dark I couldn't find her though I know she is inside somewhere..she was there when I fed and closed them up for the night
 

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