Precious..the blind Barred Rock hen

[Saaniya]

I have one particular Barred Rock hen named Precious. She is, we think, mostly blind. We got her from TSC with 3 other Rocks, one of which we named Paris, but is probably Perry. Everything was going well, but after a few days, I started noticing something was not right with Precious. She wasn't quite as active as the others, and often was found standing in a corner, staring at a wall. I also noticed that she walked very slowly, and would often walk into things. Through more observation, and some vision testing, it became obvious that she, at the very least, sees very poorly. We have observed her eating and drinking from the feeder and waterer, so she does not require any personal attention to help her eat. In fact, she is gaining weight just as quickly as the others in our new brooder. Her brooder mates consist of three other Barred Rocks, two RIR, and two Buff Orpingtons.

Precious is now 19 days old, and continues to grow. She is getting along with everyone, but doesn't always participate in all of their crazy antics in the brooder. The others are extremely active, flying everywhere, chasing each other, scratching through the bedding..etc. Precious can often be found near them, trying to be part of the activities, but often failing because she just can't see what they are doing. She does scratch in the bedding, she does manage to get into the little pan I setup for them with dirt for dust bathing, and I have seen her dust bathe in there herself.

I'm sharing this story, because I want to document her life. As a family, we decided against culling her, just because of her vision issues. She is precious in more than just a name. She deserves a chance at a good life, and that is something we want to give her.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, as we take this journey in caring for a special needs chicken. But, we are excited for her, as she is managing to do things.

Here she is as of a week ago. I will get an update picture in the next day or so.
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SSuch a beauty my all love for her she's so cute

 

[Waves]

@Twizzler your avatar is identical to a feral cat that often comes to my home! i called her "Ceffa"!

excuse me for the ot

 

[Twizzler]

@Twizzler your avatar is identical to a feral cat that often comes to my home! i called her "Ceffa"!

excuse me for the ot

That’s my sweet baby Kiki! She showed up on the doorstep one day asking for food and love. I couldn’t turn her away. I’ve had her seven years now! ❤ Also excuse my ot lol

 

[BY Bob]

I have a blind Barred Rock names Blinky! I raised her from a little baby! She now lays eggs and will be a year old at the end of August! I love her dearly

What a cutie!

 

[vantain]

Precious had a great weekend, despite a few incidents with one of my older hens. I started integration this week, and fully let them mingle on Saturday, while I was out there doing finishing touches on the new run's hardware cloth, and some rock mulch around the perimeter. Initially, Gwyneth, the mean Isa Brown, kept going after Precious, pecking her into a frightened mess. She was shaking, and trying to burrow under the coop to get away from the relentless mean girl. I had to intervene several times. Finally, I decide that I was done with Gwyneth's antics. I remembered that I had bought pinless peepers back in January, when one of my older girls was molting, and Gwyneth and Daisy were pecking her. So..on went the peepers, and Gwyneth has become a lot more manageable. You can read about that story here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/integration-oddities-or-normal-behavior.1383969/

My other hen, Daisy, has just become a perfectly sweet mother hen to all 8 of the littles. She follows them around all day, showing them where the food and water is, preening with them, dust bathing with them, cuddling with them, and napping with them. It has been an incredible thing to witness. This WAS my horrible, no good, angry at the world, pecking monster hen. The hen I thought would murder the littles at the first opportunity. WHAT HAPPENED! This is NOT the same hen as before. I have been quite shocked at the transformation with her.

She is also extremely kind and caring for Precious. They were all just laying around on the ground yesterday afternoon, enjoying the sunshine. Precious, being blind, was pecking at Daisy. She kept pecking at and grabbing her comb and wattles, and Daisy just sat there allowing it. Precious sometimes just pecks at and grabs things she shouldn't, because she doesn't always know what it is. At the feeder, she sometimes pecks the other chicks heads, if they are in her path from beak to feeder, since she can't see them. Seeing Daisy take the pecks and not peck back was so gentle and affirming. She's a keeper, even if I feel like she was mysteriously replaced overnight. The one thing Daisy doesn't do, so far, is protect her "babies" from Gwyneth. I do wish she did. But, the peeper are doing the job, so I will just live with that for the time being. Hopefully she will learn her manners within a week or two, and I can remove them.

 

[vantain]

I watched the coop cam last night to see how Precious has been getting up to the roost, which is 23” off the floor. The ledge of the poop board is 18”, so she has to get to that first. It was a bit heartbreaking. She made several attempts to get up there, but just didn’t have the trajectory right, and would crash to the floor. She finally made it, but I knew I had to do something to help. The big girls side of the coop has a ramp, but they rarely use it. I moved it over to the littles side for Precious to use. I hope it helps. Will watch to tonight.

 

[jsr5]

She may need gentle help and coaching the first few times. They are capable of learning but not so good at figuring stuff out on their own she won't be able to see the others use if they even do. Hope she gets it she will be miserable all alone all night.

 

[vantain]

She got up to the roost via the ramp! It only took her two tries to get it figured out. She walks up the ramp slowly, feeling her way with her feet. The first time, she walked off the edge. The second time she was more careful, and made it up there. Yay!

 

[WhoDatChick]

She got up to the roost via the ramp! It only took her two tries to get it figured out. She walks up the ramp slowly, feeling her way with her feet. The first time, she walked off the edge. The second time she was more careful, and made it up there. Yay!

So happy for her! A video would be great!

 

[jsr5]

Awesome apparently what she wasn't given in eyesight she got in mad problem solving skills. I would not have thought she would manage so easily. So glad she did.