Precious..the blind Barred Rock hen

[Mucciolina Countryside]

OMG ! I just found this thread and went on a ‘binge reading’ of all your post about Precious, how wonderful!!!
Thank you for the heartwarming entertainment, especially these days...Your writing documenting her big adventure in this world is so well done and Precious is a very lucky and lovely girl
All the others are pretty too and Pari is handsome!!

 

[vantain]

Precious continues in her molt. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. She is like a pincushion. I have been a little concerned lately, as we have now have daytime temperatures well below freezing, and nighttime temps down below zero. Her neck is pretty bare, but the pin feathers are coming in quickly. As a result of the molt, she has not been laying, nor has she been eating very well. I have been feeding her separately from the others, to give her the best chance to get some good nourishment. She loves a wet mash, so I give her that about 45 minutes before she would normally go to roost with the others. Sometimes I add some scrambled egg. I wish her molt would end soon. I hate seeing her standing around looking so miserable, and unlike her normal self.

Other than that, she is doing fine...or at least I think so. Hers she is as of a couple of days ago.

 

[vantain]

Updated pictures of Precious. You can see the new growing pin feathers on her neck quite clearly now. Her appetite seems to be returning a bit. I have been giving her private dining of wetted mash in a yogurt cup every evening before roost time. She usually eats about a third of it. Tonight, she ate the entire thing with gusto. She has been molting for a couple of weeks now, so she has not been her normal self.

 

[vantain]

Also, I have been a bit fearful that she would be dunking her head in the fount waterer, or really, just dragging her wattles in the water as she drinks. But you can see from the recent photos, that her wattles are just fine. Some of the other pullets have that issue though, but so far, not Precious. She has that wonky comb though....

 

[aart]

Not unusual for a bird to go off feed and act a bit lethargic, at least for a few days, during molt. Glad to see she's perking back up.

 

[vantain]

Saw Precious taking a dust bath this morning. I haven’t seen her do that since she started molting. She must be feeling better! She’s the one in the hole by the door.

 

[vantain]

It’s been awhile. Precious has not been laying since her molt started back in December. That, along with the shorter days anyway. Her comb has been very dry looking, and very dull...until this morning!

Yesterday, I noticed Precious sitting all fluffed up, and acting a bit off, but it was short, and she was back to being her normal clumsy self.

This morning, I found her with a bright red comb, and she was very cheerful. Later in the day, she was strutting around squawking. I found a somewhat cylindrical egg in the nest. I’m sure it was hers. She also seems to be more sure of herself again.

With the longer days, I’m sure many of mine will resume laying.

Doesn’t Precious look fantastic? Her comb even survived the bitter -25F nights we have had, and very cold days. No frostbite that I can see. Some of the others with even bigger combs didn’t fare as well. My fears of her dunking her wattles in the fount waterer appear to also have been misplaced.

 

[black_cat]

It’s been awhile. Precious has not been laying since her molt started back in December. That, along with the shorter days anyway. Her comb has been very dry looking, and very dull...until this morning!

Yesterday, I noticed Precious sitting all fluffed up, and acting a bit off, but it was short, and she was back to being her normal clumsy self.

This morning, I found her with a bright red comb, and she was very cheerful. Later in the day, she was strutting around squawking. I found a somewhat cylindrical egg in the nest. I’m sure it was hers. She also seems to be more sure of herself again.

With the longer days, I’m sure many of mine will resume laying.

Doesn’t Precious look fantastic? Her comb even survived the bitter -25F nights we have had, and very cold days. No frostbite that I can see. Some of the others with even bigger combs didn’t fare as well. My fears of her dunking her wattles in the fount waterer appear to also have been misplaced.

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I'm so glad that she's doing so well!

 

[Chickensandhorsesforlife]

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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You are such a good person for helping her. You should be very proud of yourself. A blind chicken is a lot. most would just cull (I would never). When I say that i mean any blind bird, people cull because they think it is bad for them to live blind. In my opinion, She looks so cute and happy, so keep it up!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Wow look at her!!