Questions for those of you with "special needs" chickens

[chickenannie]

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My special needs hen is soooooo much better in an entirely separate coop on her own to heal. Even though she was in a cage within the others' coop at first to protect her from them, I think she is much more relaxed now that they are nowhere near.

Nella, I'm so sorry you lost your special needs girl.

 

[Happy Chooks]

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My special needs hen is soooooo much better in an entirely separate coop on her own to heal. Even though she was in a cage within the others' coop at first to protect her from them, I think she is much more relaxed now that they are nowhere near.

Nella, I'm so sorry you lost your special needs girl.

Yes, my guy is relaxed now. He still "talks" to the others, but he knows he's safe from them now in his little coop. And I go talk to him and he comes over to me. I guess he knows I protected him. What made me take him out, was his eyes. I could see how terrified he was.

In a few weeks he'll have some 6 week olds for company. He's so timid, I think he will be fine with them. (but I'll be keeping a close eye)

 

[bibliophile birds]

got the Silkies in with Madeline day before last. it was pouring rain so i kept the whole flock up for the morning and just popped the Silkies in. since it wasn't bedtime and the rest of the flock was right there, they settled down fine. i let the flock out in the afternoon and the Silkies remained calm. when i went to close everyone up for the night, Madeline and the Silkies were piled up together in the hay looking cozy and content.

i've left them in with her since then and things are going well. i feel a little bad that they can't go out in the run with the others, but they don't seem too bothered. if it doesn't start raining this afternoon i think i'm going to let everyone out to free range a bit and see how Madeline fairs since someone said that worked for them.

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Yay! Madeline has some friends!

I hope it goes as well for me when I add my babies in with Mr. Snuggles.

 

[chicken boy sam]

I looked on pet-finder and found this chicken. It's name is Lola and it has skin conditions. Is it hard to take care of special need chickens?

 

[bibliophile birds]

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it completely depends on what the "special needs" are and what your set up is. skin conditions don't sound too ominous to me, maybe just some treatments. if she can behave as a normal chicken and integrate into the flock, it probably wouldn't be too much trouble. most of us that are struggling are having trouble with the integration part of that equation.

good luck!

 

[bibliophile birds]

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i hope so too. i hate to see them so sad and lonely. he'll probably love being the Big Man for a change!

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I have a special needs d'uccle. She has a bad leg, but she gets around pretty good despite that. She seems to have no pain, so it's just a matter of keeping her in a safe enviorment. Some chickens seem to sense her weakness, and try to kill her. One of my chickens is her pal and lets her lean on her for balance. She is in a pen with 4 other birds her size. They are not agressive to her or each other, so it works out fine. She does not lay eggs. Whatever caused the leg deformity might be related to her eggless state. She is a super friendly little chicken though, and a favorite with children who visit my home.

 

[jojo54]

I had two lame GSL girls Lulu and Lucy who were born the end of June. I don't know how they got lame because we didn't notice any limps when the girls were young. They were part of a flock of 31 GSL that we got as day-olds.

During the summer, we noticed that Lulu and Lucy limped and were noticably smaller and weaker than the others. We built them a little run of their own and feed them extras to fatten them up as well as vitamins, etc. Both of them improved and got stronger.

We put them with the other girls and they seemed to do fine. Lucy barely limped at all and put on weight and started looking more normal. Lulu, on the other hand was still scrawny and limped and stayed by herself. She just hid under the trees alone.

We decided to remove Lulu from the flock when we saw other chickens picking on her and not letting her near the waterer or food. We have a box for her to sleep in the garage and she spent most of the winter in the house. She had a blanket and basket in the corner of the kitchen where she stayed most of the time. We fed her extra food, treats, warm meals, etc. and she started looking better. She started walking around more and her limp was less noticeable. She walks funny because she lifts her feet high or else she steps on her toes and stumbles.

When the weather was nicer we would let Lulu outside in the front yard away from the others. She enjoyed wandering around eating, etc. and would hop/fly/jump up the back stairs when she wanted back in the house.

One day after the other chickens started laying, I just got a feeling that Lulu was getting ready to lay because she was acting different. We made her a nestbox and put it in the closet. She did lay an egg that day much to our excitement. Since then she has been laying 4 - 5 eggs a week.

She has been staying outside almost all day but comes back in to lay her egg. We leave the gate open so she can go in the back yard or the front. She started hanging around the chicken run so we have been letting her in with the others. So far, we have not been too successful with intergration as she gets picked on by everyone. She says for awhile, then we take her out before she gets hurt. She seems happy wandering on her own and she is friendly and talkative to us but she also wants in with the big girls. We will keep trying as it would be easier to have them all together.

She is a real sweetie and we feel blessed to have her in our family. We have had many laughs and lots of affection from out little Lulu.

 

[NellaBean]

I didn't read through the whole thread so not sure if someone posted about it....does anyone here have a blind chicken? Or a partially blind chicken?

I had a leghorn cross pullet who came up with a swollen disgusting thing going on one day....half her head was all swollen with dried blood all over it. Her eye was all gooey and gross and she as acting oddly. I have no idea what happened. I did have two pullets who missed night lockup a day or two prior.....it is possible she was one of them.

Either way I had to separate her after she spent all day just huddled next to the fence and the older birds (including my gimpy broken legged bird) would run over and beat her up. She got to where she would just stick her head through the fence and stand there getting whooped. So I stuck her in my brooder shed in the garage and over the next few days she improved. The swelling and ooey gooeyness went away, leaving her with a very obviously 'blind eye'.

I put her back out with the flock once she 'looked' normal, however she has never really started acting normal again. She still spends lots of time huddled up and away from the rest of the flock. She is normal sized, appears to eat and drink fine. She was thin after the initial injury/recovery, but now looks normal.

She does see out of her other eye. Any idea what I should do to help her?