Rooster's main lady is ill, should I add more hens?

[honkhonkbeep]

Hey all, I've got a somewhat complicated dynamic here... and apologies for the wall of text.

So I have three chickens: 1 Easter Egger roo (Plum), an Easter Egger hen (Custard), and an Ayam Cemani hen (Aubrey). Plum was one of those "totally a pullet, 100% a lady, trust me bro" situations, but he's a great rooster: protective, caring with the hens, not overly frisky. And that's really fortunate, because he only mates with Custard. Aubrey is about 1/3 his size and will have none of his advances.

Custard laid a lash egg awhile ago, and the vet found that she'd eaten a piece of metal that was severely elevating her zinc levels. The only course of action the vet gave me was to drive her across the state for surgery to remove the piece of metal - chelation wasn't mentioned at all, and she didn't give me any more information about the shape or location of the metal, so I'm not sure if it's impassable. Unfortunately this is a treatment that I can't afford, and please believe me when I say that I will beg, borrow and steal to provide for my babies, so "I can't afford it" literally translates to "maxing out my credit cards and being late on rent wouldn't be enough".

She hasn't laid an egg since. Aubrey also stopped laying long before Custard did, but she's older than her, and Cemanis are known to be terrible layers. I'm eyeballing her just in case, but she seems completely healthy and isn't straining or attempting to lay at all.

Still, Custard improved. She put on some weight, had normal poops and normal behavior: no neurological issues, no pupil stuff, no balance problems, nothing indicating hardware disease. In fact, everything seemed fine up until about two weeks ago. She started dropping weight again and her poop was okay, but a little more watery than usual, which I chalked up to my zealous hydration of my flock during this crazy Southeastern heat wave we've been having. Just in case, I dewormed her (Equimax and Safeguard), upped the probiotics for everybody and supplemented both girls with calcium.

About a week ago, Custard stopped roosting with the other two. She had vent gleet, which I treated her for, including epsom salt baths to wash away the poopy mess. Her appetite was low, which I'm sure the heat only exacerbated, so I started hand-feeding her: Nutri-drench, mash, scrambled eggs, lean ground beef, frozen diced vegetables, Greek yogurt, Rooster Booster... anything to make sure her crop felt good, she was hydrated, and getting vitamins. She perked up a little bit, but there was no change in her weight or behavior.

And then, last night, when I did my nightly vent/crop/belly/keel checks, I saw that Custard had a bloody wound above her vent and smelled awful. It's fly strike. I immediately brought her into the house and gave her another bath, got some of the maggots out... but she was in so much pain, and so weak, and so thin, and she kept pooping out urates and what may-or-may-not-be egg white/yolk. I'm not positive on that last part because watery poop is watery poop, but it did smell kinda eggy to me. It wasn't bright yellow or super viscous or anything, however. Her belly was not swollen or soft. She is so, so thin, you guys, it hurts my heart to think about it.

She wouldn't let me get near her with tweezers for the manual removal of the maggots. I could barely get her to let me lift her feathers to take a look at her vent; I had to use my phone and a flashlight to catch a video of the issue to diagnose it. So after her bath, I called the emergency vet, set her up in a playpen in my living room, and made an appointment for this morning. I'm honestly surprised that she made it through the night. It looked like she stood up the entire time and kept trying to poop. I'm not sure if she's prolapsed or not because her backside is such a mess that I couldn't get a close-up for, beyond seeing the maggots.

I brought her to the vet this morning, and they're going to keep her over the next two days to treat the fly strike, give her antibiotics and pain medication, treat her probable anemia and dehydration, and take care of the wound. They're also running a CBC to try to figure out what the underlying cause of this infection is. Vet says she isn't eggbound, and so far she's not showing symptoms of heavy metal poisoning; they're confused about where this wound came from, but I'm thinking it's probably from the flies burrowing. I personally suspect EYP is the underlying condition, because ever since that first lash egg a few months back, nothing else seems to make sense. She's passed tiny rubbery bits of eggshell occasionally, which I've always responded to with a calcium + D3 regimen, and nothing has helped. But she's with the vet now receiving all the care and attention she needs, so I'm trying not to freak out.

(And doing a terrible job, btw. I'm a mess. I know y'all understand. I love this girl with my whole heart.)

Before this all happened, I was planning to adopt 2 more hens for Plum. Custard's vent never showed any signs of trauma until the fly strike (and I'm the weirdo who does vent checks literally every single day), and Plum isn't the horniest bird in the world, but it's a really bad ratio. I'm sure the stress doesn't help her mysterious string of issues. Now that this has happened... if Custard makes it through the next few days and responds to the vet's treatment, she's going to be staying in the house and laying low for awhile. And after she heals up enough to go back outside, she's going to need as little stress as possible.

So here's my actual question, with all of that messy context out of the way:

Do I add two hens now and start the introduction process, while Custard is MIA for the next while? The sooner I do this, the sooner Plum can stop harrassing my tiny Cemani, and hopefully settle himself into some kind of a dynamic with two other ladies. The downside is that I think this may make it harder on Custard to re-integrate, but then again, I have no idea.

Or do I wait until Custard is well enough to be re-integrated, and then add the two hens? Because it's going to be awhile, and I'm not sure how long Aubrey's gonna be able to hold Plum off. I don't want him to accidentally hurt her. She's fast and pecky and chases him off, but, y'know... roos gonna roo.

Thank you for reading this, I know it's a lot.

 

[FunClucks]

Hey all, I've got a somewhat complicated dynamic here... and apologies for the wall of text.

So I have three chickens: 1 Easter Egger roo (Plum), an Easter Egger hen (Custard), and an Ayam Cemani hen (Aubrey). Plum was one of those "totally a pullet, 100% a lady, trust me bro" situations, but he's a great rooster: protective, caring with the hens, not overly frisky. And that's really fortunate, because he only mates with Custard. Aubrey is about 1/3 his size and will have none of his advances.

Custard laid a lash egg awhile ago, and the vet found that she'd eaten a piece of metal that was severely elevating her zinc levels. The only course of action the vet gave me was to drive her across the state for surgery to remove the piece of metal - chelation wasn't mentioned at all, and she didn't give me any more information about the shape or location of the metal, so I'm not sure if it's impassable. Unfortunately this is a treatment that I can't afford, and please believe me when I say that I will beg, borrow and steal to provide for my babies, so "I can't afford it" literally translates to "maxing out my credit cards and being late on rent wouldn't be enough".

She hasn't laid an egg since. Aubrey also stopped laying long before Custard did, but she's older than her, and Cemanis are known to be terrible layers. I'm eyeballing her just in case, but she seems completely healthy and isn't straining or attempting to lay at all.

Still, Custard improved. She put on some weight, had normal poops and normal behavior: no neurological issues, no pupil stuff, no balance problems, nothing indicating hardware disease. In fact, everything seemed fine up until about two weeks ago. She started dropping weight again and her poop was okay, but a little more watery than usual, which I chalked up to my zealous hydration of my flock during this crazy Southeastern heat wave we've been having. Just in case, I dewormed her (Equimax and Safeguard), upped the probiotics for everybody and supplemented both girls with calcium.

About a week ago, Custard stopped roosting with the other two. She had vent gleet, which I treated her for, including epsom salt baths to wash away the poopy mess. Her appetite was low, which I'm sure the heat only exacerbated, so I started hand-feeding her: Nutri-drench, mash, scrambled eggs, lean ground beef, frozen diced vegetables, Greek yogurt, Rooster Booster... anything to make sure her crop felt good, she was hydrated, and getting vitamins. She perked up a little bit, but there was no change in her weight or behavior.

And then, last night, when I did my nightly vent/crop/belly/keel checks, I saw that Custard had a bloody wound above her vent and smelled awful. It's fly strike. I immediately brought her into the house and gave her another bath, got some of the maggots out... but she was in so much pain, and so weak, and so thin, and she kept pooping out urates and what may-or-may-not-be egg white/yolk. I'm not positive on that last part because watery poop is watery poop, but it did smell kinda eggy to me. It wasn't bright yellow or super viscous or anything, however. Her belly was not swollen or soft. She is so, so thin, you guys, it hurts my heart to think about it.

She wouldn't let me get near her with tweezers for the manual removal of the maggots. I could barely get her to let me lift her feathers to take a look at her vent; I had to use my phone and a flashlight to catch a video of the issue to diagnose it. So after her bath, I called the emergency vet, set her up in a playpen in my living room, and made an appointment for this morning. I'm honestly surprised that she made it through the night. It looked like she stood up the entire time and kept trying to poop. I'm not sure if she's prolapsed or not because her backside is such a mess that I couldn't get a close-up for, beyond seeing the maggots.

I brought her to the vet this morning, and they're going to keep her over the next two days to treat the fly strike, give her antibiotics and pain medication, treat her probable anemia and dehydration, and take care of the wound. They're also running a CBC to try to figure out what the underlying cause of this infection is. Vet says she isn't eggbound, and so far she's not showing symptoms of heavy metal poisoning; they're confused about where this wound came from, but I'm thinking it's probably from the flies burrowing. I personally suspect EYP is the underlying condition, because ever since that first lash egg a few months back, nothing else seems to make sense. She's passed tiny rubbery bits of eggshell occasionally, which I've always responded to with a calcium + D3 regimen, and nothing has helped. But she's with the vet now receiving all the care and attention she needs, so I'm trying not to freak out.

(And doing a terrible job, btw. I'm a mess. I know y'all understand. I love this girl with my whole heart.)

Before this all happened, I was planning to adopt 2 more hens for Plum. Custard's vent never showed any signs of trauma until the fly strike (and I'm the weirdo who does vent checks literally every single day), and Plum isn't the horniest bird in the world, but it's a really bad ratio. I'm sure the stress doesn't help her mysterious string of issues. Now that this has happened... if Custard makes it through the next few days and responds to the vet's treatment, she's going to be staying in the house and laying low for awhile. And after she heals up enough to go back outside, she's going to need as little stress as possible.

So here's my actual question, with all of that messy context out of the way:

Do I add two hens now and start the introduction process, while Custard is MIA for the next while? The sooner I do this, the sooner Plum can stop harrassing my tiny Cemani, and hopefully settle himself into some kind of a dynamic with two other ladies. The downside is that I think this may make it harder on Custard to re-integrate, but then again, I have no idea.

Or do I wait until Custard is well enough to be re-integrated, and then add the two hens? Because it's going to be awhile, and I'm not sure how long Aubrey's gonna be able to hold Plum off. I don't want him to accidentally hurt her. She's fast and pecky and chases him off, but, y'know... roos gonna roo.

Thank you for reading this, I know it's a lot.

So sorry you guys are going through this! What a difficult time! Sending you best wishes for your beloved hen. Sounds like she's getting the best care possible, and every effort is being made to help her heal and recover.

If you're going to introduce new hens, now would be a good time, I think. First though, make sure you have enough room in the coop and run. Recommendations are 4 sq ft per chicken in the coop and at least 10 square feet per chicken in the run. If you do the math and have space for two new chickens plus Custard when she gets back, then I'd say go for it. Definitely need more hens for that rooster.

I'd be cautious on where you source the hens though, and quarantine them for a few months to be sure they aren't bringing many diseases to your other two hens. You wouldn't want your new hens to bring in disease and the others get sick. Hens can carry things for life, so they may not obviously be sick. Some folks will only purchase day old chicks from hatcheries, and some folks only hatch eggs so they can minimize introduction of disease into their flocks.

Not sure if this is possible in your setup, but another option is to section off the coop/run with chicken wire so your rooster and hen can't get to each other. They will still be able to see each other and interact, just not mate. This works well for maintaining standing within the flock, and would give your small hen a break without either of them getting lonely.

If chicken wire doesn't work, you could get the biggest dog crate you can find and put that into your run, and put one of them into it during the day, so they can hang out, but not mate. My favorites are 4' long x33" wide.

Good luck figuring things out, and I hope your hen is better soon!

 

[bhawk-23]

How’s Custard? I hope she is recovering

 

[honkhonkbeep]

How’s Custard? I hope she is recovering

Aw... thank you so much for checking in on her.
Custard spent a week in the hospital, and passed away on her last day with them. She was pain-free from the moment she went to the vet. I miss her tremendously, every day, and so do Plum and Aubrey, although they've finally settled into a new routine, thankfully.

The vet said that she thinks it was either cancer or Marek's. She didn't have any distinct symptoms of either besides wasting away/malabsorption, and she wasn't backed up with lash eggs or any signs of an antiobiotic-responsive internal infection, which truly surprised me.

I miss her so much. I only had three chickens, and I raised Custard and her brother Plum from babies in my kitchen - my first birds ever. I tried everything I could to care for her and troubleshoot her health problems, but in the end, I don't think there's anything I could have done. On the one hand it's a relief to know that I didn't cause her condition and couldn't have prevented it, but on the other hand, I wish I could take away something from this that would help me protect my other babies.

I need to adopt at least two more hens for Plum and Aubrey, because Aubrey won't let him mate with her at all. It's a testament to his gentle nature that he hasn't hurt her! But I'm still so sad about my girl, I really don't want to. I'm so paranoid now about bringing in new diseases. I'm going to give it another week and then revisit it, because I need to do what's best for my two fluffy kids.

This forum is so supportive and wonderful. I'm truly grateful for everyone's kindness and experience! I wasn't able to save Custard, but I know without a doubt that I was able to give her the love, comfort and effort she deserved, and much of that is due to BYC teaching me a million things to research and a million things to try. :,) Big love to all y'all.

 

[FunClucks]

So sorry Custard didn't make it. At least you know you did everything you could, and her passing was pain-free. She had the best possible life with you.

Taking some time to mourn is a good and healthy thing. Don't feel bad if you need to do that for a bit before committing to new chickens. Your two babies can live on opposite sides of a fence for a while if needed, so they can get the space from each other they may need but still have companionship until you're ready to expand your flock.

No one will ever replace Custard, but new chickens can help you heal. They are such funny creatures!

Wishing you best of luck on your chicken journey!