honkhonkbeep
Chirping
- Sep 7, 2021
- 23
- 46
- 69
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 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.