Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Got two rosemary plants growing as well.View attachment 4159856

Looking good

 

[BDutch]

Here's some cute pictures from this week.
View attachment 4159892
Group selfie!
View attachment 4159893
I love the timing of Gentle's head shake.
View attachment 4159894
And the cochin americana chicks are all too precious

Amazing and weird photography / chickens.

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today. Warm and sticky.
Fret has got what many would describe as wry neck. There are associated problems.
Bear with me please. I've had a similar problem with another hen called Barking Bracket. For those of you who haven't read the thread I've linked it below. You will understand my reasoning better if you read the thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nuerological-or-something-else.1318208/

Fret was with the others when I opened the gate to the coop run. The other three came straight out but Fret just stood where she was. I reached down to give her arse a gentle tap to encourage her out and she threw her head back and rolled it around looking just like Bracket in the pictures in the linked thread. I didn't get a picture of Fret in this position. I picked her up immediately and then placed her back on the ground near the food trays.
She did attempt to eat but would lower her head so far but not far enough to reach the food. She did this a few times.

I wanted to see if she could walk okay so I ushered her up the extended run to where the others had gone. She could walk okay. However, once with the others she just stood still and when the others moved on, Fret stayed where she was not doing anything but at least not star gazing.
Fortunately I keep a 1ml syringe at the field along with a tub of rooster booster. I should really have a feeding tube and I'll see what I can get in the morning.
I made up a solution of water and two doses of rooster booster, got the syringe, loaded at nad went and got Fret.
It took some time but I got 30ml of the liquid into her; most of the rest went on my trousers and on Fret's chest.
I did it in three goes, a little at a time carefully syringed into her beak. I did a session,put her down and let her be for a while then went and got her and did it again.

By the end of the second session Fret's head reached the ground and she did eat a very small amount of food and some crushed walnut from the ground plus half a cooked prawn.

At the end of the third session she was alert enough to jump off my lap when I gave her a nudge and told that's it.

Once the syringe business was over Fret ate a small amount of mainly grit, grass and oyster shell and went and sat on the coop extension roost bar. Tull and Sylph joined her.

I have a treat call. I gave the call from the chair in the extended run and they all arrived at my feet, Fret looking almost normal but reluctant to defend what she held in her beak. I have mentioned in the past that Fret prefers to feed from the ground. She'll take from my hand then drop it on the ground and then eat it. She loses a lot of food to the others by doing this and today I had to lock the others back in the coop run while I gave Fret the best chance of eating in her preferred manner.

By the time it came to pre roost preening time Fret looked close to normal with full neck movement as far as I could tell.

Fret roosted as normal.

There are too many similarities with Bracket's and Fret's circumstances for me not to consider the cause to be similar.
Both were removed from their nests while they were broody.
Both were still doing broody things, like making I've found food chick calls even though they had no chicks.
Fret has been reluctant to venture far from home and this is what mums with chicks have been like for the first few days in y experience. The mums usually find a place that has good cover and sets up there with her chicks making forays further afield as the chicks mobility and size increases.
If one looks back in this thread it can be seen that Fret is quite a slim hen but since not being allowed to sit she is still puffed up as one might expect and broody hen to be when close to other creatures.
There are differences between the Bracket and Fret in this condition. Bracket from what I recall ate and drank as usual while Fret doesn't.
Bracket would puff up when approached but most of the time her feathers were at normal array.

Of course, one needs to have seen both Fret and Bracket over an extended period to understand better why I think this is something to do with the broody trigger not switching off, but it is what I think.
It may be that when being broody some chemical imbalance or neurological messages are not functioning properly.

My hope is that it is similar to Bracket's problem because Bracket recovered without vet care and some intensive care from me. If I'm wrong then Fret is in trouble and will eventually die if she won't/can't eat and drink well enough to support life.

I'm feeling very apprehensive about tomorrow.

 

[Molpet]

Three hours today. Warm and sticky.
Fret has got what many would describe as wry neck. There are associated problems.
Bear with me please. I've had a similar problem with another hen called Barking Bracket. For those of you who haven't read the thread I've linked it below. You will understand my reasoning better if you read the thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nuerological-or-something-else.1318208/

Fret was with the others when I opened the gate to the coop run. The other three came straight out but Fret just stood where she was. I reached down to give her arse a gentle tap to encourage her out and she threw her head back and rolled it around looking just like Bracket in the pictures in the linked thread. I didn't get a picture of Fret in this position. I picked her up immediately and then placed her back on the ground near the food trays.
She did attempt to eat but would lower her head so far but not far enough to reach the food. She did this a few times.

View attachment 4160124

I wanted to see if she could walk okay so I ushered her up the extended run to where the others had gone. She could walk okay. However, once with the others she just stood still and when the others moved on, Fret stayed where she was not doing anything but at least not star gazing.
Fortunately I keep a 1ml syringe at the field along with a tub of rooster booster. I should really have a feeding tube and I'll see what I can get in the morning.
I made up a solution of water and two doses of rooster booster, got the syringe, loaded at nad went and got Fret.
It took some time but I got 30ml of the liquid into her; most of the rest went on my trousers and on Fret's chest.
I did it in three goes, a little at a time carefully syringed into her beak. I did a session,put her down and let her be for a while then went and got her and did it again.

By the end of the second session Fret's head reached the ground and she did eat a very small amount of food and some crushed walnut from the ground plus half a cooked prawn.

At the end of the third session she was alert enough to jump off my lap when I gave her a nudge and told that's it.
View attachment 4160125

Once the syringe business was over Fret ate a small amount of mainly grit, grass and oyster shell and went and sat on the coop extension roost bar. Tull and Sylph joined her.
View attachment 4160126

I have a treat call. I gave the call from the chair in the extended run and they all arrived at my feet, Fret looking almost normal but reluctant to defend what she held in her beak. I have mentioned in the past that Fret prefers to feed from the ground. She'll take from my hand then drop it on the ground and then eat it. She loses a lot of food to the others by doing this and today I had to lock the others back in the coop run while I gave Fret the best chance of eating in her preferred manner.

By the time it came to pre roost preening time Fret looked close to normal with full neck movement as far as I could tell.
View attachment 4160127
View attachment 4160128

Fret roosted as normal.

View attachment 4160130

There are too many similarities with Bracket's and Fret's circumstances for me not to consider the cause to be similar.
Both were removed from their nests while they were broody.
Both were still doing broody things, like making I've found food chick calls even though they had no chicks.
Fret has been reluctant to venture far from home and this is what mums with chicks have been like for the first few days in y experience. The mums usually find a place that has good cover and sets up there with her chicks making forays further afield as the chicks mobility and size increases.
If one looks back in this thread it can be seen that Fret is quite a slim hen but since not being allowed to sit she is still puffed up as one might expect and broody hen to be when close to other creatures.
There are differences between the Bracket and Fret in this condition. Bracket from what I recall ate and drank as usual while Fret doesn't.
Bracket would puff up when approached but most of the time her feathers were at normal array.

Of course, one needs to have seen both Fret and Bracket over an extended period to understand better why I think this is something to do with the broody trigger not switching off, but it is what I think.
It may be that when being broody some chemical imbalance or neurological messages are not functioning properly.

My hope is that it is similar to Bracket's problem because Bracket recovered without vet care and some intensive care from me. If I'm wrong then Fret is in trouble and will eventually die if she won't/can't eat and drink well enough to support life.

I'm feeling very apprehensive about tomorrow.

Praying she snaps out of it.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Poor Fret, I’m so sorry.

I have no idea if chickens have similar vestibular (inner ear) conditions as humans, but I have something commonly called BPPV, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. This mouthful means benign: no scary evident cause; paroxysmal: comes out of nowhere and comes and goes, although mine is triggered by physical fatigue and emotional stress; positional: happens when my head is in a certain position (looking up and to the side, in my case; often called “top-shelf vertigo”); vertigo: your brain is telling you that up is this way, but your body is telling you that up is over there, and let’s see who wins this battle. If you’re watching closely, you can see my eyes rapidly beating left and right (nystagmus), making me look like a Kit-Kat Clock.

I have thrown myself out of bed when it first hits, because I’m convinced that I’m falling to the right, so I roll to the left (and down to the floor) to counteract.

It is a serious nuisance, initially with an LOT of nausea and interfering with driving and all, but it passes. Not as quickly as I might like.

Previous cats in my life have been hit with inner ear infections causing vertigo, resulting in them being placed on Valium. They all recovered, but it took a week or so.

that keeping her hydrated and fed for the next while will allow her to ride this through and recover. Poor sweetie, she’s been through a lot.

Edit to add: I’m still reading through the original neuro thread that you linked.

 

[no fly zone]

Hope Fret is going to be ok.

 

[fuzzi]

I read the thread on Bracket. Fascinating.

 

[BDutch]

Poor Fret, I’m so sorry.

Yes, I hope Shad’s Fret is getting well soon, and you too Mother of Chaos.

 

[Perris]

I think this is something to do with the broody trigger not switching off,

It may be that when being broody some chemical imbalance or neurological messages are not functioning properly

That makes sense.

We talk about some [internal] switch 'flipping' when hens go broody, and when they get broken from it; the broody trance is an abnormal sort of stasis, so there must be some physiological process behind it, which can get turned on, and off again. So a partial or total failure of that process must be possible.

I've also read occasionally about broody hens dying on the nest. Because sick hens may retreat to nest boxes and then be presumed broody rather than ill, there's lots of room for confusion over the causal factors at work in any given instance.

Hopefully your interventions will save Fret.

 

[kattabelly]

I love what you notice and how you write about it, and that thread on Bracket was really interesting.

I also hope Fret will get better. She's definitely in good hands.