Silkie-Small and gets lost a lot :(

[Juliechickens]

Hi All, my favorite precious white silkie is my smallest bird of 25. She is so precious but I worry about her. I check on here about 5 times a day to make sure she is safe in the yard with the other birds. She is 5 months old and smaller than normal. I have found her lots of times at night when I go to lock the hen house up,,,all the other birds have gone in for the night but "Baby"., I named her,,,sometimes is lost in the woods. My yard is completely fenced but it is wooded. Today it was storming rain and I thought I might go check on her,,,this time she was behind the coop getting drenched and I guess could not figure out how to get in. I'm beginning to wonder if Baby is blind...? Any thoughts on this? She eats normally and functions normally otherwise. She has always been a little slower than the others too. I hatched her along with my other birds. She is precious and I bring her inside a lot to let her sit in my rocking chair. She loves this. I guess the air condition feels good to her in the Memphis summer heat. One more weird thing about her....it seems her vent for some reason always gets poop stuck all around it. I sometimes have to give her bottom a bath which she doesn't mind with warm water. She seems to have more skin than feathers back there. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Julie

 

[wren]

To test for blindness throw a clean cotton ball at her eye. Be careful not to make a noise when you throw, and stand on one side of the bird.

 

[DoctorGoose]

My Tiberius is like this too. She's always three steps behind the other chickens--and never runs with the flock. She's a runt too. She relies on her best buddy, our Silkie roo, for everything.

 

[Chicki_Pooh]

That's how my 'Chicken Little' was and still is sometimes. She was the runt, and very timid. The other chicks would sometimes peck at her, but not hard enough to harm her, and she'd just sit & take it. She was always the last out of the coop & the last to go inside the coop at night. I would often find her behind the coop crying b/c she was alone. I'd have to lead her back to the coop, or put her in myself. I sometimes took her inside to hang out w/ me & give her attention when the other chicks weren't being so nice. I've noticed in the past 3 weeks or so that she's started asserting herself a lot more. She'll at least jump in when it's feeding time instead of standing in the back waiting for her turn, etc. She's just as big as the others now & I noticed that they don't exclude her as much. While she's still a bit aloof at times, she's gotten a lot better about keeping w/ the flock & not getting lost as often.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Julie, being a silkie, do her feathers obscure her eyes at all?

 

[silkiechicken]

I bet she can't see. I avoid large crests for this reason and do clipping when they get in the way.

 

[lurky]

I have 4 7 week old silkies. All 4 huddle together in the rain. We put a tarp out there but we have had too much rain. I have to put them to bed at night too. A few times they went in on their own.....but OMG!!!!! I doubt all 4 are blind so it must be all looks and no brains. Did i say that out loud???

LOL