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Another update on these two birds: both are finally nearing completion of their molts (I hope anyway). Both became very start-stop-start about it again for unknown reasons since my last post. No signs of worms this time. Then, offset by about 2 weeks, they each had some kind of catastrophic metobolic shutdown that required special care: inability to maintain body temperature (shivering and hypotheria symptoms at 50F ambient temp), inability to digest food properly, and eventually refusal to eat/drink resulting in dehydration. They both had extreme and rapid weight loss that, this time, seemed to have nothing to do with worms based on DIY fecal float and zero evidence of proglottids. I worry whenever a hen drops >20% body weight in a molt and these two went >30% for weight loss at the worst, dropping over a half pound in a mere few days at the time I intervened. Some of that rapid loss was dehydration-related, but not all. Feather mites are also ruled out with inspection by microscope.
Hobbit in particular got dangerously dehydrated to the point I was worried she could actually die, and I had to aggressively pipette water to her. These "shutdown" events lasted a few days and then concluded with a nearly full-body feather push including ditching some of the older "new" feathers. Now the chicken and the egg issue: is this final feather push a stress-induced molt from the metabolic issue, or a metabolic issue caused by the buildup of the big feather push? I have no way to know, but it's bad either way.
Both birds bounced back very rapidly once the new feathers were formed and just poking out, they started eating and drinking normally. I had to do a mix of keeping them inside 24/7 and keeping them in just at night based on ambient temps, trying to make sure they still got some social time with the flock when possible. Both are now putting weight back on slowly. Worms were definitely a complicating factor earlier, but I now really have to think there is just something genetic at hand here.
Here they are, still scratty with the new set of feathers coming in but no hen saddles needed anymore. Raven is the one on the bottom; full set of head feathers now, which is much better than her previous turkin-like look.
There is one other reason I suspect a strong genetic factor now. I have one other bird in which I have seen this kind of catastrophic metabolic issue during a molt, and she is from the same batch of "olive eggers" - she is just striped and lays dark brown speckled eggs rather than olive. And I wasn't thinking of her earlier because she actually did do her molt in the winter, it was just awful. In Feb this year, she did her first annual molt and had to be either tucked inside my jacket or sitting on a heat mat for several days while indoors at 68F. At the time, I attributed her issue to picking an extraordinarily dangerous time to be naked (my area saw max humidity -20F that month!). However, now I'm more suspicious of what was behind her metabolic issues indoors given two of her same-hatchery cohort have just done the same thing at much warmer temps.
Meanwhile, all of my other birds old enough to be molting are somewhere in the process, whether near the start or finishing up, and it's been pretty uneventful for them.
Hobbit in particular got dangerously dehydrated to the point I was worried she could actually die, and I had to aggressively pipette water to her. These "shutdown" events lasted a few days and then concluded with a nearly full-body feather push including ditching some of the older "new" feathers. Now the chicken and the egg issue: is this final feather push a stress-induced molt from the metabolic issue, or a metabolic issue caused by the buildup of the big feather push? I have no way to know, but it's bad either way.
Both birds bounced back very rapidly once the new feathers were formed and just poking out, they started eating and drinking normally. I had to do a mix of keeping them inside 24/7 and keeping them in just at night based on ambient temps, trying to make sure they still got some social time with the flock when possible. Both are now putting weight back on slowly. Worms were definitely a complicating factor earlier, but I now really have to think there is just something genetic at hand here.
Here they are, still scratty with the new set of feathers coming in but no hen saddles needed anymore. Raven is the one on the bottom; full set of head feathers now, which is much better than her previous turkin-like look.
There is one other reason I suspect a strong genetic factor now. I have one other bird in which I have seen this kind of catastrophic metabolic issue during a molt, and she is from the same batch of "olive eggers" - she is just striped and lays dark brown speckled eggs rather than olive. And I wasn't thinking of her earlier because she actually did do her molt in the winter, it was just awful. In Feb this year, she did her first annual molt and had to be either tucked inside my jacket or sitting on a heat mat for several days while indoors at 68F. At the time, I attributed her issue to picking an extraordinarily dangerous time to be naked (my area saw max humidity -20F that month!). However, now I'm more suspicious of what was behind her metabolic issues indoors given two of her same-hatchery cohort have just done the same thing at much warmer temps.
Meanwhile, all of my other birds old enough to be molting are somewhere in the process, whether near the start or finishing up, and it's been pretty uneventful for them.
