Special needs chicken

[Ashllen]

She's acting like a small child avoiding her vegetables! Freya, my small feathered friend... eat your pellets! They're good for you!!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd focus on her eating the moistened pellets for the majority of the day.
Offer the egg, etc. as a treat.

She's been getting daily E and B-Complex right?

 

[Ashllen]

I'd focus on her eating the moistened pellets for the majority of the day.
Offer the egg, etc. as a treat.

She's been getting daily E and B-Complex right?

Yes! Every day, I give her a 1/4 b complex and a single pill of vit. E (400 IU) I hope it helps her, I agree with the mash being the main thing is the right way to go. I may have gotten lost down the rabbit hole that is this forum and next thing I know I got a giant plate of egg, egg shell, tuna, layer pellets, and bits of berry as a garnish... she picked around the pellets and I gave about 70% of it to her flock mates. So I went back to basics today and had more success!

 

[chooki]

Can you give your injured wyandotte poultry powder/dust massages? I do that to my chickens if I sense some blood sucking parasites on them - a little bit dust on the back, a bit under the wings, more around vent area. Massage the powder thoroughly into her feathers all over her body, a bit leg rubs, some head massage with the powder. It will keep the parasites away from your chicken for a while.

 

[Ashllen]

I'll give that a try! I do see her preen herself sometimes, so she is trying at least. How often show I give her a dust bath? Is it mandatory everyday? Or is every couple days alright?

 

[Ascholten]

Add enough water to the food, sometimes it takes a few minutes to fully absorb and add a little more food etc until you get the right consistancy. You want it like thick oatmeal. If it's too runny well it makes a mess, if it's not moist enough it still crumbles and they can be a bit picky but so that you can grab some like cookie dough and crunch it into a ball. mix ALL her food up into this concoction and feed. She won't eat dust? she will when it's part of the paste ! I do this with my regular feed because lately Dumor, the 40 lb bag, probably a quarter of it is powdered and busted, NOT happy with them at all lately.

Aaron

Once she is better, you leave this out, they will eat it too. Mine will get into bouts of picky eaterism, ok fine, you don't get fed today. Magically all that food dust they would never touch is now gone and crops are heavy. Gee I wunner where it went??

 

[Ashllen]

Lol, yeah I'm usually the same. I think my vet's diagnosis scared me a bit... he said if she doesn't gain weight then thats it, lights out for Freya. I figured it was opportunistic sister's that caused her to lose weight, but wasn't 100% certain. And I know weight can fluctuate but she had a decline for about a day or so. Which... did not help my keeping calm plan.

 

[Ashllen]

Man, I had a good scare last Saturday tho. I keep Freya in a dog kennel run during the day so she can touch grass and do her chicken thing but still let my year old yorkie/dachshund mix out to pee. Darcy doesn't stay out long and she is the type that needs a bathroom buddy with her still, but I had dishes piling and she refused to come back in (should have realized this was suspicious) and there's a window above the sink everything should be fine! Right?
I get halfway thru my dishes, take glance out the window... Darcy is in the kennel. I freak! Sprint outside soap suds dripping everywhere chanting don't be dead! (Neighbors probably think I'm nuts at this point) get to the run, Freya is in a corner head twisted up eye open, not moving. Grab my pup give her a stern bad dog and a swat to get her moving out of the run. Strange thing is she was chewing on the bird like an especially reactive chew toy she was off to the side... where I placed Freya's scrambled eggs. But still, not sure if my bird is still alive, so sure Darcy snapped her neck and moved on to a snack... except, after a loooong moment ... Freya blinked! A moment later she gets up! My baby girl was playing dead while my pup stole her food! Sigh... lost ten years of my life but everybody is fine.

 

[Ashllen]

*wasn't chewing

 

[Ashllen]

The reason Freya has a place in my bathroom is cause of this reason... it doesn't have a chicken wire bottom, it has bricks around to discourage my puppy from digging out (dachshund genes, am I right?) But when the puppy is trying to get in? Well if she is very determined and has 5 minutes unsupervised... she can move a half brick out of the way and dig in. I have corrected this flaw, and Darcy isn't allowed out unsupervised. Even made a sign for the door so my roommate won't let Darcy out as an act of kindness, unknowingly dooming my chicken.