Speckled Sussex. About 10 weeks, tell me it’s not a roo

[asteria819]

My little SS also has neurological issues. She is 2 now but was really slow to develope, didn't lay eggs until she was a year old. Now she kind of has a head tilt and looses her balance when she scratches around. We love her lots and she is very sweet, gives me about 5 eggs per week.

Oh wow!! Interesting! I wonder if it is common in this breed. Her issues started out with her neck twisting (like wry neck) but then progressed to her being completely limp in just a day and thought she was going to die. We thought it was Marek’s and so did the vet, but I decided to provide supportive care and tube feed her and she very slowly but surely got better. She has a little bit of residual effects from it because her aim is a bit off when she tries to peck around and eat but she makes do . Love the Sussex’s, such spunky little breeds!!

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Pullet!

 

[Feath3rDust3r]

Funny...we had a speckled Sussex who we called dizzy. She would run in tight circles for hours. She was a very sweet girl and laid fine... but obviously it was a nurological thing. It started when she was a week or 2 old and Carried on. It did get less as she got older... but even as a old girl she'd occasionally start her chasing the tail again!

 

[chickenE]

Lovely birds

 

[moniquem]

Funny...we had a speckled Sussex who we called dizzy. She would run in tight circles for hours. She was a very sweet girl and laid fine... but obviously it was a nurological thing. It started when she was a week or 2 old and Carried on. It did get less as she got older... but even as a old girl she'd occasionally start her chasing the tail again!

That is funny! We named her Rocket because as a chick she would just bolt around the brooder in circles. At the entrance to the mamma heating pad we set up she would just run back and forth then she would just collapse in exhaustion.

On a side note we re-homed a barred rock that started tormenting her when they were all about 5 months or so (I got 4 chicks in the spring of 18). I thought it was just establishing the pecking order but I just couldn't take the bullying of her. Now my 3 all get along fine.

Here she is...you can even see her head tilt in this photo.

 

[kath19t]

I also had a speckled sussex that we thought may have been a rooster. We have two speckled sussex and one of their combs was bigger and redder and her tail was longer. So, we suspected she may have been a rooster. She wasn’t thankfully.

 

[Johnny17]

100% pullet.
She's really impressive!

 

[plutond]

I have one like this too, I ordered 2 female speckled sussex and one has very little comb and wattle and nice rounded tail feathers and the other has big comb and wattle and somewhat pointy tail feathers and is 14 wks now and no crowing like the roos I know I have at same age (different breeds). I too am hoping at some point I get an egg from her. She acts like a hen too.

 

[BDutch]

I have one like this too, I ordered 2 female speckled sussex and one has very little comb and wattle and nice rounded tail feathers and the other has big comb and wattle and somewhat pointy tail feathers and is 14 wks now and no crowing like the roos I know I have at same age (different breeds). I too am hoping at some point I get an egg from her. She acts like a hen too.

If you post a few photo’s, of the head and the feathers, some folks here can tell. Many cockerels start crowing later.