The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

I just want to say that I'm reading these but I don't have any other advice. I'm hoping someone may have more to say.

ETA: I'm wishing a good outcome for you both. (Kian and TeriO)

X's 2.

that both hens get better.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Del - you said you planted oregano. When I look at oregano seeds, there are several different kinds ...is it just plain Italian Oregano?

Also...it seems there are several varieties of kale...do you use a specific kind?

 

[Mumsy]

This seems to be a bad day for hens all around. I have a pullet that is sister to Judy the Broody. She is not doing well either. She is the last of my four pullets to lay. Johnny covered her for two weeks. Her comb never did get really red but she goes in the nest and just stands there, tail down and looking depressed.

Today, she looks really bad. She is eating and drinking but can't or won't keep up with the flock. Still no egg. Still standing for hours in the nest. Her poo has yellow in it.

I never put much hope in this pullet as a layer. She has a severely pinched tail. I've made the decision to put her down tomorrow and salvage her as a meal for my family. If she can't even lay her first egg without this kind of problem, she is not worth keeping in my flock. Sad, but this is the reality of it. I don't have advice for those with hens with these kinds of distress's. I personally can't afford to keep this pullet if she can't produce even one egg. I have fed and cared for her for four months. She will be honored and valued by feeding my family.

 

[pigeonguy]

I need some advice please.

I have a 25 week old pullet, the one a few posts back that I think laid the shelless egg, and she is having some issue with her vent. It's not prolapsed, it's protruding. Well, the top is protruding, not the 'pucker' part. When you see it from the side it looks like an egg is starting to come out (in fact that is what I thought was happening as I saw her on the way to the nest box LOL). There is a LOT of dried poop there, and the vent is closing around it. I have soaked her twice for close to an hour each time. I have picked off as much of the poop as I can, while soaking her. I cannot, however, get it all, no matter what. I've peeled and pulled and she's torn and bled from it (not a lot and always under the warm water). We're on about day 4 or 5 here. I've applied Vaseline and the vent has pulled some of that in. I've been applying coconut oil solid to it in the hopes that not only would it lube up and soften the whole shebang but also for it's medicinal properties. I'm pretty darn sure there must be an egg or two even blocking up in there, not to mention poop that can't get out.

She can poop, but, when she does she makes a sort of turkey sounding cry and she does cry a little. Sometimes she'll actually poop then, sometimes not. Never very much. She ate some kale two days ago, and pooped within a half an hour of eating it and it was the color of the kale. In fact I checked to make sure it *wasn't* kale, but it wasn't and it's obviously gotta pass through. Yesterday after the soak she pooped a good amount, it was a little watery but not much (she swallowed a bit of the soapy bath water-- I had these foaming medicinal baths in the water, hoping it'd relax her muscles enough to expel and hopefully fix this). She didn't cry at that time.

She is eating very very well. She will win when I toss treats out (grapes yesterday, spinach today). She is actively going for food and drinking water. She is roosting. She periodically goes and stands in the nest box. (her comb, wattles and face are SO RED that I fear she's gonna burst into flame. She's redder than my layers!). She is moving a bit slower today than she has been, rather like I expect her too.

I have soaked, I have picked, I have applied, I have massaged, I have prayed. I do not know what else to do. I hate to cull her when she's otherwise being so chicken-y, but yet I do not want her suffering, nor do I want to (please, hopefully) fix this and have it happen again and again.

Any advice?

ETA: literally as I hit submit I heard her turkey cry again. Went out to check and found two good (better) sized poops right under her. Dark green with white, normal looking. She cried again and pooped a little one, the same color.

Kian,

This sounds just like my Orp who had egg binding and once I helped the egg broke inside of her and she had an infection from it. She was swollen in the vent area, and had a hard time pooping. Just like you are describing. She WAS pooping and eating and drinking, so I thought she would be fine. Unfortunately she wasn't. She was just not showing the extent of her infection to us. One night I had Dylan close up, and he didn't know to check on her for me. The next morning she was under the car in the barn (there was a car stored in there at one time) dead.

If it were me, I would either put her down. Laying problems are very painful for the hens. I wish I had of put Olive down before she had to suffer like she did..

Good luck. It does not sound good to me though...

I have not dealt with an egg bound chicken yet but have read a lot about it on here. If it were me and I didn't want to put it down. I would put on thin latex gloves (the ones sold for medical things) and put Vaseline on 1 finger and go up there and feel around (Gently and slowly) If there is an egg in there you will feel it at that point I would make sure I got a good amount of the Vaseline around it and then wait and see. Make sure you don't break it if it is not already broken .Other than that I don't have a clue.

 

[TeriO]

I can do that. What about some oil orally also? She hasbeen laying great since oct. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Bulldogma]

This seems to be a bad day for hens all around. I have a pullet that is sister to Judy the Broody. She is not doing well either. She is the last of my four pullets to lay. Johnny covered her for two weeks. Her comb never did get really red but she goes in the nest and just stands there, tail down and looking depressed.

Today, she looks really bad. She is eating and drinking but can't or won't keep up with the flock. Still no egg. Still standing for hours in the nest. Her poo has yellow in it.

I never put much hope in this pullet as a layer. She has a severely pinched tail. I've made the decision to put her down tomorrow and salvage her as a meal for my family. If she can't even lay her first egg without this kind of problem, she is not worth keeping in my flock. Sad, but this is the reality of it. I don't have advice for those with hens with these kinds of distress's. I personally can't afford to keep this pullet if she can't produce even one egg. I have fed and cared for her for four months. She will be honored and valued by feeding my family.

Sorry about the pullet, but you'll be doing the right thing by culling her if her first egg is causing such an issue... it certainly does not bode well for future laying, poor thing.

Hugs!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Momma left the kiddos for the first time on the floor by themselves tonight as she went back to the roost. 11 weeks old. It's a very cold night.

I may have caused that because I rearranged things in there yesterday so her corner didn't look the same yesterday evening and today. Maybe I should have left things the way they were. I had added a short roost for the kiddos just in case she wanted to move them up on something higher.

 

[Mumsy]

Sorry about the pullet, but you'll be doing the right thing by culling her if her first egg is causing such an issue... it certainly does not bode well for future laying, poor thing.

Hugs!

She is in the stock pot as I write this. I could not have waited one day more. This pullet was so messed up inside, it was a kindness to end all suffering now. Her ovum was such a state, I could barely recognize it as such. Her keel was crooked, her organs weren't even the right color. I will post necropsy pictures as I get them sorted and identified. This pullet was filled with fat and mass on the insides and had no fat or muscle on the outside. My husband remarked on seeing her processed out, "Not much for the soup pot with this one." As an eight month old pullet, she was a real cull. No doubt about it.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:

 

[delisha]

Del - you said you planted oregano. When I look at oregano seeds, there are several different kinds ...is it just plain Italian Oregano?

Also...it seems there are several varieties of kale...do you use a specific kind?

Yes..Plain Italian Oregano and Vulgare



I use Red Russian Kale and Lacinato Kale.