Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

[sumi]

By request, I'm starting a topic of the week discussion this week for "special needs" chickens. The flock members with crooked beaks, foot and/or leg issues, the stunted chicks, the blind chickens. The birds that some chicken keepers want to give a chance at living regardless and the ups and downs and how to's of taking care of them.

I know that many chicken owners feel that birds that are in any way physically challenged should be humanely euthanized, while others feel they should live, provided they can have some quality of life. The purpose of this discussion is for the chicken keepers that fall into the latter category. So let's keep this thread and discussion positive and educational, please.

To get the discussion going, tell me about your special needs birds and how you take care of them, and how you provide and work around the basics such as housing and feeding them. I'll share my own story in the thread.

Pic by @sumi​

For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

 

[sumi]

This little pocket pooper was called Joy and she was, for the 5 months we had her. She was my special needs chicken. Joy hatched in 2011 from an abandoned broody hen nest, some time after I gave up on the eggs and should've discarded them. Broody-non-broody keeping the nest warm at night and the hot summer temperatures during the day seem to have been enough to keep this baby incubating, though she took a long, long time to put in an appearance. Imagine my shock and surprise them I found a pipped egg in there one evening, 2-3 weeks after giving up on the eggs… I'm not sure why I left the eggs where they were.

I let it hatch under a heat lamp and waited to see what happened. Perfectly normal, strong, happy little chick she was, but it didn't take long to realise she was stunted. She didn't grow nearly as fast as the other chicks we had, who soon outgrew her by miles. Since she was so tiny and motherless, we let her have the run of the house and everyone, chickens she came into contact with included, spoiled her and babied her. I remember our other young chickens, especially the pullets, calling her when they found a tasty treat, letting her have it. Crickets usually.

Joy suffered a stroke, for lack of better description, when she was 5 months old. And another soon after. She passed away shortly afterwards, peacefully and happy, happy right until the end. My last memory of her cheeping those little cheeps she did to let me know she's content.

.

Joy catching a ride


For a complete list of our topic of the week threads see here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive.72529/

 

[The Angry Hen]

Hello There,

What a wonderful thread! I believe...
Every chicken/adult chicken should have a chance.

He may not be "special needs"
but here is a story about my rooster...

2012 - 2017

Rusty, the Buff Orpington rooster.

Rusty was a very sweet rooster. He was the sweetest baby, (he did attack my leg once)... But he had issues. He had many strokes, he was infertile, his circulation was a wreck, he had no toe nails, his spurs were reeeeeeaaaallly long, no matter how much i cut them.

He never got to be a Dad, it was a very sad thing to experience. His one hen "Lucy" tried to go broody and took sick, she lived, but mad at him for not having babies.

He lost many of his hens. His meanest hen pecked at his tail, it was the smallest tail. His comb had frostbite... I considered him special needs.

But he sat on my Dad's lap, he followed us around. He did his first and foremost job, protecting his girls. He was special, he lived a life in pain... But he lived through it.

"Everyday above ground, is better than under."

I can't wait to see the stories on this thread, thank you for reading mine.
Wonderful story, @sumi, wonderful.

Sincerely,
The Angry Hen

 

[andreanar]

I'm not sure if one of my little Faverolles would be considered special needs, but something is really not right in her world! Shes approx. 14 weeks old we named Rosie, for ring around the rosie. She spins in circles. She is on the bottom of the pecking order and just a few days ago started joining the flock instead of staying by herself. She will be walking and then stops to do a spin or 2. She also does the spin before she starts walking anywhere. It looks like her head will jerk to the side and she just follows it into a spin. Shes been like this since we got her 5 weeks ago. Otherwise she is fine. She eats and drinks and is growing fine. Shes just special.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

Victoria.. oh I miss her so so much. Can't tell her story without Melanie.

I got her as a healthy and beautiful little hen after my flock was butchered by some sort of predator leaving only a RIR named Melanie behind. I rushed to find her company. A small cochin first, but I had to find my beloved polish ASAP and I soon did- Victoria and a beautiful cockerel named Alaric. I brought the pair home and they were lovely. Beautiful and healthy, they were perfect and I was so in love.

I carefully introduced them to my little flock. The cochins and Mel seemed alright and I watched them for a few days and there were no issues. I went to school monday though and came home to an utter bloodbath. Melanie had tried to kill Victoria. She was lying on the ground, her whole crest scalped off, her eye gouged open, blood from her beak. Couldn't get up. She was in shock. Alaric was bloodied too, clearly trying to protect his friend. Melanie seemed frantic and furious.

I was able to pull Victoria out of shock. It took hours. But she had suffered such trauma to her brain she could no longer walk or eat. Alaric stood over her fussing. I have never seen anything like what I witnessed with those two. For a few weeks I had to syringe feed her. But I swear to god that rooster not only helped teach her to eat, he taught her how to walk again. He stood next to her and walked leaning against her body and when she lost her balance she would fall on him and he would fuss and it was incredibly sweet. I would never believe someone who told me a chicken did that but I swear he did it.

Victoria was never quite the same. She relearned things but was always a bit funny. She lost her upper beak and had part of her eyelid gone, but she loved me so much. I would say her name and she'd wait to be picked up. Even with her special trouble she always laid big white eggs for me. I treasured those eggs.

Alaric lived another year and unfortunately passed from an injury. It was horrible for Victoria. She lived a long life, 8 years- she just passed away last month and she was my heart. I miss her very much.

Here they are together.

 

[itspebbl]

This is Georgia, our miracle chicken. She and her three broodmates were attacked when they were just a few weeks old, before they moved into the coop. One was killed, and the remaining three lost parts of their feet. Georgia was hurt the most, almost completely losing all the toes on one foot, and over half of each toe on the other. She gets along just fine without them though, and despite her disability and eventually losing all her broodmates, is at the top if the pecking order in our main flock.

 

[Watermelon123]

Hi all! Okay, not QUITE sure if It was my fault, but I have a rooster, Shouty, with a twisted beak. It's not to the point of scissor beak, we just need to watch and trim it regularly, so it doesn't get to that point.

Out of about two dozen eggs I incubated, only two hatched. With my luck, they were both male. Shouty however, up till about three months of age, looked like a hen. You could imagine our surprise when they BOTH started crowing.

Shouty has always been calm, much like a dog. He will give you hugs, will sleep with you, and he will even respond to you if you say something to him. Using this, it wasn't long until he learned a few tricks. He would jump onto my arm and come when called. My vet asked us if we considered making him a therapy chicken. Since then, we have been to schools, day camps, and hospitals with him.

A little more about shouty is that he sits on eggs? I don't question him, because he isn't bothering anyone (except the hens who are all unhappy about it). I think he just wants to be helpful...

 

[Brittany Proffitt]

I have a scissor beak chicken whom I absolutely love!! When he/she was a baby the beak was perfectly normal but as he grew his beak started to change. I was so worried, but the more I read the more I understood that this is very common in Easter Eggers. He doesn't need a lot of special attention, the food is raised up so that he can scope the food, but other than that he is the same as the rest just much much smaller.

He is one of my favorite chicks. He follows me everywhere I go, he doesn't mind if I pick him up and hold him, he is always by my side. I love the little guy.

 

[RodNTN]

My former hen "Rose", a Black sex link hen given to us by a friend. She was healthy some of her life.

She was attack by an opossum when she was only a year old, the opossum damaged her beak, wattles, and comb. So she lived with a scissored beak for the rest of her life. She survived egg yolk peritonitis.

And her last few months she had lots of trouble breathing, it wasn't a respiratory infection. She just had a very weak immune system. But she was a fighter and proved it. She was so sweet, and loved to be as loud as possible

I loved her very much

 

[crity]

I've told this story before. We took in 2 lovely rooster rescued from a fighting ring. They were young and had never been fought. When they came to live with us they took to caring for an old giant blind rooster we had. They would walk on either side of him, made sure he got to food and drink. Slept in a box in the chicken coop with him. When the old boy died the little roosters wouldn't leave him. We had to remove the body and bury him deep. They were so depressed for days they barely ate. We had to coax them with treats. Eventually they started to eat and get back to living. We have had many special needs chickens.