Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

[MegD1015]

My fiancé and I are newbies with our first flock of babies! We have a mix of silkies, RIR, and Easter eggers. One of our silkies, HeiHei (from Moana), I’m pretty sure is special needs. At just a week old we treated her for splay leg and she recovered just fine. We noticed she wasn’t growing as quick as our other silkies so we separated her and got her some new baby friends. They also quickly started outgrowing her. We noticed one day when she was about 3 weeks old that she was walking around with a crooked neck (one eye looking up to the ceiling) and walking in circles. Nothing severe but decided to give her some extra vitamins just in case. Now when she gets nervous she walks backwards with her head to the ground and neck turned upward. She is now separated from the others because they were starting to peck her. She’s getting a lot of one on one attention in the house and has gotten used to me sitting next to her. She now “purrs” when I talk to her. She breaks my heart because I don’t want her to suffer but she’s eating and drinking and seems to be happy! She’s an odd little bird but I love her!

 

[african chickens]

very helpful showed me what to expect i am being daring and hatching the weirdest eggs from our guinea hen eggs from weird colors to wrinkles to a weird circle