Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

[DuckPro]

Me too...I miss her. She was a special bird. Here's another ride on the feels train for ya.

Melanie lived a long life too. 8 years- she was a year older than Victoria. She showed symptoms much like a human with post traumatic stress disorder and I think that is why she attacked my girl. After that, she was unable to integrate at all. I built a separate pen for her. I had her from a day old and she had been raised with a polish, and I think it was too much the poor thing to see another one. She saw the others in her flock die and when I found her hiding she looked shellshocked.

After a while, a rooster came into my life. He was mean. I loved him right away of course but he was a great big bird and nasty. I decided to try to integrate Mel again. She attacked him horribly. He got hurt and had to be pulled and needed recovery time. Every day I set him in a small pen by her cage so she could look at him, and once he was better and had grown bigger I introduced him again. She attacked him again but this time he attacked her back and they fought. This sounds terrible but bear with me. They went at it a while and I watched for injury while they sparred and I prayed that Mel could come to terms with Rex.

Finally. FINALLY. she did. They came to terms with eachother and ignored eachother. At first. Then over the years as I watched them, they slowly became more than reluctant fellows and gradually became friends. They lived together until she died.

STOPPPP!!!

 

[ChickNanny13]

No, Its like her head jerks to the side and her body follows. Its like a tic, an uncontrolled movement. I thought she might have wry neck, I tried poly visol, but it didn't change anything. Maybe she got pecked in the head or something as a chick.

The vitamin for wry neck is Vitamin E 400IU & Selenium 25mcg

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[andreanar]

The vitamin for wry neck is Vitamin E 400IU & Selenium 25mcg

Ill try it. Ill go get some today. Weve done the poly vi sol without iron, electrolytes, probiotics.

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

My special needs chicken was named "Carter All Struck Out" - my daughter who was 8 at the time named him . He started as an assisted hatch following a hen that abandoned the nest at day 18. A very nice EE took over and 2 chicks hatched fine; Carter was halfway out when I left for work...and no farther along when I got home. He was shrink-wrapped. When he was finally out, he could not stand. I didn't think he'd make it through the night, but I syringe fed him egg yolk-feed-yoghurt gruel and PolyViSol. He stood at day 3 but was down on his hocks. I made him a hobble. He stood upright by day 6. But I noticed he had cataracts and was blind. But his sweet EE momma took him back and we (she and I) taught him how to eat and drink with vocal cues and taps. He would eat and eat and eat until his crop was bulging!! My husband built him a special ground level coop and large fenced pen that he shared with a Dominique, a golden laced Wyandotte, and his sister (BCM). He followed his "sisters" by sound to the food and water. He would even forage with them when I let them out. At night I would pick him up and place him in his house with his sisters. Sometimes if it was already dark I would call to him "Carter?" and he would chuckle in reply so I could find him. Sadly, at about 6 months of age, he, 2 of his sisters, and 13 other birds were taken down by a predator in the night when we had ice on the electric fence and the coop door was accidentally left open Poor Carter, all struck out, indeed.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Ill try it. Ill go get some today. Weve done the poly vi sol without iron, electrolytes, probiotics.

Poly Visol without iron is for treating Riboflavin (Vitamin B) deficiency

 

[alexa009]

This is an awesome thread!

 

[AquaDuck]

One of the muscovy ducklings I hatched earlier this year had stunted growth. For the first two weeks, he literally did not grow! His siblings started getting really big and rowdy, and I worried about him.

Monitoring him I realized that he only ate food that was under water. I used to sprinkle some feed in their bath water for them to have fun with. Apparently, that's all he'd eaten for two weeks, even though they had a constant supply of dry stuff.
I started feeding him feed in a low tray of water, adding some juice and vitamins to begin with. He flourished and started growing immediately.

I gradually weaned him off the wet stuff since it was really messy, and now he eats dry food with the rest of them. He'll never catch up the two weeks of growth he missed out on to begin with, but he seems totally normal and happy.

 

[chicks are life]

Aw

 

[missy1971]

Was happy to see this thread! I have 2 special needs chickens..well 3 but my deaf sex link, Goldie, takes care of herself just fine! lol (Actually i think she is partially deaf and the other is just selective)
Anyway, Jane is a 12 week old Speckled Sussex, who developed scissor beak,started off not so bad but is pretty severe at this point. She is my little darlin' though. I feed her a chicken feed mush, sometimes with yogurt, sometimes without. She forges pretty good, and does her best to get dry feed out of the feeder. Her sister, Mary, watches her like a hawk, and never leaves her side!

I also have an Americana, Laverne, who has a tumor of some kind on her neck. she is about 13 or 14 weeks, of course smaller than her sister, but she seems to act just fine, runs around, eats and does everything the other chickens do, but with this weird tumor that makes her look like the hunchback of Notre Dame. I can pick her up and she just lays her head on my chest and closes her eyes. she is a sweetie. I've accepted the fact that I will probably lose her to this tumor, but as long as I see she is not in pain, she stays, and is part of the family!