Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

[Amanda McCleary]

Good evening everyone,
I had a hen named Hatti and she was a Rhode Island Red....She had a crooked leg and manage to live out her days here.....Her other leg finally gave out....Is there any way to fix crooked legs?

 

[chicks are life]

Splints mabey.

 

[Minutiae Manor]

I have a beautiful Australorp mix hen that one of my hens hatched out. She was perfectly healthy up until about 4 or 5 months of age. She all the sudden would only walk on one foot and the other one she miserably drug behind her. She had always been a more wild hen but suddenly let me hold her and carry her around, as if she was sick of hobbling around on this leg! She became so sweet! I took her to the vet a few days later and he said that her nerves in that leg had been damaged and she would most likely never be able to walk again.... I was so sad for her, so carry her around I did! A few months later I walked outside one day and she was WALKING! With both legs! Like she did as a chick! I was so happy and you could tell she was too! Today she is still walking around happy and normal, just this time at a friend's farm with some new friends

 

[Amanda McCleary]

I have a beautiful Australorp mix hen that one of my hens hatched out. She was perfectly healthy up until about 4 or 5 months of age. She all the sudden would only walk on one foot and the other one she miserably drug behind her. She had always been a more wild hen but suddenly let me hold her and carry her around, as if she was sick of hobbling around on this leg! She became so sweet! I took her to the vet a few days later and he said that her nerves in that leg had been damaged and she would most likely never be able to walk again.... I was so sad for her, so carry her around I did! A few months later I walked outside one day and she was WALKING! With both legs! Like she did as a chick! I was so happy and you could tell she was too! Today she is still walking around happy and normal, just this time at a friend's farm with some new friends

That is awesome....wish I could have saved Haddie

 

[Abriana]

My chick USED to be a special needs chick. I was picking up bedding at a local farm store and heard distress and pain peeps coming from a row of raised white boxes that the chicks are kept in. I walked over and saw two baby chicks getting their eyes pecked. I told the people who worked there and they simply took them out of one box and put them in another. I explained that they were still being pecked, so the man took them out again and put them in a carrying box. He said he would wait and see how they were. I offered to take them both, but for free. He handed them right over. I took them both home and when i got there I was super happy to see their eyes were open. I assumed that they were blind. I put food and water in their box, showed them where it was, and then i had something to do so I left the house for about three or four hours. When i came back, i was relieved to see them both eating and drinking and walking around. I named them Hope and Faith. I noticed that when i put meal worms in their box, Faith only halfheartedly picked at them while Hope ran around scratching for them and actively eating. She didn't eat as much and seemed to have no energy. Sadly, that Saturday, six days after i brought them home, she died. I got two wyandotte chicks for Hope named Coral and Blossom. I had to put medicine in Hope's eyes everyday, and it turns out she wasn't blind at all. She and her sisters are the best of friends now. they are always together and just began laying. I am so happy that both chicks were able to have a second chance at life!

 

[Talithahorse]

I have a special needs Rooster who is a Partridge Rock Cross. When he was about 1/2 grown he missed curfew one night and was attacked by a fox. He is completely blind but the sweetest thing. We call him Nick after Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter. He lives in a small coop with some elderly silkies and an easter egger who is kind enough to let him court her. I do have to make sure he goes to coop each night and I give him some individualized feeding time in an easy to find bowl while I do the rest of my chores. He starts chortling when he hears my voice.

 

[Abriana]

I have a special needs Rooster who is a Partridge Rock Cross. When he was about 1/2 grown he missed curfew one night and was attacked by a fox. He is completely blind but the sweetest thing. We call him Nick after Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter. He lives in a small coop with some elderly silkies and an easter egger who is kind enough to let him court her. I do have to make sure he goes to coop each night and I give him some individualized feeding time in an easy to find bowl while I do the rest of my chores. He starts chortling when he hears my voice.

so sweet!!!

 

[MagpieDucks]

My chick USED to be a special needs chick. I was picking up bedding at a local farm store and heard distress and pain peeps coming from a row of raised white boxes that the chicks are kept in. I walked over and saw two baby chicks getting their eyes pecked. I told the people who worked there and they simply took them out of one box and put them in another. I explained that they were still being pecked, so the man took them out again and put them in a carrying box. He said he would wait and see how they were. I offered to take them both, but for free. He handed them right over. I took them both home and when i got there I was super happy to see their eyes were open. I assumed that they were blind. I put food and water in their box, showed them where it was, and then i had something to do so I left the house for about three or four hours. When i came back, i was relieved to see them both eating and drinking and walking around. I named them Hope and Faith. I noticed that when i put meal worms in their box, Faith only halfheartedly picked at them while Hope ran around scratching for them and actively eating. She didn't eat as much and seemed to have no energy. Sadly, that Saturday, six days after i brought them home, she died. I got two wyandotte chicks for Hope named Coral and Blossom. I had to put medicine in Hope's eyes everyday, and it turns out she wasn't blind at all. She and her sisters are the best of friends now. they are always together and just began laying. I am so happy that both chicks were able to have a second chance at life!

Nice story!

 

[Revan]

We had a little hen years ago when I was still a kid. A Rhode Island Red. I named her Brownie. She was a healthy chick, but when they were about 2 weeks old, when I came home from school, she had somehow managed to break a leg. Pretty badly too, the foot was just about turned all the way around, facing backwards. We (my family) tried splinting it, but she and the 5 other chicks we had kept pecking it apart, so we eventually gave up.

My biological father said she would die, but Brownie surprised us all when she didn't, and not only that, became our best layer out of the 6 chickens we had at that time. Laid an egg almost every day. Big eggs too, given her size (she stayed pretty small for her breed, I think due to the broken leg as a chick). Brownie also had powerful wings. She did not walk very well at all, but she sure could flap her wings and propel herself where she wanted to go. We once even found her on TOP of the chicken coop! Five feet up in the air and could only guess that she flew up there.

Things happened and we ended up having to find homes for them all, and found an elderly woman and her husband who took them all and added them to their already existing flock. They apparently had this rooster who the hens all bullied, so he never had any chicks (they told us they suspected he was sterile), but when Brownie was introduced, he bonded right away with her and followed her everywhere. Brownie apparently became the head of the flock, no one picked on her (or him any more after she came along). She ended up being the last hen of the six to die, and the rooster died two days after she did. Just up and stopped eating and drinking after she died. I would call that true love I think.

 

[ChickNanny13]

We had a little hen years ago when I was still a kid. A Rhode Island Red. I named her Brownie. She was a healthy chick, but when they were about 2 weeks old, when I came home from school, she had somehow managed to break a leg. Pretty badly too, the foot was just about turned all the way around, facing backwards. We (my family) tried splinting it, but she and the 5 other chicks we had kept pecking it apart, so we eventually gave up.

My biological father said she would die, but Brownie surprised us all when she didn't, and not only that, became our best layer out of the 6 chickens we had at that time. Laid an egg almost every day. Big eggs too, given her size (she stayed pretty small for her breed, I think due to the broken leg as a chick). Brownie also had powerful wings. She did not walk very well at all, but she sure could flap her wings and propel herself where she wanted to go. We once even found her on TOP of the chicken coop! Five feet up in the air and could only guess that she flew up there.

Things happened and we ended up having to find homes for them all, and found an elderly woman and her husband who took them all and added them to their already existing flock. They apparently had this rooster who the hens all bullied, so he never had any chicks (they told us they suspected he was sterile), but when Brownie was introduced, he bonded right away with her and followed her everywhere. Brownie apparently became the head of the flock, no one picked on her (or him any more after she came along). She ended up being the last hen of the six to die, and the rooster died two days after she did. Just up and stopped eating and drinking after she died. I would call that true love I think.

A sad "love story", the Roo probably died missing his girl