Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

[Bonniebooboo]

Just thought I would update on my broken leg hen. It has been 6 weeks since she broke her leg. She is doing well and is about ready to rejoin the flock. She has been laying eggs for the past 3 weeks even with the leg injury. She had stopped for the 1st 3 weeks and has laid an egg nearly every day since. here are some pictures. She is using her leg a lot now.
This has been a nice thread to see and read what others have gone through. I have learned a lot of things on this web site that I would not have known otherwise.

 

[RescueMum]

My rescue girls have had had their beaks ground down. They are unable to eat anything solid as they have no point to break it apart. I’ve been pureeing their veggies, feeding them a mixed grain as they are not laying due to malt and giving them protein. I was also told to give them calcium so have been mixing a bit of yoghurt with their veggies. Is there a better way I could be building them up?

 

[MaeM]

Special needs chicken is a term that reminds me of my beautiful Milka.

I was around 12 years old. My hand-raised, chocolate-colored hen had woken up paralyzed and couldn't stand up.

I insisted to take her to the vet, which was super crazy at the time ("who goes to the vet for a chicken?"). Actually, I was the only one with a bird in a waiting room full of cats and dogs, and people looked at me weirdly, lol.

The vet didn't know what she had because he wasn't even a bird specialist, so he said that he would take her to the city to perform some tests on her. The chicken got blood tests, X-rays (he thought she could've broken her hips), etc.

The vet went back after a weekend with the news that she had had Mareks. He explained to us that she would never recover and the best solution was to cull her, which I immediately refused to do. (He said it wasn't contagious, maybe it stops being contagious? and this was just an aftereffect of the infection? IDK. No other birds were infected, maybe it wasn't even Mareks in the end).

Anyway, he tried to explain to me that she would NEVER EVER get back on her feet and all of what that implied. I promised to take care of her to the last of her days, and I did so.

She didn't last long after that, only a few weeks, and perhaps I was being cruel unintentionally, but I gave it all for that hen, and I like to think that she was... fine? even with her limitations, I did everything I could for her adaptation.

I took her out to the sun every day, I placed her nearby her friends when they were dust bathing (she could dust bathe although with more limited movements). She was a cuddly chicken, so I cuddled with her; I fed her by hand, I found a more appropriate waterer for her condition...

I remember I gave her a lot of nutritive foods to help her "gather strength" (maybe I was waiting for a miracle?) and her favorite treats to make her happy. I remember being so frustrated because soon she didn't even look sick at all, she just couldn't stand up.

After failing to improvise a wheelchair for her, somehow I taught her how to slither...? And man, poor hen, but she really had a will to live and she quickly learned to go places that way, of course, she was slow and covered only short distances, but at least she could reach her special waterer, her feeder, and her nearest favorite spots on her own, and she managed to live a few more weeks with her flock.

She died peacefully in her sleep.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

@Silkie Princess

 

[Silkie Princess]

@Silkie Princess

Thanks for the tag, Pippin! I will send Crookies story later

 

[Show Sebright]

The not so special needs (anymore) chick

Dumpling couldn’t walk while she was a baby and she wouldn’t let us help here. We feed her and have her water for 2 weeks then one day she got up. It was a great moment. I would try to teach her to walk every day. She was such a good girl and I am so happy that I got her to walk. She became more dominant then the rooster she lives with. When she was introduced to her mom she jumped on her. She grew strong and healthy.

 

[-Kiwi-]

I have a year old Dominique hen Hawk who I think has Ocular Mareks. She's always been a little slow, and always squinted with one eye. Over this summer she slowed down more and mostly slept quietly in the shade.
A couple months ago her pupil in her squinted eye turned into a pinpoint and she can't see in that eye anymore. She gets around pretty well, she'll occasionally trips over things. And whenever I pick her up she panics and squawks and flails because she didn't see me coming. Luckily she has her best friend Breakfast to look after her. Breakfast walks on Hawk's bad side to make sure she doesn't get hurt.
Hawk still goes to sleep much earlier than the rest of the flock, and I'm a little worried that a hawk will get her one day since she would have a harder time seeing it coming. But she's happy, and I would hate to put her in a cage by herself where she can't scratch or see her flock.

 

[Meri Maura]

I have a Buff Orpington named Lizzie who is blind in one eye. She was always weak willed against roosters, and we had a scare before i set up the "rehab" enclosure. This time, she was actually blinded. It was the dominant enclosure hen, Midnight, who occasionaly mounts the other hens in rehab. Lizzie lives permanately in the rehab area with her sister, Lila, who has been with her for 5 years. She is one of my favorite hens.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

We had a "special needs" pullet named Kimmie. She was an Olive Egger that was born with a curved in foot. Unfortunately we were too late in trying to correct it since it had been fixable. She lived up until close to laying age and then died of overheating.

During her short life, she managed to teach herself how to hop to get places which worked well for her. Luckily, only our older hens picked on her but since at the time I did timed free ranging for each flock, they weren't ever out with her.

You can see her for a few seconds in this video:

Here she is with a few youngsters:

 

[Sammster]

I don't have a special needs chicken. But for quiet reasons, I love that so many of you love your special needs chickens