that-orpington-life
In the Brooder
Hi everyone, I live in western NC and I'm still relatively new and inexperienced at chicken keeping. We have 8 chickens, all about a year old - 4 spangled orpingtons and 4 smaller ones that I'm not 100% sure what the breed are. The unknown breed ones we got a few months ago from someone who couldn't keep them anymore because he had become homeless. They're 1 rooster and 3 hens, all of them siblings. The original clutch size was 11 and all but these 4 died not long after hatching, if I remember correctly. Anyway, one of the hens we "rescued" had her foot crushed by her mom by accident when she was just a week or so old, and since the previous owner didn't do anything about it, it totally deformed her foot and she is unable to walk on it. She can briefly support her weight on it and use it as a crutch to hop on her other foot with, but it has no function and it generally just drags behind her. Her toes are curled in on it. She does have some feeling in the leg and foot, and the foot will respond to pain and touch (she can jerk it away but it is weak), and it has good blood circulation, but she is unable to climb on anything or roost at night because of it. She tries to use it to scratch her beak with sometimes, but obviously it doesn't work, so she just scrapes her beak on the ground instead. She's able to get around enough to get to food and water on her own, which is a good thing.
What I worry about is that her siblings were absolutely brutal with her. They were constantly pecking at her and about a third of her feathers were picked bare when I decided to separate her from them. They had also pecked at her paralyzed foot and she lost a toe. Thank goodness it didn't get infected. Now she's in a pen separated from her siblings so she can get some peace, and I set up a bucket with some hay for her to sleep in since she can't roost. I also worry about her hygiene because she can't seem to be able to dust bathe and right now she's basically coated in a thin layer of dried mud. She's scared to death of me until I catch her. I'd like to know what you all think about which health problems I need to look out for with her and if it might be a good idea to try to bathe her in water to get the mud off.
What I worry about is that her siblings were absolutely brutal with her. They were constantly pecking at her and about a third of her feathers were picked bare when I decided to separate her from them. They had also pecked at her paralyzed foot and she lost a toe. Thank goodness it didn't get infected. Now she's in a pen separated from her siblings so she can get some peace, and I set up a bucket with some hay for her to sleep in since she can't roost. I also worry about her hygiene because she can't seem to be able to dust bathe and right now she's basically coated in a thin layer of dried mud. She's scared to death of me until I catch her. I'd like to know what you all think about which health problems I need to look out for with her and if it might be a good idea to try to bathe her in water to get the mud off.