What are the effects of loneliness on a separate chicken?

[ALJhappychicken]

After returning from a long vacation, we found ourself with a mite-infested chicken coop. We have 15 hens and no roosters. We found our smallest hen, a golden campine bantam, I believe, hiding in a nesting box. She was the scraggliest out of all of our birds. We isolated her and gave all of our birds a wood ash bath. (I've heard that that helps kill the mites.) She's been in a roomyish cage in our garage for the last three days and now she's hardly eating her chicken food! Any tips to get her to eat?

 

[keesmom]

Have you tried feeding some scrambled or hard boiled egg? You can also try giving her some Nutri-Drench or Poly-Vi-Sol without iron baby vitamins. Keep checking her to make sure the mites are actually gone.

 

[bigredshaverhen]

poor chicken! I have tried to get a chicken to eat by gently opening their beak and popping small bits of food in there, sounds a bit cruel eh?
But it works, and my advice is small kind of hard digestible food. And as for water, all u need is a large tub of water, and whenever u can, even more cruel sounding, (but it works!) gently hold her beak open and dip her head in the way a chicken would to drink, and as you bring her head up she should swallow. If this does not work, use a syringe and slowly a bit at a time squirt water into her beak.....

Hope this helps! Keep me posted

 

[CrazyChickGirl]

I think that if she has to be alone, she should be near other chickens/ animals or humans. And I don't know if you have access to daylight in your garage (mine is a dark hole) but she needs regular daylight hours. We have an injured Roo that has been living in our house for weeks now. We try to hang out near him so he doesn't get too lonely and I make sure to open the shade wide after we have woken up. Still, he makes sad sounds sometimes. But he is eating. I'm hoping to let him place outside a bit and do his chicken thing soon... He's almost recovered.

 

[ALJhappychicken]

Thanks. I gave her some attention today and trimmed her nails. (they were REALLY long). I've tried feeding her scrambled eggs and she ate it up. Can she live off of egg for now if she won't eat?

 

[EastTXChickens]

She may be anemic from the blood sucking mites. I'd offer some ground beef.

 

[ALJhappychicken]

She may be anemic from the blood sucking mites. I'd offer some ground beef.

Wow! I had no idea that ground beef could help her. Why would that help? I wonder if we have any...

 

[ALJhappychicken]

Well, I tried to put my poor hen back with her flock. We threw Scratch out for the 14 birds and put my little hen in. For about one minute she was fine, although she was shaking and staying away from her family. Then, she ran into the coop and I heard screaming. She ran outside and I grabbed her. Poor thing was shaking. Oh dear.

 

[bigredshaverhen]

The other chickens might not remember her... That is probably why she is not accepted, and I have heard of people painting their chickens blue so they don't get picked on... But I'm not sure if it will work. Is she normally very bossy? If not it might be good to give her a young chicken friend. Sometimes if you leave your chicken away from other chickens for to long they can kind of forget what they are and think of other birds as threats or enemies. Good luck!

 

[keesmom]

Can you put the cage in the coop? Leave her in it for a couple of days so the rest of the flock can get used to seeing her again without being able to hurt her.