who has special needs birds?

[McGoo]

Good luck with your gal.

I got my first 4 chickens as the outcome/surplus of a school project. .... and clearly one of them (Loretta) had been mis-handled. Her hip is mal-formed and she walks/runs on an angle and she's a little slow upstairs. She also seems to squawk a lot more when she has to lay an egg.. I think it might hurt her a bit.

And although she follows the other birds, she doesn't really socialize like they do. One good thing is that she's a big gal, so although she really doesn't understand the pecking order, everyone just leaves her to do her thing.

 

[the1much]

they will always pick "gimp" over "eaten" hehe

 

[minifarm8]

We have a 7 week old silkie that was pecked right behind his/her left eye 2 days ago. She can't move her left foot.... can move the wing and leg but the toes curl and she drags it along. Will probably always. She is living on our porch now with another chick with severely pecked (down to the tendons) wing. They are both eating and drinking and pooping normally so hope they will eventually heal. We have not witnessed either episode so don't know who is the culprit. All our chickens are between 6 and 7 weeks with plenty of room and food. We are scratching our heads.

My husband named them PC (Porch Chicken) and MAC (Mentally Aerated Chicken).

 

[erthymom2]

we have a "Gimp" girl - she's a RIR born May '08 with a claw foot/leg but gets around just fine on her other leg/foot and the help of her wings. She sits outside in her own crate on nice days, crawls into the bush bean plants and coos when i'm picking and likes to eat the bugs off of the tomatoes plants when i weed.
She's our house bird. Likes to fall asleep in her little pet bed on my side table when i'm working in my home office.

 

[gypsy2621]

I have a little Bantam Dominiquehen, i think, not old enough to tell yet.
I got her from a BYC member a few months ago along with a little Silkie
She was supposed to go to a friend who cares for injured/crippled animals but my 11 year old grandaughter wouldnt have it.

we kept her dispite her rear facing foot.
while the foot is useless she gets around rather well, never misses a meal, and snuggles with her Silkie friend.
S/He will even go so far as to attack the grain bucket demanding her feed lol.

When there is fight and attitude such as it has you have to give them free lease for life.

Come winter both the Silkie and the little crippled one will come inside and be a house pet.

 

[annaserv]

My blind old Ray(bantam white Cochin rooster) died this past summer, but everyone use to tease me about him. He lived 2 1/2 years in my woodworking shop, (I'm still finding his feathers in the corners) then moved into a shallow plastic box into our basement for another year. He rarely jumped out of his box in the basement and when he did we would hear him freaking out down there like he was wondering where he was. I had him right by my entrance door and just got use to him being there but when we would have someone stop by it never failed "You have a chicken in your basement!!" I'd just tell them what I read here "What's the difference between a chicken and a parrot in your house......about a $1000 dollars"
Many funny other stories about the poor boy. Wandering out into the rain, running into trees, bedding down for the night in the middle of the driveway,crowing whenever I started talking on the phone, surviving the bear dog attack. (he must have laid there like a lump and just lost a lot of feathers and was slobbered up)


Oh yes, I also have a Favorelle hen(Thumper) with the worst curled toes that she has to walk on her knuckles. My sister in law hatched her and thought if she could make it anywhere it would be with the person who babied a blind rooster. Actually she gets around pretty good and when she's outside I forget she even running around on her knuckles.

 

[little white]

Lucy is a young Barred Rock. She came down with Marek's about 2 months ago.
She survived, but with toes that don't work very well. She's living in a box on the porch, eats grass during the day in a little cage in the yard, and sits on the kitchen floor and chats with me in the evening while I make dinner. I made her a perch that stands only 2 inches off the ground, and she loves it. As long as she's healthy and comfortable, I'll do what I can to give her a pleasant life.
She still lays eggs for me. What a sweetie.

 

[the1much]

i have 3 big orange girls that THINK they have "special" needs hehe

I think its great to see that all of you are as bad as me ( some worse haha)

 

[silkhope]

I have a buff laced polish that is not very special needs but she is definitely "special." She apparently had Avian Encephalitis when I got her as a chick. She was the only one to survive and I didn't have the heart to cull her. Her name is Phyllis Diller and she stays in the garage in her own special pen. She has a very clumsy, stumbling walk and when she stands up to stretch she almost falls over. Otherwise, she eats like there's no tomorrow and is a beautiful girl.

 

[klf73]

I have a chick that is almost a week old that was *assisted* out of it's shell. It pipped into the air cell through a vein, it's beak was cemented to the membrane with dry blood. After hearing it peep for 2 days and becoming quieter, I helped it out. Almost had dh cull it twice, each time saying "by morning if it's not better...." It could only turn it's head to the left and if it tried walking it would just spin counterclockwise. Now if put in the brooder it still can't find food or water so it goes into a small brooder to eat and drink. It only figured out how to drink out of the bowl yesterday and to eat would peck the ground very uncoordinately. I make a small pile of food and it seems to do well. It still has a slight tremor to it's head and can't really turn it's head to the right but I think it will do fine. Not too bad for a chick that couldn't get off it's side on day 2

I think this one's a keeper, even if it's a roo, just gotta make sure he doesn't figure out how to get with the girls just in case

Krista

oh, forgot to mention that s/he is a blue ameraucana