- Aug 9, 2016
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Hi All, I'm hoping someone can help me here. I have 6 chickens, 5 hens and one rooster. They've just finished their first molt...well...all except one...at least I THINK she's still in molt, unless something else is going on...her new beautiful feathers havent come in yet like all the other girls/boy. I thought she was just a little later than all the others, but she's starting to show other symptoms that are concerning me. She used to be one of the first girls to come check out what treats I bring into the yard, but now, she wont even come look after all the others have eaten their fill... She walks around the yard ducking for no good reason...not every step, but pretty close! She's practically walking in a squat. She DOES stand up straight sometimes, but mostly, she's walking around ducking at imaginary "low beams", or predators that arent there. She's laying an egg almost every day, so I dont *think* it's something internal, but she's having a REALLY hard time getting up(about 12") to the nest boxes, and also to the roosting poles(a little more than 12 inches off the coop floor). She paces back and forth, kinda stamping her feet like she's trying to drum up the "umph" to get up to the pole in front of the nesting box...then when she finally makes the "jump"(more of a big step with a hop), it looks like it's taking ALL of her energy. She's got bald wings and back because our rooster was oversexing her and pulling feathers out...he did it to all the girls, but the others have recovered nicely with their new feathers from this year's molt. Let's see...what else can I tell you...she's about a year and a half old, so this is her first molt. She looks extremely scraggly, and is still wearing the chicken saddle I made for her(all the other girls had em too, but I took them off as their new feathers grew in during the last couple of months, and they haven't needed them since). I check regularly under the saddle to make sure she's not getting any parasites riding under there...everything looks clean...just bald :-\. She seems to still have an appetite...while she's not coming to me for treats, I DO see her at the feeder often enough, so I know she's eating, and like I said, she's producing an egg almost every day, so that system seems to be ok... She's acting very shy around the other girls and the rooster, which is odd because she used to be the top of the pecking order...now she seems to be closer to the bottom. What feathers she has left, are broken and dull, so it looks to me like she hasn't even begun to get her new feathers...parts of her rear end look irritated...like maybe someone's been pecking at her, but there's no open wounds, and her vent looks great...no redness, no irritation, no oozing or anything. I'm wondering if she didn't hurt her legs jumping down from the roost, or the coop?(the ducking seems to be evenly distributed between both legs...not favoring either one), or if she's got something muscular going on, cuz she just doesn't seem very "strong" lately. She just keeps ducking all the time while she's walking around the yard. Any ideas? Anything I can do to help my poor little Mabel? Oh...she's a Black Astrolorp if that makes any difference. Thanks for any advice, help!
