Wobbly Hen-Injury or Mareks (or ?)

[Closing Time]

We lost George yesterday. She had honestly maintained her strength, appetite and general bright attitude this whole time but started to not eat as much last week. She slowed down quite a bit, we gave her a chance to rally as she has in the past but this time it didn’t happen. Her sister Esther passed away on Saturday for a completely unrelated issue, laying next to her outside of the hospital coop, puddled between our other hen and our roo. Then within 24 hours, we lost George too.

Both the girls went off to UC Davis today so hopefully will have some insight into what originally caused her neurological issue.

She was a true fighter. There were days my husband or I would go check on her, thinking it may be her time. But there she’d be, sitting in her towel donut, bright eyed and super stoked for her blueberries or cucumber. If you didn’t move your hand away fast enough, you might lose a finger . It started to be our running joke that she’d outlive us, she seemed that resilient. She tolerated her baths and blow outs well and she taught me a lot of husbandry skills during our time together. George was a very good girl and even made my husband a fan. She will be missed.

Thanks everyone for your help and support.

 

[amarsano]

We lost George yesterday. She had honestly maintained her strength, appetite and general bright attitude this whole time but started to not eat as much last week. She slowed down quite a bit, we gave her a chance to rally as she has in the past but this time it didn’t happen. Her sister Esther passed away on Saturday for a completely unrelated issue, laying next to her outside of the hospital coop, puddled between our other hen and our roo. Then within 24 hours, we lost George too.

Both the girls went off to UC Davis today so hopefully will have some insight into what originally caused her neurological issue.

She was a true fighter. There were days my husband or I would go check on her, thinking it may be her time. But there she’d be, sitting in her towel donut, bright eyed and super stoked for her blueberries or cucumber. If you didn’t move your hand away fast enough, you might lose a finger . It started to be our running joke that she’d outlive us, she seemed that resilient. She tolerated her baths and blow outs well and she taught me a lot of husbandry skills during our time together. George was a very good girl and even made my husband a fan. She will be missed.

Thanks everyone for your help and support.

I’m so sorry! It’s immensely difficult losing your birds when you’ve tried so hard to keep them going. We’ve had a lot of that lately, too. There is an independent lab, RAL, where you can send samples, while the bird is alive, to test for various diseases. We’ve used them and found we have both MD and Leukosis. I highly recommend them as it’s not super expensive. (About $25/test.). The plus side is it allows us to treat them, if possible, before they die. The hardest part is the blood sample which you get by clipping a nail short. I don’t like causing them pain, but if I can help them in the long run it’s worth it.