TLDR: One of my hens, Sprinkles (2 y.o. "Ameraucana") started having balance issues yesterday morning. She's energetic but stumbles around as if drunk.
This is the same hen who survived an owl attack last month and then passed an intact follicle. She quickly perked up after that and was eating/drinking as usual.
Yesterday her comb was a little blue, and she ran out to meet me and nearly fell over, and had trouble changing directions. I picked her up and she was extremely light, and I realized she hadn't been eating or drinking very much over the weekend (I was out of town with a roommate checking on her). She ignored her pellets but I gave her scrambled egg and a little plain cooked rice to get her to eat something. I had to leave for work but roommates offered her a bowl of water that afternoon and she drank eagerly. Poops were brown/green, kind of dense and fairly dry, she had one stuck to her feathers, but not coating her bottom.
This morning she was still extremely wobbly, comb still a little blue, and I mixed her water with a little sugar and salt as recommended elsewhere in this forum to hold her over until I could get some proper vitamin + electrolyte mix. I made some pellets into wet mash and she loved it and ate quite a bit. She even stole a piece of bell pepper out of my hand (a treat for the other girls) and raced off to eat it. This evening I left work early to pick up poultry electrolyte mix and offered that and some more wet mash. I also offered a handful of oyster shell and she ate quite a bit of it. I checked her poop again and it looked dark and somewhat greenish and much wetter this time. No yellow, and no blood. Haven't checked her crop because I always forget until after she eats.
She's enthusiastic and energetic, she just can't keep her balance all of a sudden. I watched her try and scratch her head with a foot and tumbled completely over. Any ideas what could be wrong with her? I'll be home over the holiday weekend so I can monitor her more closely.
This is the same hen who survived an owl attack last month and then passed an intact follicle. She quickly perked up after that and was eating/drinking as usual.
Yesterday her comb was a little blue, and she ran out to meet me and nearly fell over, and had trouble changing directions. I picked her up and she was extremely light, and I realized she hadn't been eating or drinking very much over the weekend (I was out of town with a roommate checking on her). She ignored her pellets but I gave her scrambled egg and a little plain cooked rice to get her to eat something. I had to leave for work but roommates offered her a bowl of water that afternoon and she drank eagerly. Poops were brown/green, kind of dense and fairly dry, she had one stuck to her feathers, but not coating her bottom.
This morning she was still extremely wobbly, comb still a little blue, and I mixed her water with a little sugar and salt as recommended elsewhere in this forum to hold her over until I could get some proper vitamin + electrolyte mix. I made some pellets into wet mash and she loved it and ate quite a bit. She even stole a piece of bell pepper out of my hand (a treat for the other girls) and raced off to eat it. This evening I left work early to pick up poultry electrolyte mix and offered that and some more wet mash. I also offered a handful of oyster shell and she ate quite a bit of it. I checked her poop again and it looked dark and somewhat greenish and much wetter this time. No yellow, and no blood. Haven't checked her crop because I always forget until after she eats.
She's enthusiastic and energetic, she just can't keep her balance all of a sudden. I watched her try and scratch her head with a foot and tumbled completely over. Any ideas what could be wrong with her? I'll be home over the holiday weekend so I can monitor her more closely.
