Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: rgp5454 on January 28, 2007, 15:23
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This is my first post on your site, can anyone give me some advice?
I have a hen, a columbian black tail, who is having problems standing up. She is just over a year old, feeding and drinking well and her droppings are the same as the other chickens.
About 2 weeks ago I noticed she was a bit unsteady on her feet and not roosting on the perches with the other birds, she has got progressivley worst, now struggling to stand.
anybody got any advice other than giving her a knock on the head?
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chech her pads under her toes and all round the foot , she may have a tenderness or a forin body in it . flex the toes into a fist from front to back . they can get stretched tendons ie tendnitus, strap with a band aid sheet if it suggests support is needed . swellings on the pad usually indicate an infection it may need the vets attention . if you can see an abcess then lance and dress as for a broken toe .use salty water to clean and dress . use no savlon type creams .. germolene is good for bird and dog antiseptic / biotic . for broken toes pad the toe base with cotton wool and tape up the foot / the bird will hobble for a while but should have no problems after taking tha padding off 2 weeks later
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I have cheked her feet and legs but they seem ok. She is also dropping her wing on the right side, I dont know if it is for balance.
I have been feeding my hens on layer pellet only since I have had them, could this be a problem?
I have been reading your posts on cider vinegar, how much do I use and how often.
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2 caps to a pint or 1/2 cup to a gallon
sounds like she been thumped by the others or fallen of her perch, tape the foot up and see how she goes. if she isnt showing signs of being sick then she wil recover is my guess
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I have a hen who we hatched out and after a hussle hurt her leg,she has hopped about the garden for the past 2 years on one leg................. and then last month she just started walking on both legs and she is absolutely fine, she is running about so happy, I don't know what happened to her,
so what do you make of that?
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probably found out she isnt getting the simpafy vote from the other chucks now lol .incidently you can tie a piece of string to a birds legs and they will attempt to walk sideways instead of forwards for some strange reason . was culling chucks and slipped nooses round the legs ready to neck and hang mobile went off so put the bird down tween my knees she wriigled free n proceeded to do the crab llolo
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Hiya
Last year we rescued some battery hens and their legs were very weak. One (daft!!) hen decided to jump off a bench and landed funny. When she tried to walk she just fell sideways and her wing hung down. She was no better later so we took her to the vet, expecting her to be put down.
The vet felt her leg and said she had broken her thigh!! We were all @Oh my GOD!! Will you have to put her down???'.
Vet's reply, 'Nah, keep her in the house for a month, make sure she eats OK and keeps drinking. If she stops, bring her back straight away'.
£28 and one month later she was fine, the stinkly ole thing, purring all the time. Has a rather cute waddle now as she walks now, but she's alive and happy and healthy.
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with battery birds its a common problem weak legs they dont have the chance to make muscle due to being confined . extra protien treats and they usually come on good . if you have a compost heap dig a few forks of soil out and let them have the werms n grubs ...not on shauns plot tho :wink:
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Hiya
Can hens eat slugs? We fed them loads of cabbage white caterpillars off my cabbages last year, but that Hugh Ferucky-Thingymeegumm off the telly fed his slugs, and I wasn't too sure.
OK to feed slugs or not????
Cheers
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My chooks love slugs :D
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absolutly .like snails to us frenchies .. loverly grub , let em roam ya garden after you harvested everything or covered what ya wann keep they love all that buggy stuff :wink:
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Thanks xx
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My Gerty eats frogs too... whole head first :shock:
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Be careful with the snails - i read somewhere that they carry some parasite or worm thingy.
Mine love the slugs - better than pellets
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Ours eat mice too if they get too near!!!
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Mine aren't really hand tame yet but offer them a worm or two and that goes out the window. Now when I dig over the garden, Nancy waits for me at the gate.
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Be careful with the snails - i read somewhere that they carry some parasite or worm thingy.
Mine love the slugs - better than pellets
You're quite right!
Chickens can pick up Gape Worm from eating slugs, snails and earth worms. The risk is higher the longer the land has been used for poultry but wild birds to carry it too. The worms grow in the trachea and eventually cause suffocation. It is called gape worm because the chooks try to clear their air way by gaping - they stretch their necks and open their beak. It can be prevented by worming your chickens every six months. I use Flubenvet.
I hope that information is useful :D
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very useful annty sally .good keepers worm there choock every 3 mhs anyways :wink:
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Good advice Munty. I'll maybe increase frequency then. :D
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Just to update you about my chooks leg. I isolated her from the rest of the chickens for the day because she looked a bit weak, when I put them away in the evening she had layed an egg on the greenhouse floor and was running around as if nothing was wrong? Was she egg bound?. Since then she has got weaker day by day. I have checked her to see if she is egg bound but I dont really know what I am looking for. Any ideas?
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if she is egg bound you wil not fail to feel the egg in her ducts . i would have her wormed asap and hope .its difficult to say whats wrong as i cannot see the bird .i am just guessing at this point
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I think eggbound hens are quite uncommon. Munty will correct if I am wrong :D
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yups sally u can always tell aya egg bound chicken , they sit with thier legs splayed n a crosseyed pained look on thier faces :x
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I have just gone to put my chickens away for the night and my sick chick was face down in the dirt. When I picked her up she just kept falling forward onto her face, a bit like a weeble, that did fall down. Do you think it is time to give her the good news with a piece of 2x2? :evil:
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yes but why 2x2 ,you may hurt the bird instead of kiling it outright , go to poultry pages and see the post preparing the chicken below
http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/Chicken_a/killing-chicken-meat.php