Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: maggiemc on January 24, 2012, 11:25
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I have had my chickens for 4 months, and we have settled into our little routine, ie they totally dominate my life ::).But today one of my ex batt ladies is holding her head & neck in a sort of S shape. She is running about and is interested in food, but she appears to stagger every couple of steps. I have felt her crop and it is not full. I am now wondering what else it can be, and what to do. I feel so helpless. Would appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thanks
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Please take time to read the stickies on here about poultry ailments as I'm sure your hen's conditions will be explained and the remedies available, or not
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When you say S shape, do you mean vertically, so she is pulling her head back more toward her body, or horizontally so that she is holding her head at an angle?
For clarification :)
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She is sort of holding it to one side, then sort of moving sideways in a type of swoopping movement. Her whole body sort of follows through. I am wondering about sour crop, not that her crop appears to be full. I cannot find a list of symptoms to check.
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If you can get hold of her, gently open her beak and have a sniff.
Chickens can pull off all kinds of contortions when thery are moving food from their crop to the gizzard; but if this has been going on for some time, it may be that she has a slight impaction in her crop.
Have a feel of her crop, and see if anything feels fibrous - because most impactions are caused by grass/straw/hay balls - and then I can give you more advice :)
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My fear is she may have eaten too much grass, as we gave them some grass cuttings to play with on Sunday - raked up now.