ForestViewEstate
Hatching
- Apr 25, 2023
- 3
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Sorry for the long post, but I’m trying to be as descriptive as possible.
We have a Blue Ancona hen that is approx 8 months old that started developing symptoms about a month and a half ago. For the first week, she started getting loud and moody, then the second week she began to get poofy and stay in the coop more. We slowly began to notice her losing feathers around her neck so we assumed it was an early molt maybe due to stress. We continued to monitor her.
About 2 weeks later we started noticing her limping just a little bit. Then days later she started losing feathers on her back. We had to leave for 2 days and when we came back she had lost ALL her feathers in her back, belly and the back of her neck. We were convinced she was being bullied because she was weak. She had a green tint to her skin, looked like bruising and scabs but no active bleeding.
We immediately moved her to a quarantine pen. She has continued to eat and drink throughout this entire process.
We took her to the vet where they looked her over, ran fecal and gave her X-rays. Everything was cleared. But while she was at the vet, the vet had stated she was eating her own feathers every time he stressed her out. He said she was probably stressed and felt tingling all over her body and is just eating her feathers.
Fast forward a week later, she has been taking an anti inflammatory. Now she is completely not using her leg at all. It’s lame and she drags it behind her. She seems to have a hard time breathing every time we pick her up (even though we are limiting that only to when we give her medicine). And she has her eyes closed often. She is still puffy and vocal and her comb is extremely dry and pale. She is also extremely emaciated and her crop always seems empty even though she’s eating normally.
No other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. We have the flock on chick starter because we thought it would help with nutrients. We’re switching back to all flock this week. They were on chick starter for about 2 months.
I have been feeding her meal worms, as much as she will eat and also eggs every morning. 3 a day to be exact. Poop seems to be normal but she doesn’t poop a lot that I can see.
Their run is mulch that has no dye. We’ve had it since the beginning. We’re switching to sand this summer. The coop is pine shavings and the nesting boxes are alfalfa. The coop tends to get super dusty so we’re switching to hemp this summer as well.
I’ll add a video of her. Any advice ir help would be greatly appreciated. At this point, the vet seems to think everything is fine. But she’s not improving. She’s actually going downhill fast at this point.
We have a Blue Ancona hen that is approx 8 months old that started developing symptoms about a month and a half ago. For the first week, she started getting loud and moody, then the second week she began to get poofy and stay in the coop more. We slowly began to notice her losing feathers around her neck so we assumed it was an early molt maybe due to stress. We continued to monitor her.
About 2 weeks later we started noticing her limping just a little bit. Then days later she started losing feathers on her back. We had to leave for 2 days and when we came back she had lost ALL her feathers in her back, belly and the back of her neck. We were convinced she was being bullied because she was weak. She had a green tint to her skin, looked like bruising and scabs but no active bleeding.
We immediately moved her to a quarantine pen. She has continued to eat and drink throughout this entire process.
We took her to the vet where they looked her over, ran fecal and gave her X-rays. Everything was cleared. But while she was at the vet, the vet had stated she was eating her own feathers every time he stressed her out. He said she was probably stressed and felt tingling all over her body and is just eating her feathers.
Fast forward a week later, she has been taking an anti inflammatory. Now she is completely not using her leg at all. It’s lame and she drags it behind her. She seems to have a hard time breathing every time we pick her up (even though we are limiting that only to when we give her medicine). And she has her eyes closed often. She is still puffy and vocal and her comb is extremely dry and pale. She is also extremely emaciated and her crop always seems empty even though she’s eating normally.
No other birds are exhibiting these symptoms. We have the flock on chick starter because we thought it would help with nutrients. We’re switching back to all flock this week. They were on chick starter for about 2 months.
I have been feeding her meal worms, as much as she will eat and also eggs every morning. 3 a day to be exact. Poop seems to be normal but she doesn’t poop a lot that I can see.
Their run is mulch that has no dye. We’ve had it since the beginning. We’re switching to sand this summer. The coop is pine shavings and the nesting boxes are alfalfa. The coop tends to get super dusty so we’re switching to hemp this summer as well.
I’ll add a video of her. Any advice ir help would be greatly appreciated. At this point, the vet seems to think everything is fine. But she’s not improving. She’s actually going downhill fast at this point.
