Chickens on the mind

Last night as Cindy and I were doing evening chicken maintenance Cindy noticed one of the chickens, that we have now named “Nona” was acting strange.  She was hanging her head low and seemed lethargic.  Some of the other chickens appeared to be picking on her as well.  We watched her for awhile to see if she would snap out of it but she just seemed weird.

Cindy crawled into the chicken run and brought her out.  Nona hardly struggled as Cindy laid her down on her lap.  As Cindy gave the bird a head to toe look over Nona just laid there chilling.  Cindy started petting her head and neck.  It looked odd to have a chicken just laying on a lap, looking almost like a content cat would.  It seemed like Nona would have laid there for as long as Cindy wanted.

So we were both concerned obviously but weren’t quite sure what was wrong.  We decided to grab one of the empty Rubbermaid containers in the shed, fill it with wood shavings and bring Nona inside with us.  It was sort of odd having a chicken indoors.  At first we had her in the laundry room but we then moved the container to the guest bathroom.  I thought I was going to have to put some sort of lid on it to keep the chicken inside but it quickly became apparent that Nona was too tired to try to hop out.  I put a barrier in front of the door just in case but we didn’t need it.

Cindy and I did a lot of internet searching for chicken ailments.  We read about crop problems.  The crop is a sack at the base of their throat where food is deposited first before it is digested.  Sometimes that sack can get stuffed and blocked up if the bird drastically over eats or eats something long and fibrous.  An expert pair of hands may be able to feel an impacted crop.  Cindy couldn’t really tell much.

Cindy called up the lady we got the chickens from and had a long talk with her about Nona and chickens in general.  The consensus was it was good to keep her separated from the others last night and see how she is in the morning. Cindy was worried Nona would feel lonely in the tub by herself.  She added a towel and one of the dog’s stuffed toys as a companion.  It looked funny to have a chicken laying next to a dog toy.  Nona was very quiet and calm.  I was worried that we would wake up this morning to another chicken tragedy. I went to bed feeling unsettled. All this chicken drama, the raccoon, the hen/rooster questions and now a sick bird was weighing on my mind.

So this morning when I got up of course the first thing I did was peek in the bathroom.  I held my breath for a second when in the darkness I saw a body that appeared to not be moving.  I exhaled when Nona woke up and saw me.  She immediately stood up. She seemed pretty alert and normal to me.  Cindy agreed that she seemed much better than last night, good enough that we returned her to the coop this morning.  She seemed to jump right back into the flock and was acting normally.  Cindy and I hope this was just a little bump in the road and that Nona will be ok.

We did more saddle feather exams last night trying to see if any of the birds have long pointy feathers coming in.  Again neither of us saw anything obvious so we are still on a wait and see pattern.  The live trap was untouched last night which I was glad to see but expected.