Omlet cube and run

[louise76]

I have no idea if I have even posted this in the right place. All the other forums seemed to be locked.

 

We have 4 hens, which we have had for 3 weeks. A french maran, a cream legbar and two babcock rangers. They have a large fenced run, attached to a somewhat palatial hen house. We have a an old tree stump with root/branches in the run to clamber on, there is usually a cabbage hanging up, and every now and again I'll chuck a couple of apples in for them to chase. There is also obv' their water and food trough. On a Sunday when we do the big muck out we bury corn in the rubber chippings to keep them busy as well.

 

From the outset the babcock rangers have taken against Maud, the legbar. We had some feather plucking, which having searched on here we treated with gentian violet and aloe vera. All well and good and it seemed to settle down. We assumed she was an easy target as she had had a moult and when we collected her she had a somewhat bald, fluffy bum...

 

Last week I noticed she was a bit 'depressed' I suppose. (Maud) I observed her but gut instinct said no she's not right. I assumed she was egg bound tbh. She had been laying every other day, and hadn't for a few days. All the girls were vaccinated within an inch of their existence so it didn't seem to be any of 'those' suspects.

Whizzed her up to our fantastic vet (advantage of living in a rural, farming area!), who told me we were lucky she survived the car trip. She had an upper respiritory infection, which she treated with baytril and metacam. We isolated Maud for 5 days as per instructions, and kept her in a puppy crate alongside the other girls.

 

Re introduced carefully yesterday and all seemed to be o.k. But today Maud is sulky again, and when I went out her bum has been pecked nastily again.

 

Where do we go now? She def' isn't ill anymore. The wheezin' and sneezin' has stopped. She is just miserable and clearly not 'fitting in'.

 

The other girls are all in tip top condition not even a glimmer of a sniff, or anything wrong. The vet said it's just pure bad luck what happened to Maud.

 

At a loss!

Many thanks in advance

Liz

4 hens. Edna and Lucy (Babcock rangers), Maud (Cream legbar) and Minnie (French Maran).

[Redwing]

Tricky

 

From what I can see you have at least two options

 

1) remove the hen to another coop and run (a small coop/kennel/covered cat carrier) maybe fence off part of your existing run? and get her a new friend, then slowly introduce them both together to the others

 

2) remove the hen as above but also remove one of the others with her so they bond and can be introduced to the group as a pair

 

I'm sorry its been a shaky start for you

 

I will move this to the main chicken section for you as its more of a general problem rather than about the hens illness and you'll get more views and answers there

[chickyhazel]

Redwing has said basically what I would say. You could also try getting 2 more hens and putting them withy Maud in a separate run, but they may turn against her as well. Separating her with the least aggressive of the others is a good idea.

[ejaym39]

Hi

 

Not sure if this will help but we have just had the same problem. I introduced 3 new birds to my previous 6 a few weeks ago. The two bigger ones seemed to fight their way in but my little one just got attacked all the time by all the birds. I seperated her the first time until her wounds had healed and then put her back in slowly with supervision. In the end I had to seperate the 3 from the 6 old ladies but then the 2 new birds attacked the little one quite badly. They did a lot of damage which I cleaned and monitored. But sadly, she passed away a few days later. It appears that none of the birds accepted her at all. Not sure if it was because she was smaller or because she had some underlying problems which they could sense. I;ve been told that chickens will attack another chicken if they sense that it's a poorly bird. Prob best to seperate her just to keep her safe.

 

Em

[louise76]

I'm going to isolate her next to the run for a few days and see if she perks up. If she doesn't then I guess we'll have to go back to the vets. Can they do anything for a depressed chicken?

I have a gut feeling she isn't going to 'do'. But not sure how long I let it rumble on for? The vet mentioned doing swabs etc etc. But if she isn't a goer I'm not sure that that isn't just cruel?

 

If she doesn't make it, can anyone point me at good links for introducing new birds to the flock? I think we'd probably get 2 more hybrids in her place. But I want to get it right!!

 

Many thanks for all your help.

 

Liz