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GillC

Hen wedged under eglu roosting bars!

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I went out to mid morning to find one of my hens wedged under the roosting bars at the back of the eglu. She was on her side and appeared to have wriggled in feet first. I took the bars off and she staggered up and out of the eglu. She is still (about 3h later) rather tottery although she has eaten and drunk a little. I'm wondering if it is perhaps indicative of some other problem. She is moving around a little but she is sitting rather hunched with her wings out (possibly for balance?). Could she have had some sort of stroke?

 

I've scrunched up some newspaper and stuck it in behind the bars at the back of the eglu to hopefully prevent this happening again.

 

The two in this eglu (I have two eglus) are bantam wyandottes and so are quite small. Has this happened to anyone else? Has anybody got any suggestions/observations.

 

Any advice would be welcome. It gave me quite a scare.

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How old is she? Did you get her from a breeder and, if so, had she been vaccinated?

 

It is possible that she has had a stroke, or has some sort of neurological problem. I found one of my 1 year old Pekins on her back in the run, and she couldn't really stand or walk with out supporting herself with her wings. I was worried about Marek's, but because of her age the vet thought it more likely that she had had a stroke, or had a brain tumour.

 

If she is no better tomorrow, I would take her to the vet. In the meantime, it might be wise to separate her from your other hens in case it is something contagious.

 

Hope she is ok.

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That happened to one of mine.

 

Actually, I thought she was dead and put double carrier bags over my hand to remove her and got the shock of my life when she moved :shock:

 

I removed the bars, and her, and she was very unsteady. I had a very busy day that day and didn't want to leave her; so I transferred her to the other Eglu, added some food and water and closed the door (expecting to remove her corpse when I got home).

 

I don't like seeing them dead, so when I got home I lifted the egg port door to take a peek and her little head shot up out of the opening! I don't know who was more shocked, her or I!!!!

 

She did recover from that, but, she died a short while after (she was one that I had taken pity on and had hoped to strengthen and grow, but sadly it wasn't to be).

 

Fingers X'd for your chook.

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How old is she? Did you get her from a breeder and, if so, had she been vaccinated?

 

It is possible that she has had a stroke, or has some sort of neurological problem. I found one of my 1 year old Pekins on her back in the run, and she couldn't really stand or walk with out supporting herself with her wings. I was worried about Marek's, but because of her age the vet thought it more likely that she had had a stroke, or had a brain tumour.

 

If she is no better tomorrow, I would take her to the vet. In the meantime, it might be wise to separate her from your other hens in case it is something contagious.

 

Hope she is ok.

 

She's from this year's hatching, so under a year old. I got her from a breeder and yes, she's been vaccinated.

 

I did have one hen who had a stroke and just couldn't stand. I didn't at the time realise she had had a stroke so I washed her legs in case she had bumble foot and popped her in the nest box. She had one last look at me that evening and the next day she was dead. If this one has had a stroke, it isn't that bad as she is mobile.

 

She seems to be improving so I'm hopeful that she was just a little stiff and shaken after her ordeal. I have only two hens in that eglu so I can't really move her out (and she'd gone to bed with her pal). Hopefully she'll be better tomorrow.

 

Thanks for all the advice and good wishes. I'll post again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

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She's looking a lot better this morning. She is still holding one wing a little oddly, but you'd hardly notice and she's trotting around the run eating and drinking as normal.

 

I think I was just lucky! We're going to keep a much closer eye on them in future, but like I said I've stuffed newspaper in that gap so hopefully it won't happen again.

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I've had that before with a small pekin. Can I recommend that you use something harder than newspaper? It will get damp and also attract red mites. I used a smallish brick.

 

Thanks for the advice. I will. I hadn't thought of moisture getting through the back of the eglu. I've loads of bricks around the garden and will pop one in first thing tomorrow.

 

Today, she's even better - totally indistinguishable from her pal Agatha (Daphne was the one that got stuck). We're checking and re-checking frequently. Let them out to roam the entire garden today and they had a great time with the medium hybrids (Nutmeg, Flora, Amber and Maud). I'm so pleased that nothing more serious happened.

 

Thanks for the advice :)

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I put a small brick in the gap, and that seemed to work until a few days ago when I found her over on her side with her legs, or one leg, it was hard to tell, stuck in the remaining gap left to one side of the brick. I took the roosting bars away and she staggered to her feet and tottered out, seemingly none the worse.

 

I was now getting quite worried. She seems to be holding her head over to the left, looking at the ground out of one eye as she eats corn. I picked her up and felt her but apart from holding her head oddly she seemed ok and is eating and drinking normally. I decided to leave the roosting bars out entirely as the two bantams tend to sleep in the nest box and Daphne just seems to be falling through the back of them.

 

This morning she was fine, but at 3pm when I checked again, she was inside the Eglu on her own. I opened the hatch and she was lying in the poop tray (mercifully fairly clean) on her side.

 

I thought she might have hasd a stoke so I picked her up and took her into the greenhouse out of the rain to check her over. Her head was even more bent over to the left, I think she had been laying on her right side.

 

I set her down on the floor and she settled ok in a fairly upright position, and seemed ok.

 

I put her back in the nest box with agatha and checked her every half hour and she was fine.

 

Has anybody any ideas why she falls over and can't get up inside the Eglu? She seems ok in the run, and there is a hollowed out dust bath area and a perching log to trip her up. She looks so pathetic on her side.

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Aw, bless her!

 

Keep an eye on her (I appreciate not everyone can afford a vets advice/intervention). If she is eating and drinking, then that is the best she can do - time will tell.

 

I shall keep my fingers X'd for a positive outcome for her.

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Many thanks for all the advice. We had to leave her in the care of our lovely neighbours for Xmas and boxing day. He said there had been no problems at all. I had removed all the roosting bars. Over the past couple of days I have found her in the Eglu on her side. She seems to end up down with her head bent back to the left almost under her wing. I have found that the best thing is to pick her up and hold her upright in my hands. To start with her head stays bent back but as she realizes that she is upright, she returns her head to the normal position. I hold her like that for about 10seconds and then put her back on the ground and she totters off.

 

She is fine outside and in the run. She even hops on and off the small log I have put in there to give them a perch. She is definitely unsteady but not excessively so. I have felt her wings carefully to see if I can detect any obvious problems and she certainly can flap them quite happily :)

 

If I can find a local vet that specializes in chickens (Milton Keynes area) I'll take her along as I'm really intrigued. I've put the bars back for today with lots of bricks totally filling the gap. It is obviously lack of purchase that tips her over and disorientation that makes her stick her head back and be unable to right herself. However I may remove them tonight. We'll see how she is today. Thank goodness I'm off work all week and can keep an eye on her.

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I will be fascinated to hear a diagnosis....I have a hen with the same head tilt/turn...she spent a day looking really rough but has never had the falling over symptoms...her sibling spent a day walking backwards..but then recovered completely. they are aracunas by the way

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Update: She's still going strong. I scared myself silly reading my book on chicken ailments. She seems to be exhibiting "twisted neck" so for a while I wondered if it could be Newcastle syndrome, but she has none of the other symptoms and all my other hens are fine. A trawl of similar forums on the web yielded the suggestion that it could be due to some injury to the cranial area, or to a vitamin B deficiency.

 

Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of all these possibilities, Daphne continues, becoming more and more affectionate because of the amount of handling she is now getting. When out free ranging, she runs and eats relatively normally (there is always a slight tilt to the head). Her main problem is if she falls over, she twists her head under her left wing and is unable to get up. This almost exclusively happens at night in the eglu. I check her regularly, pick up up and hold her until she has righted her head, then I pop her in the nest box leaning up agains the side in the hope that she'll stay put and not try to move around and fall over again. 50% of the time she is OK next morning, 50% of the time I find her roosting with her feet in the air and her head all twisted up under her wing.

 

I let her out and make sure she is eating, but close the eglu door to stop her getting in and falling over during the day. This seems to work OK.

 

The nearest vet that specialises in Chickens seems to be in St Albans which is about 25 miles from me. Transporting her will stress her out which I worry might make her worse, but if she doesn't show any improvement soon I shall have to do that. Part of me worries that a vet might just want to put her down which, since she seems to be coping OK so long as I put her upright, is not what I really want.

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Try her on some vit B, and particularly Biotin, which helps with neural problems. I'd make up some scrambled eggs and lace it with a bit of Marmite to see if that helps. NetTex's Nutridrops are also very good for this.

 

Problems like this aren't uncommon when they've been through the moult and have used all their reserves in growing new feathers. I had one like this a couple or three years back, it had a very severe moult, rallied with the treatment above, then got bad again.

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Thanks dogmother. Then it is probably no coincidence that this twisted neck happened within weeks of her finishing her first moult! During the moult, she became so pale I grew concerned and tried her with a course of nutri-drops. She seemed to regain her colour and looked much lovelier once her feathers had grown back, but then shortly after that she developed this twisty neck lack of balance problem.

 

I am currently mixing in poultry spice mixed with their feed. I also have some lifeguard which I have used in their water (although I'm not using it at the moment because I worry about overdoing it with supplements). My nutridrops are still good so I'll pop out now and give her a dose. I'll then do the full 3 or 5 day course depending on whether it seems to be helping or not.

 

Here's hoping that will help her recover.

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Daphne continues to improve. Thinking back, the first thing she did when I got her in about July was go broody for what seemed like months. Then she moulted, so she has been really run down. I finished a 5 day course of nutri drops 3 days ago. She had got quite bad. Each night I'd put her to bed and check her after an hour. Sometimes she'd be down with her feet in the air. I'd right her but find her stuck on her side in the morning. However by the end of the nutri drops she was no longer falling over at night. I've returned the roosting bars to the eglu and she hasn't fallen over in four days.

 

I decided to give her a break from the nutri drops, but have occasionally given her marmite on treats. Although she doesn't seem all that keen on today's treat of porridge with layers pellets and marmite. Can't say I blame her as it smells awful. :vom:

 

She is pottering around happily and pecking at the hanging corn brick with Agatha. All in all, she seems almost normal - just with a tendency to stand a bit hunched up, slight head tilt to the left and a bit pale in the face. The nutri-drops seemed to make a big difference, so I'll start them again after a bit of a gap if she still seems under the weather. She seems to have adopted a roosting position where she sits next to and over Agatha so that if she falls to the left, Agatha is there to prop her up. I don't know if this is deliberate (don't think they are quite that bright) but it is consistently the way they sleep now.

 

Fingers crossed that she'll continue to improve

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