Unsecure chicken perches

[angeluk69]

Hi all, I've taken on an old ex batt from someone who is moving to Australia and obviously can't take her with them.

 

She is approx 3.5 years old, hasn't laid since for at least 3 months, and had a really messy bum and raised scales on her legs, and smelt really badly

 

I have given her a good bath to clean the feathers and blow dried so she now has lovely fluffy knickers again (although I will probably do it agin in a few days to clear the rest) and put some johnsons scaly leg ointment on her legs. ive also put some acv in the water.

 

I have put her in her own sectioned off part of the run as she was a lone hen and I already have 7 other girls.

 

I'm just wondering if there is anything else I need to do with her, she doesn't have any visible signs of mites apart from the raised scales on her legs.

[Egghead68]

Worm her with flubenvet?

[angeluk69]

All of mine are due to be done so I will definitely get that done thank you.

[zakjon-98]

Once she has been wormed and you are sure she has no diseases or mites she should be fine. Glad you gave her a good home

[angeluk69]

Tbh I am a total sucker when it comes to animals...I took on a kitten in July from someone who ad allowed a cat of theirs to become pregnant but had previously 'dumped' another cat outside a farm...I was not going to allow her to do that again.

Last week I dog sat 2 dogs that i Hadn't met before last wkend becauseicouldnt bear the fact that the owner might have had to cancel their holiday.

I know this hen won't lay again, but as long as she is happy healthy and can live out her days with good company and her previous owner knows she can move away with one less worry, that's all that matters to me

[sparkysmum]

Oh bless you angeluk69, I'm sure good things will come your way for doing this kindness for an old hen xx

[gongladosh]

Yeah, good on you for being kind to an old girl. We did the same last year, and although she only lasted 3 months, she was given a new lease of life as top hen before she passed away.

 

One thing worth mentioning is that - as an old girl, she may well have slightly runny poos and iffy/non-existent egg laying, they can often be like that due to age rather than worms/mites. The scaly leg thing (if she's showing no sign of discomfort) can often be age-related rather than scaly leg mite. Give the legs a going over with vaseline as a belt-and-braces.

 

The other benefit of having an old girl around is they can often stabilise the flock!