RuntyChicken
In the Brooder
I don't know WHERE to start.
I have a chicken named Runty. Why? She was the runt and the guy I bought her from directly pointed her out and said "don't count on them all making it." This is why I bought 5 total. My town allows for 4, but 1 wasn't going to make it. Luckily, I like my mother (God rest her) am English and bloody stubborn. All 5 lived and are sassy and happy.
Until of course a few months ago when Runty was attacked by a hawk twice and is of course the outsider picked on chicken of the flock. This lead to her eating rocks. LOTS OR ROCKS. $500 later the vet let us know she was just a clueless chicken and she just would do that. I and my husband nursed her through this, got her to gain weight and eventually her own coop outside with no rocks in sight. Just happy dirt and some ash that she enjoys sunning in.
So you'll share my surprise when I notice her crop AGAIN swollen, and her sort of lolling about, still eating her food and drinking water.
Get it emptied, give her some pro-biotic yogurt and vinegar water and she was OK. Got her to "vomit" up a lot of gunk. Then out came a half a grape. How long that had been there? Not sure. Maybe a month? How is that even possible??!?
So tonight she has a mostly empty crop. She hates her soft food diet but I'm at a loss as to what to do.
How do I make her better? I'm able to empty her swollen crop by the old method of turning her over and having her "vomit" the liquid up but she falls asleep in my lap afterwards and I'm crushed. She normally pecks me and hates being petted.
Does she have access to grit? Yes. She has access to egg shell and free range in the back yard that has lots of dirt and bits of this and that.
I have a small yard but all my girls have free range over that and my neighbors yard. I hover over her in particular when she IS out of the coop because of this very matter.
I'm at a loss and I'm at my wits end. What do I do? Is there something I can give her to put her system back into working order.
She isn't laying, which I'm OK with but her system isn't of course. Its not the natural order of chicken.
I will say the other 4 girls are healthy as can be. No worms, no mites. They're 2 1/2 years old and I get 3-4 eggs a day.
Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong or remedies that I might not know.
I have a chicken named Runty. Why? She was the runt and the guy I bought her from directly pointed her out and said "don't count on them all making it." This is why I bought 5 total. My town allows for 4, but 1 wasn't going to make it. Luckily, I like my mother (God rest her) am English and bloody stubborn. All 5 lived and are sassy and happy.
Until of course a few months ago when Runty was attacked by a hawk twice and is of course the outsider picked on chicken of the flock. This lead to her eating rocks. LOTS OR ROCKS. $500 later the vet let us know she was just a clueless chicken and she just would do that. I and my husband nursed her through this, got her to gain weight and eventually her own coop outside with no rocks in sight. Just happy dirt and some ash that she enjoys sunning in.
So you'll share my surprise when I notice her crop AGAIN swollen, and her sort of lolling about, still eating her food and drinking water.
Get it emptied, give her some pro-biotic yogurt and vinegar water and she was OK. Got her to "vomit" up a lot of gunk. Then out came a half a grape. How long that had been there? Not sure. Maybe a month? How is that even possible??!?
So tonight she has a mostly empty crop. She hates her soft food diet but I'm at a loss as to what to do.
How do I make her better? I'm able to empty her swollen crop by the old method of turning her over and having her "vomit" the liquid up but she falls asleep in my lap afterwards and I'm crushed. She normally pecks me and hates being petted.
Does she have access to grit? Yes. She has access to egg shell and free range in the back yard that has lots of dirt and bits of this and that.
I have a small yard but all my girls have free range over that and my neighbors yard. I hover over her in particular when she IS out of the coop because of this very matter.
I'm at a loss and I'm at my wits end. What do I do? Is there something I can give her to put her system back into working order.
She isn't laying, which I'm OK with but her system isn't of course. Its not the natural order of chicken.
I will say the other 4 girls are healthy as can be. No worms, no mites. They're 2 1/2 years old and I get 3-4 eggs a day.
Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong or remedies that I might not know.
