Today I sat on the ground in their pen and fed some extra wheat seeds to her, hoping that at least these would keep her warm once she went off to bed. Bizzy Lizzy seems to like coming near her and giving her a peck. Poor Didee just squawks and flaps but doesn't really move away.
So far I've done some internet research and come up with the following:
Egg-bound It can't be this because she does go onto the perch and that would be too uncomfortable for an egg bound hen. Also she is walking normally, not upright like a penguin the way an egg-bound hen would walk.
Impacted crop It can't be this because she doesn't give off a smell and I have seen her eat both food and grit as well as grass, wheat seeds and cabbage. She has a full crop at night and an empty one in the morning and doesn't seem at all uncomfortable.
Digestive problem Her poos can often be quite normal looking, although there are a lot of white poos on her bottom feathers again today, so she must have something wrong with her. She is thin though, and when I pick her up her breast bone is really pointy, although to look at her is deceptive as her feathers are very full.
Anyway, I will keep monitoring her and try to eliminate all the possibilities.
It was very windy today and they had dug themselves little holes to hunker down in!
Has she been laying regularly? Do the eggs look normal? Many times if something is off, the egg production is the first thing to go. Does she have any symptoms of respiratory issues, like wheezing, sneezing, or runny discharge from her eyes or nose? She doesn't look like it from her photo, but that is another possibility. I hope you figure it out!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. She only layed two eggs when she first arrived with us, since then she hasn't layed at all. I felt this was ok as I've read that moving to a new home can be stressful for them and was prepared for her to go off her lay. She doesn't have any runny discharge at all and her breathing is fine, no rattles or difficulties.
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying to help - at least we have another illness we can eliminate for now!