AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Daisy is picking up slowly......she's pecking in the garden and eating small amounts of food from us, roasted veg and some yoghurt. Not completely herself but hopefully we're getting there.

Oh yay!

That's a good sign then

Keep up the good work Molly

Cheers
Chicka-Dee

Glad to hear that Daisy is improving. While they are not eating well, i give mine little bits of soft cat food and soft fruit like banana with a sprinkle of vits/mins and baby cereal (sort of a quick and dirty version of the rickets diet!). I tend to find they stay off their grain/mash for a while, so I like to give them a little bit of easily digested food to help them along. Amazingly my Isa Brown made a recovery too. She literally was on the brink of being put down she was that sick.... So they do sometimes surprise you!

My I talk about the two Isa's that I had pss away on me this winter it still confuses me totally

Ybarnsey,

So sorry to that two of your chookies passed on. May they rest in chook heaven

By all means share your experience, someone may have had a similar problem with their girls.

hank you Chickababe

Ok thank you I will also some one else may be able to set my mind at peace.

Late may I first noticed that Esmeralda was acting strange first there was a pecking order augment, ( Esmeralda had been one of the top hens)
Then I noticed that Esmeralda was staying in the far corner of the chook run and not walking about much and just standing there

( now annoyed with myself for not taking pic of her or Phoebe) but not upright, her legs were in the upright stance but her body was looking like she was on her perch.
Then she went into the roll out nesting box and just stood there doing nothing..
I
removed her from the others she still was alert but when I stood her on my lap she stayed there odd for her since she was never a lap bird.
I then noticed a runny yellow substance coming out of her vent and a bit of cooked egg yolk ( not sure how she had that thee.
I also noticed she felt a lot lighter ad her crop was empty

I set up a sick bay in the storage half of the hen house
there I set up water and food she didn't want any thing not even rice which the other girls saw though the wire and wanted the rice.

After a couple of days the yellow substance stoped and I changed the bedding I did also noticed she didn't poop at all at this time.
A friend advised to give her salt water that didn't help
then a another few days later she died.

Now July

In late July I noticed Phoebe having the same pattern but odd since she was close to the bottom of the pecking order then she seemed not intrested in food.

I noticed Phoebe had some green substance on her feathers near her vent but she didn't seem as bad as Esmeralda had been because I felt her crop and it had a little food in it just not as much as I would have liked her to have..
I medicated their drinking water with apple cider and vinegar she didn't want it the others did.

( all of my Isa browns were ex battery birds so I am guessing they must be all about inbetween 16 months and 3 years old)

Ten I found her dead in the corner of the hen run a few days later with Good Grace standing over her guarding her body from the others.

A few days later I found a weed growing next to the hen run and wondered if the stuff was killing the girls. I think I better take a pic of that and post it here

I have pulled the weed up and kept a bit of it.

This is the weed that has me worried


I found out about it when I saw the girls snacking on it though the dog wire and looking like it was the best green they could have.

I have hoed this weed out.