Carol's Chickens

Yesterday morning Sparkle half heartedly joined in with the morning corn. After that she refused anything I offered her. The only thing she does now is a little preening. She was always the girl that preened the most and had the fluffiest feathers and in fact still does.

The rest of the day she just sits, sometimes in a patch of sun, sometimes on a perch and often on the table.

At one point her flock mates joined her on the table.

Five girls on the table

Topaz is sitting at the back, Peaches and Barley are the book ends and Emerald is on the right, Sparkle is in the front. Honey was in the nest box trying to lay her egg (she takes ages) and Toffee always a bit of a loner was wandering around the run.

I visited Jackie and her flock today and then bought her here to visit my flock and see what she thought about Sparkle. Sparkle was always a favourite of Jackie’s and I wanted her opinion on the situation. I told her that I am at a crossroads where I don’t want to give up on Sparkle too soon if there is a chance for her but I don’t want her to suffer either.

I am afraid of giving up too soon but equally I know that chickens hide their suffering and I don’t want Sparkle to starve herself to a slow death and suffer. I picked Sparkle up and gave her to Jackie to hold as she did a few weeks ago. Jackie said she could feel how much thinner Sparkle was. Sparkle had always been our fat hen which may be why she has survived this for so long. She always had the biggest appetite and was plump with a waddle in her walk. Now she doesn’t look so bad as she has the fluffiest feathers of all but when picked up she feels so much thinner than she did.

All she does now is eat a little corn in the morning, preen a little and then sit all day much of the time dosing. Sometimes when sitting she has her head down and her sad eyes keep shutting. I can see her in eyes that things are badly wrong with her.

Jackie said that she felt only a miracle could help Sparkle now and that I have to make the tough decision to end her suffering because keeping her going is for me and not what is best for Sparkle. I have done every thing in my power to help her but it’s been a month now and whereas with Emerald and Amber I could entice them to eat and build their strength with Sparkle the refusal to eat anything makes any progress impossible.

I can hardly bare to make this decision but I know in my heart that I need to make it soon for Sparkle’s sake. I almost hope to find her gone in the morning but that is only to make it easier for me and I wonder how long she can linger on if she just starves herself.

I know that I must make this awful decision very soon. I will give it one more day and then I must decide.

This morning as planned I separated Sparkle and gave her some corn and spinach as this is all she will eat now. I have given up on the pellet mash as she refuses to touch it. She ate some of the corn and a little spinach.

After an hour I let her out again as it was obvious that she wouldn’t eat any more. At lunch time I repeated the process. She voiced her complaint and refused to eat anything. Again I let her out after an hour.

Sparkle seems determined to only eat in the mornings so I think it’s a waste of time to separate her any more. It only distresses her. I think the time has come to leave her be and wait and see how she goes on. I can’t force her to eat. I am so frustrated by this but I am all out of ideas now.

Sparkle spent her afternoon perched up as usual

Her flock mates watch over her

Whatever will be will be.

This morning I separated Sparkle and set her up with her own feeding station. I threw out the morning corn and sprinkled some extra sunflower hearts as well into Sparkle’s part of the run. This is the only time she joins in with the food at the moment and it meant she was able to get more than usual as she didn’t have to compete with the quicker girls.

I sprinkled in some spinach and gave her water, mash, a little dish of fish and some bits of melon in the hope of tempting her to eat a bit more.

Sparkle’s feeding station

Sparkle spent the day perched here above the table she wasn’t looking very happy

Once again the other girls perched on the other side. By lunch time Sparkle was still sat here and everything on her feeding station was untouched. Even the sunflower hearts were still on the ground. Her dishes were just as I had left them in the morning.

At five o’clock I decided this was pointless and opened up the gate.

The girls rushed in

The girls soon cleaned up

It seems that Sparkle is determined only to eat once a day so there seems little point in shutting her in all day. When I checked back a few minutes later she was sat with the girls and was obviously happier with them. She stood up as I got close because she is wary of me keep picking her up.

Sparkle is back with her flock mates

So on to plan C. I will continue to separate her briefly in the morning to make sure she has the chance to eat as much as possible. I will then open the run and leave her to do as she wants. I can’t force her to eat and am beginning to feel that there is nothing more I can do for her. I would rather that she has the company of the flock and it will have to be up to her to eat or not. I think it’s time to wait and see how this goes.

I said earlier today that I would try Sparkle in a separated part of the run tomorrow but in the end I decided that there was no point in waiting until tomorrow and instead I would do it right away.

By the time I had it all ready it was three o’clock and I decided to leave Sparkle in there until six o’clock. She has water, a dish of mash, a sprinkle of sunflower hearts and some spinach. Of course she took no notice of any of these things and looked quite put out about being separated. Meanwhile the other girls were desperate to get in and were pacing the boundary.

Sparkle’s new home

Emerald was the funniest as she would go to the gate then go round the other part of the run to the hatch, then repeat this several times over. You could almost read her little brain thinking that she was certain she could usually get in through the hatch.

Sparkle looks distinctly unimpressed

Sparkle returns to her favourite spot on the table

At least this space is much bigger than the cat box and has her favourite spot which is where she spends most of her time anyway.

They all perch together

I love how they still find a way to be together with Sparkle on the perch one side of the wire and the rest of the girls on the perch on the other side with the exception of Peaches who is in the nest box and Topaz who is shadowing her so that she can sit on her egg once it’s laid.

I used to wonder what sort of sixth sense Topaz had as she always seemed to know when one of the girls had gone in to lay their egg and which box they were in. While getting the run ready for Sparkle I saw how she does it. Peaches quietly went into the left coop nest box. Once in there she did the usual scratching around to get the shavings how she likes them. As soon as Topaz heard this scratching she was straight over to the little coop. She peered inside then went in to join Peaches. Sneaky!

Just before six o’clock I opened Sparkle’s gate and threw the girls their bedtime sunflower hearts. Sparkle hadn’t touched any of her goodies so perhaps it wasn’t because she didn’t want to be in the cat box that stopped her eating after all.

The girls soon cleaned up in Sparkle’s part of the run and Sparkle took herself off to the bedtime perch.

Looking at her though she doesn’t look as if she is suffering and her comb and wattles and face are still a good red colour. If my theory of her eating once a day like a broody hen is correct then maybe in the morning if I separate her first thing and give her corn and sunflower hearts as well as mash, she may eat a bit more without the competition. I will also leave her with spinach and some fruit as I think just eating anything at this stage is better than eating nothing.

I feel that this is the best I can do for her for now and we will just have to wait and see how the new regime works tomorrow.

Yesterday I felt a bit more positive about Sparkle but today I feel back down again. I think maybe my theory about her was complete rubbish. I am just clutching at straws because I don’t know what else to do for her.

At bedtime last night I sprinkled some sunflower hearts in front of Sparkle but she ignored them.

This morning I put her in the cat box once more with a bowl of water and a dish of mash which I again sprinkled with a few sunflower hearts. This time she didn’t even take the sunflower seeds from the mash. After the usual two hours she still hadn’t made any attempt to eat anything. I offered her a spinach leaf through the bars and she just turned away. She sits quietly and spends time sleeping with her head under wing.

Sparkle sleeping in the cat box

By lunch time she had still not touched the food. I put a cube of melon in her dish to try to tempt her but she ignored it. At half past one I decided to give up and return her to the run.

Sparkle moved at a snail’s pace through the run and started to preen a little.

I offered her some dandelion leaves through the wire and suddenly she seemed interested but couldn’t compete against the speed of the other girls. I got my husband to offer her dandelion leaves while I distracted the girls further up the run with leaves and she ate a few.

It seems that maybe she was having a strop at being put in the cat box. So tomorrow I will try plan B. I am going to separate part of the run like we do for integrating new girls. I will put her in there with water, mash, spinach and sunflower hearts. This way she can eat without competition and I will be able to see what she has eaten.

I can only hope that this may work as I am running out of ideas. We will see what tomorrow brings.

This morning as planned I put Sparkle in the cat box again with a dish of mash with the flubinvet and a bowl of water. Again I sprinkled a few sunflower hearts on top to try and get her interested.

She behaved exactly the same as yesterday. She took the sunflowers from the top of the mash but didn’t eat any mash. Two hours later she suddenly started tucking into the mash.

Sparkle is eating the mash, hurrah!

I only took this one photo as I didn’t want to disturb her but it’s so good to see her eating the mash.

I kept her in the cat box until half past two then I gave her a treat of a piece of melon before rejoining her flock mates.

Sparkle has a bit of melon before going back to the run

Once I returned Sparkle to the run she actually jumped from the patio to the log. She made her way to the bottom of the run and had a token scratch then preened a little. She then returned to the table surrounded by her flock mates.

Sparkle is back on the table

Toffee is on the perch on the other side of the wire, Topaz was wandering in the run and Honey was in the nest box. I think Sparkle is slightly improved for having a bit of food and in the cat box were three normal poops so that’s encouraging.

I have a bit of a theory about what may be going on with Sparkle. I am not sure if the worms came first and lowered her resistance causing whatever was making the crackle in her breathing or if that came first but I think once she had the antibiotics and the crackle cleared up she started to feel better.

I know she was feeling better because she took her first dust bath in ages but then the worms knocked her back again. A few days into the flock being wormed she seemed to improve once more but I think because she had both things to deal with in quick succession it took away her appetite.

Sparkle stopped eating the pellets and was only eating treats but at this stage she would eat the corn in the morning and the sunflower hearts at bedtime. As she improved she started laying again but because of her poor diet she couldn’t make egg shells.

Amber always used to look ill when laying a soft shelled egg but she only laid every couple of weeks so had time in between to recover. Sparkle has always laid most days so she laid (I think) four shell less eggs in quick succession which made her feel really poorly. As she became more poorly she stopped laying (thank goodness) and she also stopped eating at bedtime.

I think what she is doing is pretty much what a broody hen does. She has been feeding once a day (in the morning) then sitting all day and conserving her energy. I think this may be her way of taking time to recover. Because she isn’t expending any energy she is surviving on little food and her condition isn’t getting any worse.

I am hopeful that if I continue the current regime for a week it will do two things for her. It will get her wormed again and get her eating pellet mash which will help her recovery. I know from past problems that all these things can take their time to be properly resolved and I hope that if she doesn’t lay again this season she will gradually get back to normal.

I am once again feeling a bit more hopeful that she will come through this.

Today I needed to start worming the girls for the second time, three weeks from the first time, to break the egg/worm cycle. I have a slight problem though. I ordered more flubenvet powder from my vet three weeks ago (it usually comes in the next day) but there has been a manufacturing problem with flubenvet and there is a back log of orders for it. It isn’t due in until the end of the month at the earliest.

All the other worming products the vet could order are for commercial chicken flocks and only come in huge quantities. Flubenvet is the only wormer that comes in a small size for back yard chicken keepers.

Jackie has come to my rescue. She has recently wormed her girls and had some pellets with flubenvet left over which were reaching their use by date. She passed them on to me in case the flubenvet didn’t arrive in time.

The problem is that with Sparkle not eating pellets it’s going to be tricky getting her to have her dose. I decided the only way was to put her back in the cat box with a dish of water and a dish of mash and leave her there until she eats some. This will be helpful in a couple of ways. It will not only mean she gets wormed but will mean she will eat pellets which she isn’t doing at the moment. It will give me a chance to see what her poop is like and as she only sits all day on the run floor or the table it isn’t a hardship for her.

Last night I emptied the food bowls, washed them and filled them with the new pellets. This morning I made a dish of mash from them and put it in the run to encourage the girls to eat it. They soon got stuck in.

I then picked Sparkle up and put her in the cat box with her dish of mash and a dish of water. I sprinkled a few sunflower hearts and a chopped grape on top of the mash to get her started. I then settled her cat box in the bathroom where she will be safe and cool while we are out doing our deliveries.

Sparkle’s new home for now

Sparkle’s mash and water

I kept checking on her to see if she was eating. I was disappointed that she picked the sunflower hearts from the mash but wasn’t touching the mash itself or even the grapes.

After two hours and just as I was about to leave to do my deliveries I finally caught her tucking into the mash. She was only pecking at it very slowly but at least she was having some.

On my return it didn’t appear that she had eaten much and she wasn’t eating once more. As I would rather she eat anything than nothing at all I gave her some spinach and a small cube of melon. She ate a few leaves and pecked at the melon.

My husband found a worm for her and put it through the bars. Sparkle pecked at it then dropped it. I opened the cat box to try to offer her the worm but she suddenly decided it was time to break for freedom. As she tried to push past my hand she stood in the water bowl and knocked it over.

It seemed that Sparkle had made the decision for us. It was now half past one and time to return her to the run. Once back in the run she preened for a bit and then settled down on the run floor and dozed for a while.

Sparkle is back in the run

At least I feel happier knowing that Sparkle has had some pellets even if it’s not a lot. The poop in the cat box looked quite normal too which is a good sign.

As we will be home for the next two days I intend to do the same thing again and then I will decide how to progress from there. At least it means she is eating some mash and she only spends her days sitting at the moment anyway.

She also seems to have stopped laying now which is good as she couldn’t make shells but is also another sign that all is not well with her. On the positive side she is eating a little, is drinking and pooping and doesn’t look as unhappy as she did when trying to pass a shell less egg. I guess only time will tell but I will keep hoping she will get better and will do all I can to help her.

Poor Emerald looks really scruffy and when I pick her up at bedtime (as gently as I can) she feels as prickly as a hedgehog.

Emerald looks really shabby

I love Emerald’s long neck

Unlike Emerald, Toffee looks quite neat but she has no tail.

Toffee looks quite cute with no tail

These two are the only ones in full moult but I am finding a few of Topaz’s feathers in the run and occasionally one of Sparkle’s. This may be down to just shedding the odd feather though. It still seems a little early for moulting.

A few days ago I noticed that a hole had appeared in the chicken’s dandelion pot. I wondered why anything would want to dig in the dandelions. I pushed the soil back together with my fingers and firmed it down.

Today I decided that I would transplant the dandelions from the pot to the dandelion patch as the ones in the patch looked much more lush than the ones in the pot which also  looked quite dusty. I half dug with the trowel and half pulled with my hands at the dandelions and planted them in the patch.

I then began to ease the soil from the sides of the pot with the intention of putting it in the run for the girls to scratch through. To my surprise something emerged through the soil.

A toad emerged from the soil

We have had a toad in the garden for many years and last year I came upon it on the garden path one evening and photographed it. I am sure this is the same toad and it appears a little bigger each time we see it.

Toad’s close up

Toad’s face

I called my husband to see the toad

We think he was staying still to play dead until any danger had passed. My husband picked him up and put him into the undergrowth of the garden where he soon disappeared.

I then tipped the soil from the pot into the run.

The girls scratching in the soil

Sparkle is missing which once again shows she is not her usual self

I can see by her eyes that she isn’t happy

I love my “together girls” little behinds

Sparkle finally made it to the soil for a peck

Poor Sparkle is so slow and half hearted but at least she makes the effort to try to join in.

Sparkle has moments of looking back to normal then she looks really poorly again.

The table is Sparkle’s favourite place when she doesn’t feel well

I think her problem is that she isn’t eating enough but I also know that a hen that’s not eating enough must have something wrong. If she was well she would eat properly.

She seems to have lost her appetite and therefore will eat treats, corn, sunflower hearts and greens but I hardly see her at the pellets. I have been putting mash in the run each day to try to tempt her but I hardly ever see her go to it. The problem is I can’t force her to eat.

I think that because she isn’t eating properly she can’t make egg shells. I have put her in the cat box three mornings running with a little dish of fish with limestone flour mixed in so that I can be sure she has taken it. Despite this I think she is still laying eggs with no shells.

The first egg with no shell was the one I photographed in the nest box. After that it’s down to detective work. One evening she looked poorly again and when I went in to put the girls to bed there was a dried on patch of yellow on the storage cupboard beneath the high perches. I think it may have been a second egg with no shell and had probably been eaten just leaving a yellow stain.

A few days later she looked really poorly again at bedtime. In the morning when poop picking the run I came across another dried on yellow patch on the bottom rung of the ladder where she likes to perch. I think she may have been perched further up the ladder and it dropped to the lower rung. Again there were no remains just a yellow stain so I can’t be sure but I think it may have been egg yolk as it was too yellow for poop.

If this is the case then that’s three eggs so far with no shell despite her having limestone flour. I really wish she would just stop laying and have the chance to get better but she has always been a good layer. She seems well in between then goes down hill before the next egg is due.

I just don’t know what to do for her. I feel so helpless. I know the vet can’t help as he doesn’t seem to know any more about chicken health than I do.

I also need to start worming the girls again on Friday as they need to be wormed a second time after three weeks to break the worm and egg cycle when worms have been found. This is going to be another problem because as she isn’t eating properly it will mean that I will need to put her in the cat box each day to make sure she takes her dose.

She is very cautious now of me picking her up which makes the whole thing quite tricky. I feel I must get her through this next course of worming and then see how she does. Every time I think she looks better I am soon concerned about her all over again.

I think at the moment I can only continue as we are and keep a close eye on her and hope she gets better. I really hope she may stop laying soon and have a chance to recover but I know that she is not out of the woods yet.