April 16, 2012 Another Sick Chicken

Today's post continues the Illness Saga.

After Fearless recovered and was re-introduced into the flock in December, I started to notice that Blondie was sitting still, fleathers fluffed up and head drawn in. Her comb had shrunk and she didn’t really want to move much.  I decided to watch her a few days to see if I should take her out of the pen or not.

She did eat and even lay a few eggs in December, but continued to be very quiet and fluffed up.  I began another round of chicken illness research, but couldn’t find anything definitive for her condition.

This is an interesting observation:  Fearless would sit or be near Blondie during the time she was sick AND Blondie had been the first mean one to Fearless at her introduction back after being up at the house-hospital. Go figure: it was like - “I know what you’re going through and I’m not mad you pecked me. So I’ll be here to  watch over you.”

In the Dec2010/Jan2011 issue of Backyard Poultry, I read about a woman who treated her chickens with herbal remedies. As I had already treated Fearless rather holistically, it didn’t seem to far fetched to start Blondie on something, too.  I read about Burdock root helping to rid the body of toxins and comfrey root as being a good tonic for general health, so I brewed up a concoction of dried roots plus crushed garlic. I put it in their water bowl for everyone - couldn’t hurt to be proactive.  I also sprinkled “Astragalus” herb on a batch of meal worms and fed them to everyone several times during the month. Astragalus is used in Chinese medicine as an immune system enhancer.

And, by the way, I am not advocating anyone use herbs without consulting a medical professional first!

Gradually through January she got better, her comb began to perk up. She’s in full fledged laying again: bright and alert and the largest of my chickens.  Of course, being that Buff Orpingtons are dual breeds [eggs and meat] it would stand to reason that she’d be a big girl.

I’m keeping fingers crossed that she has made a full recovery because she is lookin' very healthy now!

And, the benefit of her illness is she is more tolerant of me.

It's hard to tell where she falls in the pecking order of flock dynamics, but she is certainly not picked on by the others in the same way as Fearless is: Blondie seems to be alert to strange noises and keeps a watchful eye when she is out in the playground, and yet she is more of a loner preferring to forage by herself a lot of the time. 

Here she is sitting with the Wyandotte sisters.