Elderly Hens - letting go

 Elderly Hen - saying goodbye

Our beautiful brown red Pekin hen Selene has not recovered from her winter moult this spring. Usually her comb shrinks and loses its red, waxy sheen and she drops weight and energy from around May – September.  Just when we begin to worry about her, suddenly a spark ignites into a massive production of weight gain and good health.  Her comb doubles in size, it reddens and glows shiny and new and her dominating behaviours triple as she brings the flocks into line for the laying season.  However this year there was no new life, there was only the beginning of some seriously concerning signs of ill health.  From early October we noticed that Selene seemed to be unsteady on her feet.  She needed to be lifted out of the sleeping hutch or else she would be the last to leave and would struggle painfully down the ramp to the ground.  I initially removed the roosts from the sleeping hutch as I found that making her way over these was the biggest problem in getting up and out in the morning.  However when I found her unable to step down less than 2 inches off a slightly puffy pillow, I knew she was in real trouble.  She also had begun to need regular cleaning (washing in the laundry trough) of her rear as her droppings were accumulating there within two days.  She could not preen herself or scratch her face as she was so unsteady on her feet.  The Vet found no sign of cancer in her belly and so we started by treating her sore legs with anti-inflammatories.  By the end of that weekend I knew that she was making no improvement and considering she had not been sick even one day in the seven years we had her, I knew the signs that our girl was finally succumbing to her long life.  So we arranged an afternoon appointment for her. 

She was so good, so trusting and gentle as the Vet slipped a gas mask over her little face and we held her close whilst she succumbed to the anaesthetic.  It was a quiet and graceful end to our beautiful lady.  The other girls cooed over her little body at home and she took her place next to Rosie, our recently departed Wyandotte under the rose bush in our back garden. 

This leaves us with three hens.  Alice our wheaten Pekin, Farrah the black Silkie and Jewel our oversized, black Pekin bantam.  I was always worried that Jewel would go totally feral if Selene passed away and she was left in charge.  The truth is with such a small flock in such a large pen, that competition is virtually nil, so Jewel has in fact not bothered to exert herself over either of her hen sisters.  So we’ve smoothly moved to a three hen flock without a hitch.  The only problem being that we hate to see so few girls in our garden, especially as we can not restock the flock under the current cloud of the ILT virus.  It’s been a heck of a year with so much loss and so much sickness.  We thank our lucky stars for the ladies we have left but I worry every day as to who will be next and  what we will do when we have only one girl left with no one to give her the company that hens absolutely must have to ensure their happiness.  

Selene - October 2013.  Seven wonderful years as our top girl.

3 in 4

Today we had our 3 year old white Silkie hen Angie put to sleep.  In less than 4 weeks we have lost Bantam Wyandotte Amelia, black Silkie hen Jetta and now Angie.  We had a flock of 9 to begin the year and it's so sad to see 6 beautiful girls remaining with no certainty or relief of this nasty run of ill health.

Angie - gone but never forgotten and always loved

ILT Testing

Angie has been sent to the WA Department of Agriculture to be tested for ILT.  There is no way to test for ILT other than post mortem.  It's really sad that Angie will not come back home for a proper burial.  We've only ever had 1 other hen in more than 15 years not come home and that was by nothing more than a poor decision on my behalf.  

I do hope that ILT is not detected.  This would then lead the way to other potentially less serious possibilities eg. fowl diptheria/ wet fowl pox or mycoplasma/ chronic respiratory infection   ILT means no new chickens.  Not unless we want to infect previously healthy birds with a vicious viral condition.  It would mean keeping those hens we do have until they have all passed away  After which we would basically raze the existing pen, wait several weeks and then considered starting from scratch.

Jetta - 9 years of loveliness.  Fowl Pox proved too much.

 

Fowl Pox

In the mean time we have had Wheaten Pekin hen Alice, black Silkie Farrah and Buff Pekin Holly all with Fowl Pox.  Alice went back in to the pen on Monday 18th February.  We kept her in the house for 17 days to try and stop the spread of the Pox virus.  Such a beauty.  Alice is so tame and gorgeous.  She would bounce out of her hutch once the door was unlocked and come in to the kitchen to preen on the floor, await feeding and have a chat.  If we went outside or out of view she would call and call.  I could hear her screaming from the kitchen, no doubt the neighbours could also hear her at 7:00am as I was feeding the other girls in the garden and I'd come running in the house to tell her everything was okay.  Our dog Madi developed a bit of a fancy for Alice, typical Jack Russell stalker.  Otherwise it was all smooth sailing.  I was really happy to see Alice lay her first egg in more than 3 weeks on Monday.  She's also massively fat (in a healthy hen way) and eating well.  I have great hopes for her and her sister Holly who is equally ravenous and portly.

A Crowing Hen

Our remaining girls Selene, Rosie and Jewel have shown no signs of Fowl Pox infection.  Though both Jewel and Selene are moulting and are ripe for all sorts of nasties.  The only odd behaviour is Selene crowing occasionally.  But that's pretty standard for her.  Being the dominant hen and having her hormones twisted up at the end of the laying season she's inclined to go rogue and lose the plot a bit.  It does her no harm and due to the hit and miss nature of the occasional crowing it does not bother the neighbours in any way. I've seen Selene faux mate with the hens on occasion.  She takes her role as head chicken very seriously indeed! 

Selene - a hen in disguise

Once Again, in Writing

It's really deflating caring for the girls when they're so sick and then thinking about writing it all down on top of the medicating, Vet visits, hutch cleaning, daily hen linen laundering, crop feeding.  It just goes on and on and as much as I love them and would do it all again it does feel pretty awful to then relive it all in writing.  So the Blog suffers as they suffer.  But I do hope to get Angie's ILT results within 1 week and either move forward or deal with a rather bleak future as best we can.          

When a Dog Loves a Chicken

I don't actually understand completely how anyone could not love my chickens.  I intellectually 'get it' but I'm still blindly convinced that anyone who got to know my girls, would be unable to not love and cherish them. 

However I don't understand why our Jack Russell Madi, became madly infatuated with one particular hen.  It was most definitely puppy love - but with a big sprinkle o' crazy. 

The objection of her affection was our beautiful, brown red Pekin, Commemorative Wedding Chicken and pen champion (dictator), Selene.  It was full on, thunderbolt obsession.  Madi saw Selene and just went gaga. 

Oh we thought it was so wonderful and funny and cute and awesome.  Madi followed Selene everywhere.  Staring at her and staying close.  Selene learnt to ignore Madi and it just became standard behaviour.  

Madi had no interest in the 10 other hens we had at that time.  We'd never had a problem with Madi and the chickens in more than 5 years, so although a bit cautious, we weren't concerned about Selene's safety.  

The Paw that Rocks the Cradle  

(and other tacky, stalker movies from the 90's) 

Madi went true Hollywood, stalker movie character, bananas crazy in the end.  Why is it so easy to see this coming in a bad movie, but so much more difficult to accept in real life?

This obsession had gone on for 8 or 9 months and by that time we had moved to a different house.  I was outside, steering the hens from the garden back in to their pen.  Madi was around as per usual.  Selene was very close to the gate of the chicken house but then got spooked from Madi's closeness and me encroaching in on her to get through the gate opening.  Selene went to run and this sparked Madi off immediately.  Madi lunged at Selene.  She grabbed Selene by the wing and began dragging her around.  Selene was screaming and thrashing about, which only inflamed Madi even more so.  

I was screaming at Madi to let go.  I grabbed Selene and pulled her away from Madi.  Selene was still flapping about, scratching my arms with her claws and smacking me in the face with her wings.  I put her straight in to the pen and slammed the door.  I was really concerned that Madi would turn on the other hens, who were all coming towards the pen by then.  But the obsession with Selene held.  Madi had no interest in the other hens. 

I took Madi, led her out of the garden and took her inside the house.  I then returned all other hens to their house and finally cooled off.  I inspected Selene and found no damage.  Madi seemed to have grabbed a mouth full of wing feathers, rather than anything further down.  

A Lesson in Obsession

Like any obsession, it either wears out or blows out.  In this instance we were just plain lucky to have been there to save Selene.  These days Madi has forgotten about her crazy love.  She is no longer allowed to be with the hens in the garden or within reach of them otherwise. 

I guess sometimes we love our pets so much, we kid ourselves in to thinking that they've overcome some of their basic instincts.  It seems really stupid now that we let Madi live out her obsession.  But maybe it actually proves me right in the end.  Maybe anyone or anything who spends lots of time around my hens does inevitably grow to love them.  Even a dog.  

Selene, November 2012.  What's not to love?

Brown Red Pekin

The brown red Pekin bantam is not a colour I have come across often in Perth.  It is characterised by a stunning golden and black pattern on the neck feathers, leaving the remaining feathers jet black from the neck downwards.  I first saw a brown red Pekin at the Royal Agricultural Show in Perth about 6 years ago.  I was feeling particularly keen to buy a hen, as I had been saying for a while that we needed a chicken to commemorate our wedding.  There was no commemorative wedding chicken precedent to back up the buy but all the same she was a very necessary $25 purchase to ensure marital success (and it's working out very well indeed so far).

How to Give a Chicken a Pedicure

We brought home our beautiful new girl and named her Selene.  One thing that stood out was that Selene had some foot problems.  There is a really common bug that is known by the name 'Scaly Leg Mite'.  They are microscopic but leave a very visible trail of destruction.  They burrow under the scales of the feet, lifting the scales upwards from the skin at about a 20 degree angle and produce pieces of some kind of debris in their travels which then results in the feet looking swollen, knobbly, dry, dare I say it crusty and altogether a bit scary.  It must be very itchy, painful and chronically uncomfortable for the hen.  In Selene's case she was hatched without scales on her feet.  She is also missing a couple of claws.  So the mites had no scales to work with, but went about their hideous business right on cue all the same.  She's also got quite stubby little toes so this made her feet look even more swollen and painful.  
My Vet had set us up with a good supply of liquid medication which gets applied directly to the feet several times over a few weeks.  After several weeks the lumps and bumps from the mites fell away to reveal smooth, yellow (the right colour for her breed), chubby little toes and hopefully left Selene feeling comfortable and content again. I also trimmed back some of her nails which were so long that they had begun twisting at the ends.  They may not be the prettiest little feet, but they are in the best shape possible.  Six years later Selene hasn't shown even a moment of ill health since. 

 

Rant for the Week

It really irks me how some owners can clearly see there is something wrong with their hens (the signs of Scaly Leg Mite are blazingly obvious) and yet do nothing about it.  It is really easy and also cheap to fix Scaly Leg Mite and if treated as soon as the hen arrives home, the hen quarantined for a couple of weeks to ensure that she does not pass it onwards, I have never seen it come back so far.  

Selene - November 2012

I've also seen apparently well meaning people apply natural remedies to treat Scaly Leg Mite.  This doesn't work for me either.  Natural remedies in this case appear to temporarily moderate the problem but don't actually kill it off permanently. 
If you or one of your children had mites crawling around your feet, burrowing away, leading to swelling, growths, ongoing discomfort, chronic itching - would you moderate it and allow the pain to go long term or fix it permanently with a simple, short term and safe treatment?  Our pets can not offer an opinion on their preferred treatment, they rely on their owners to do what is best for them.  I guarantee if a hen was offered the choice between chronic up and down painful symptoms versus some oily liquid on their feet to cure the problem - they'd go modern medicine.  

Queen Selene - one hen to rule them all

Anyway, it's more than six years since our beautiful, brown red girl has come to live with us.  She took over the position of top hen about 4 years ago and rules the roost with a firm, feisty and committed wing.  During spring each year her hormones go large and she explodes in to this huge, brilliant and stormy bird.  Her comb (red part on top of her head - see photo above) doubles in size, she has the energy of 10 chickens and she gets herself so stressed out that she approaches us daily for hugging and respite.  It's the sweetest and oddest thing.  She pecks me urgently but quite gently on the leg somewhere to get my attention and isn't settled until I scoop her up, sit her on my thigh and wrap her up in my arms for several minutes.  She's so focused and concerned about keeping an eye on and keeping in line the other hens, that she needs time out to get herself back in order.  That's the best explanation I have for it.  

Selene - Christmas morning, December 2011