Britters the House Hen

  We had the idea to treat Britters like a human and give her Physical Therapy (PT). PT Box #1 - At first we noticed she was lonely. We put her in a open shoe box with pine chips and brought her to watch baseball with us at our great room bar. She couldn’t fly or run/jump so all that was needed was for one of us to always be in arms reach to stop her if she tried to launch. She got used to the kitchen noises and doesn’t spook at blenders, food processors or the kitchenaid mixer anymore.  Her wing healed first. She started flapping her wings and scissoring her legs up and down.  PT Box #2 - We decided to try another PT with her. We took an amazon box and put a rectangular hole in the bottom. Flipped the box over and lowered her legs through the hole. This allowed her to sit on the box and her legs to dangle, stretching slowly using gravity.  Bicycle PT - One of us had the idea that we should “bicycle” her legs and see if we can slowly regain her range of motion to ben...

  My husband and I started giving Britters bird ICU - moving her food and water to be next to her and trying to make her comfortable wherever she was. After a couple days, she started letting us take care of her. I would give her warm baths with 2-3 drops of Seventh Generation dish soap and blow dry her because she was getting poopy-butt which can be deadly if the vent is not unblocked. I think the warm baths felt good because she’d have more range of motion after her bath.  ICU diet - We started giving her scrambled eggs every morning; mealworms and watermelon in the afternoon. We changed her food to a mix of ManaPro Medicated + Purina Chick Starter + Chick Grit with probiotics. (We did this because we didn’t know what all was wrong with her and figured she is never going outside at this point.) Tried cat food and yogurt but she was not a fan of either.

  Somewhere around 8 weeks of age, Britters broke both of her legs. I had taken her out of the pen with the others to hang out in my office. I left the room to visit the kitchen. I came back in and she was in distress and no longer able to walk. She was dragging herself across the floor. No leg function at all. There may have been more injury, possibly her keel was fractured as well. That night she sprained one of her wings and could hardly move. Honestly I thought she was done. I started researching how to humanely euthanize her. My husband suggested we try separating her again but completely away from the others not in the same place as them. My husband built the others a huge pen in our AZ room where we have a window AC unit. This allowed us to acclimate them slowly to the heat. That summer we had over 50 days of over 110F.  We put Britters in their former home, the dog crate, in my office with no other birds. She had no issues with eating or drinking. Eyes were bright and ...

  Around 5-6 weeks old, I started letting the chicks roam my home office a couple hours a day. We kept this up until they went to their “college dorm” coop in our AZ room. Whenever we would let the flock out to play, Britters would stay in their house. She wouldn’t come out unless I helped her to. When she would come out, if she got spooked, she would literally fly/run in a panic into objects. Sometimes she would get trampled by her nest mates.  At some point she hurt one of her legs and started limping.  Developmentally Britters seemed to lag behind the others physically. For example she didn’t learn to jump or fly on the same schedule with the others. Even as a 5 week old chick, she seemed colder/shyer and stayed under the heating plate more than they did.  At around 6 weeks old, she sprained one of her legs in one of her anxiety attack/ panic fits. She started limping around. This made her less mobile and less willing to come out of the pen. The others picked on h...

  Yes, pecking order is a real thing. We discovered from the start that Britters is the runt chick. She seems to always be one step behind the others in development. Around 3 weeks, we noticed she isn't thriving like the others. Maybe she's not getting enough resources because she is the runt? The others push her out of the way. She was unsteady and wobbly on her feet almost like she was having balance issues. The Arizona Backyard Chicken Facebook page is an amazing resource. I reached out and got advice on how to help Britters.  The advice: Up the protein to the whole flock. Scrambled eggs, cat food are good sources of easy to digest protein. Note - Chicks can't eat meal worms until they are old enough to eat grit.  Start Poly Vi Sol (without iron) by Enfamil. One tiny drop per day in her beak. (she hates this and let’s be honest, it smells vile) Try to help her have a chance to get resources. Duplicate the water and spread the food out. We noticed that as the runt,...

Britters and her cohorts arrived by USPS on a Monday morning. At 8am, the post office called and told me they were in. I rushed down there. When I opened the post office door I was greeted by choruses of baby chick peeps! I can't imagine how the post office does it. There were hundreds of baby chicks waiting for pick up. I picked up ours and rushed home, wondering about the fate of the other baby chicks. I tell myself that the post office probably has a deal with someone who can take the ones that no one picks up. I can't imagine anything else.  We got home and the first thing the instructions say to do is get some water into them. I mixed up the baby chick gatorade gel and put it on the ground for them. I gently eye dropper fed them tiny drops of water and their gel. The each drank well and began to eat the gel/chick feed mix off the paper I gave them. They slept the rest of the day, waking only to eat/drink.  The next day the babies were definitely more active but ohhhhhh so...