Pearl, the Miracle Hen,
Pearl, one of my Delawares is truly a miracle hen, yesterday she layed an egg, the first real egg with a normal shell for over a year. She was extremely sick just a few weeks ago and had lost most of her weight, she was just bones and feathers. Last summer the rooster had done a lot of damage to their feathers, and Pearl and Bianca's feathers never grew back well over the winter when everybody else was molting. Sometimes this summer I learned about an antibiotic called Denagard that treats a common infection in layers that leads to symptoms that I saw in some of my hens, so I used that and almost instantly their feathers grew back. But after that I had a few hens getting diarrhea, so I treated everybody for that, when all was well, I used the Denagard again because I had read that it has to be repeated. Some time after that I notice that Pearl had feathers missing on her neck, I had no idea why, and then at some point I noticed her crop was distended and wasn't going down over night. So I treated for impacted crop but saw no improvement. Her appetite remained good, but the crop was just huge. I took her to the vet and he thought it may be thrush and recommended vinegar or copper sulfate. So I tried the vinegar in the water, but had no success. I was encouraged that she continued to eat, despite the huge crop, but I knew at some point she would crash. Then her appetite decreased and I became rather desperate, surgery for the crop was out of reach, plus I wasn't sure if it was really impacted or what else was going on. Then I read some more about thrush and realized that the swollen crop can be a symptom. So I asked my vet for Nystatin. The day I got it I had 2 more hens with symptoms so I started treating all 3, two of the recovered quickly, Pearl's recovery was very slow and I often felt like giving up. She wasn't eating or drinking, so I really had to force fluids and some nutrients into her together with the medicine, she never cooperated, it was a fight each time. I finally noticed the size of her crop decreasing, it took about another week until her crop returned to a normal size, she had lost just about every little bit of fat she had and she has been eating like crazy ever since. I don't remember her ever being as active and lively as she is now, she follows me around, she shows up when I use the garden hose because she knows I might uncover something with bugs under it, she chases everbody else away from anything edible. She is gaining back weight and for her to lay an egg was simply a miracle that I didn't expect, but I caught her in the nestbox with the egg still wet, and it did have one end looking just a bit uneven, which is what her eggs used to be like before she stopped laying. Unfortunately her sister Bianca got sick again a week ago, diarrhea and mushy crop, so she is in the sick ward now (laundry room) and on Nystatin, after a week of force feeding, she has started eating again the last few days and has started foraging with the flock the last 3 days, first very slowly, but today I saw her pecking at another hen who came too close to the food, so she is on the mend, I just have to keep up the Nystatin longer this time.
Next thing on the list is to worm everybody with something that treats multiple internal parasites, not that I have ever seen any evidence of parasites, but I think it is a good practice with free ranging hens to worm them occasionally to make sure that they are not infested and suffering poor health due to parasites.
another shot of Daisy the new pullet, I think the previous owner's puppy's name was Daisy, seems like a fitting name for the pullet in memory of her other family. I am sure she feels a bit lonely without her 3 rooster friends she grew up with, she doesn't even know how lucky she is to get away from them just in time before they start harrassing her. The previous owner said they had just started "playing" with her. I had to justify getting another chicken, here it is, I had to save her from the roosters.
another shot of her
Sir Oliver putting all his might into crowing
He is such a pretty little fellow
Pearl
Bianca in the foreground and Pearl in the back, they are my two Delaware hens, they were both sick not long ago and last winter they never grew back their feathers from the rooster damage, so I had to put up heat lamps to keep them from getting too cold, now they both have beautiful new feathers and no problem staying warm
A giant egg, I measured it and it was 3 inches long, it had two perfect seperate yolks inside.
In this picture Bianca is in the back and Pearl in the front, from what I can tell, chickens that are the same breed and were raised together around other chickens still seem to hang out with each other. I am so happy to see these two looking so good again and being active and even laying eggs again.