A Chicken in a People House

Last Monday afternoon I went out to check on the chickens and found one of our ladies in rough shape.  She was huddled up in the corner and her beak was open with a piece of ice in her mouth.  After a second look, I realized that her mouth was stuck open and that piece of ice was keeping her from closing her beak.

With no other warm place to put her, I brought her in the house.  She spent the rest of the day in a clear rubbermaid tote lined with straw guzzling water and having stare downs with the cat.  By the time bedtime came, she had drank nearly 6 cups of water.  

When she came in, she could not stand and was definitely in distress.  My first thought was that she had an egg broken inside of her, as we have lost hens that way in the past.  But first I had to address the ice in her beak which went away pretty quickly when I offered her a bowl of lukewarm water.  I was surprised at just how much water she drank.  

The next thing I did was examine her vent.  The feathers around her "area" were all clumped up so I cleaned them as best I could with a soft cloth and warm water with a few drops of dish soap in it.  At first she didn't seem to mind my hand being back there, but after a few minutes she had had enough and wanted me away from her nether region.  I did get her cleaned up enough to see that her vent was open and healthy looking.

She spent the night in her makeshift nest by the stove and never tried to escape.  By mid morning on Tuesday, she was standing up and looking pretty good, so I gave her some oats.  She pecked at them a bit, but when offered some of Joey's soggy raisin bran, she perked right up.

Hoping that she was recovered enough to re-join her flock, we put her back in the coop before leaving for work.  She seemed fine when I checked on her later that day and this morning again when I went out.

I am left wondering what caused the distress.  The obvious culprit is the weather.  The cold was brutal for several days.  I have put dishpans full of snow in the coop since it is impossible to keep water in its liquid form out there and have tried adding a bit of water to their mash to keep them hydrated.  Whatever the cause, at least the story has a happy ending.