It was late on a Monday afternoon in mid-July in east Tennessee. A real warm day, by local standards. I was about to corral the chickie girls into their run for snacks, preens, and drinks before bed. They had been out most of the afternoon and were lolling about in the corner of the yard near to their run—they tend to just head that way as the sun drops lower in the sky and settles behind the trees. Like many of us like to, if we can: they head toward home as darkness falls.
Anyway, everyone was in about the usual form, except one of our Starlight Green Eggers, Minnie, of Minnie and Pauline: The Tawny Twins. Minnie is our Starlight who does lay green-tinted eggs, whereas her “twin” sister Pauline lays cream-coloured eggs.
Minnie was off. She was lolling a bit too lollingly. She was tipping right on over and napping smack dab in the middle of the yard, which is not standard operations or safe for a chickie girl. I homed in on her behaviour and started to record data. She was panting . . . but so were all of the girls that day—it was humid as can be, some residuals from Canadian wildfire smoke, over 90 F, and not much breeze.
Of course waterers were scattered liberally around the yard and there is lots and lots of shade for the girls to rest or dust under, so what was up?
I started by misting her a bit with the hose. I can’t say I’ve met a chicken who enjoys any sort of attention with a hose, but Minnie just kind of lay there. Not great. When she did move, her posture was a bit hunched, wings splayed open a bit, with her tail down. This tail-down posture could suggest egg binding, but Minnie had laid that morning, so I mostly ruled that out. Best I could deduce at that point she was likely overheated and compounded by the poor air quality, that seemed to check out. With a patient who can’t speak human, it’s a place to start. That or, it was something yet to present itself . . .
When I watched a little longer noticed she was lolling mostly to one side. In fact, she was almost toppling over onto her right side. Not limping, no wounds, nothing to suggest an attack, and there had been no uproarious bah-gawking by the girls that afternoon, which is a standard dénouement to predatory infringement. The only other thing I could think was maybe an insect bite, but there were no blisters and there too, I hadn’t heard any wild bah-gawking with Minnie bolting out of the bushes. The common presentation, in our experience, of an insect bite.
Because the flock seemed to be heading in a roosting direction, I “scratched” the girls in (more about that another time) accompanied by lots of fresh cold water. Chickens, esp. our sweet Lady, love their water ‘on the rocks’ to keep it extra chill.
I watched as Minnie made her way up to roost in the house with her sisters. I didn’t want to yank her out of the flock if I didn’t have to, because our belief is a happy chicken (in most cases!) is a life-as-usual chicken. It’s stressful for them to navigate change . . . it’s stressful for me to navigate change. So, we don’t isolate them from the flock just because they seem “too hot.”
Then I popped my head into the house and Ms. Minnie was panting a lot more than her sisters were after cool down evening snacks and ice water. She was also holding both of her wings way out on either side, in a static partial flap and she was having a hard time balancing on her roosting bar. Given that she was now struggling to “life-as-usual” roost, it was time to bring her in and observe more closely in the ICU (Inside-the-house Chicken Unit. Thank you, Bobby!).
I started with an Epsom salt laced cooling bath. I filled a large plastic bin (perfect multi-purpose chicken bath) about with about 1.5 feet deep with very cool water and a cup of Epsom salts. In the off chance too that this was something pelvic / laying related the soak could help that too. Mostly, I was worried about heat still and trying to bring her body temperature down.
We have offered many of our girls a little spa soak due to heat, or other circumstances. A lot of folks write that chickens love the experience and will chill right out and “just float.” That has never been our experience, but on that day (thankfully, because I was single-handed) Minnie did just chill right out. I gave her about 15-20 minutes and then emptied and dried the plastic bin and to use it as her ICU ward. (Head’s up—after this I finally splurged on a very inexpensive puppy crate . . . a purchase we will never regret.)
Once in her ICU cubicle more data was collected. Minnie was hungry and thirsty. She gobbled up some super snarf, which is great for an ailing chicken with a little extra protein and also lots of water. When I didn’t see her drinking much, I did the drop-by-drop method: If you wet your finger and place a drop below the crest / middle of a hen’s beak it will trickle down to the tip and, if they are not super sick, they’ll sip it up. Minnie was game and I maybe got a ¼ teaspoon into her body, drop-by-drop.
She had started panting again, so it seemed like no matter what else was going on, she was hot. I tucked a small freezer pack in with her—something helpful to have on hand for the chickie girls ICUing. To my delight, Minnie snuggled right on top of it. Hunkering down to rest her sweet bones and feathers.
It was more of that through the evening. Checking in. Videos to S who was away that night. It’s a clear indicator that a chicken is needs to be inside, isolated, and get some deep rest when they don’t constantly fight for escape, but instead settle in and Go. To. Sleep. That’s what Minnie did.
The next morning, a lingering suspicion of a diagnosis was confirmed. Minnie may have been over-heated, she also had a blister rising between her right index and middle claw. Minnie had been stung by [insert unknown insect here] and was navigating the pain and discomfort of that. And the effects of the venom, which I think make chickens feel more than a bit drugged.
This was not our first chicken vs. insect bite. Edie was bit right on her sweet face by something in our first year chickening. Oprah was bit on her able left foot the next year, which as particularly challenging because her sweet right foot is less able. So, Oprah just kinda needed to sit a while, and then she recovered.
The common denominators with all of the bites:
- Often announced by a flurried bah-gawk-a-thon by just one bird: This followed by the bird bolting from bushes may present the first data in diagnosis. Both Edie and Oprah were deep in the scrub and came barreling out of the bushes when they were bit. All sorts of noise, we were expecting some predator pursuit. Not so, these times!
- Swelling or blister: Edie’s poor face was so monstrously swollen she looked like a completely different pers-hen.
- Ice helps: As mentioned, Minnie hunkered down on the ice pack. Oprah settled into some lap time with cubes, and Edie (a Clover Lover, but not a snuggle bug) sat on Mommy’s lap whilst letting ice cubes melt and drip down her sweet cheek.
Minnie’s blister, that presented the day after her ICU stay. - Benadryl / allergy meds don’t help: With Edie’s bite, we did some reading and quickly learned chickens have much different systems, being more closely related to dinosaurs than mammals. For more about chickens and Benadryl, have a look here. A tiny sliver of a tiny baby aspirin will help with the pain, but allergy meds = no go!
- They will be woozy and drowsy for a day or two: It really does take it out of them when they’re stung. Most chickens are between 3-5 pounds. Humans, are like 100-160. Imagine the impact, with the same amount of venom. So, just to keep them cool, separated, and let them rest.
- The blisters will go down in about a week: We considered draining the blister that formed on Oprah’s foot. S. suggested maybe better not too, b/c it might open up her system for other invaders. That made sense, chickens’ feet are exposed to a lot. We just let it go down on its own. I did the same with Minnie. Seems to have been fine for both, though if anyone has other recommendations, please share those below.
- If it’s just one bite they’ll probably be fine: Best I can tell the three girls (that we know of) who were stung have just had one bite. They all lived. I do wonder how this kind of bite might impact one of our Tiny Twins who are about 1.5 lbs each. With Edie’s bite, I read some sad stories about hens dying after sustaining multiple bites. There’s not much we can do to control these kinds of natural variables—especially with free range birds. Hopefully no one in our flock or yours will have to heal from more than one.
I did put Minnie out with her sisters about half-way through the day after her sting. She ranged a bit and rested a quite bit. I was partly caving because she had become a bit “whiny” being in the house that day, and, as I suspected, she needed to get out to the nest box to lay her egg. I didn’t want her to stress and resist laying and potentially add egg-binding to the mix. I figured she’d be happier with fresh pine straw under her tail feathers, and she was.
The next night Minnie was still very wobbly on the roost, so I brought her back in to the ICU and she, again, seemed very happy just to rest on a towel and her little blue ice pack. By the second day after the bite, Minnie was back to business as usual. I put her out with her sisters straight away that morning and when I checked in on her on the roost that night, she was balanced comfortably (hunkered down) on the perch.
This has been our experience with Edie and Oprah too. Chickens will be woozy and tender for about 48–72 hours following the first symptoms, but then they are ready to get back to life-as-usual chickening.
I’ve mentioned this before, avoid taking a chicken out of the flock longer than you need to. It can really mess with the whole order of pecking when it’s time to reintegrate. And trying to reintegrate too soon, when the chicken is still very weak can mess things up too. When you do bring a healed hen back, keep an eye out as she finds her way back in. If she is still weak, she may be subject to (literally) hen pecking. She might do better with another day.
Of course, there are all sorts of approaches to chickening. Not all chickie girls are as indulged as ours, and I am sure there are some who are even more pampered. This way might be way over your way . . . if it is you probably aren’t still reading this. And, that’s OK. Livestock is livestock. Family is family. All approaches are the right approach when we find the balance of what we can offer to what we receive.