[joyofchicks]

Does anyone else have a blind hen?

I have a blind black orpington who came to me third hand over a year ago after being bullied at her home and foster home.  Her sight was fine at first but deteriorated and I noticed she wasn't leaving the hen house.  I now have her in a separate house as I had bullying issues too.  The other hens 'visit' during the day but keep to their own house at night.  The black orp (we call her Aretha Franklin) seems healthy, eats and drinks well and is fine as long as she is in her own environment.  She is quite an old girl but lays the occasional egg in the summer.  Can anyone advise who has a similar situation?  My husband thinks I am too soft and she should 'go'.

[CameronS]

I did, i had a partially blind barnvelder hen sadly she got killed in a freak buzzard attack where all the bale sighten hens escaped to the house and she was left out in the run.     

Had it not been for the horrible turn of events she would still be chooking around as happy  as the rest of them,  the only thing i could not do was move the food or water as she needed to know where everything was so she could move around the run easily. i did have to make sure she was fist out and got first digs at food and water so she at least got something.

she was very friendly in that she folowed you around like a dog, i guess this gave her some piece of mind.

if she is find, healthy and happy, and giving you a few eggs then i would keep her. 

[doganjo]

I need glasses and don't lay eggs any more - I just dare anyone try to 'let me go' 

And that includes the notorious 'KEV'  B O Kev!!!!

[sheila]

when people say that a hen ( or other animal) should "go" what they really mean is that someone else should do the going! What a good reply from doganjo!

[Blinkers]

I had a white leghorn last year and she gradually slowed down.....and they're normally completely MAD.....and I didn't pay much attention until one morning I opened the hen house door and everyone poured out except this leghorn.   She just stood there.   So I picked her up and stood her outside the house.  She did nothing.  I picked her up and check her all over -nothing except she was clearly getting very thin.   Then I realised that she was completely and utterly blind.  She's obviously been going bling over the previous couple of months, hence the slowing down bit, until her sight went completely.   Such a shame.   I dispatched there and then 

[morri2]

I had a blind cockerel as a result of an attack by another cockerel.  OH dispatched the other cockerel as it had also attacked a hen.  The one we kept wasn't blind at first, his sight deteriorated after the attack.  He stayed with the hens until his sight had completely gone, then only stayed with them at night, during the day he had an enclosure.  Eventually he was showing signs of mental deterioration too as he kept shaking his head and was finding it difficult to find his feed bowl, so we had to have him put to sleep.  Yes, at the vets, soft I know, but we had become so attached to him that we couldn't bear to do it ourselves.

I am also of the opinion that if they have some quality of life, why get rid?  If the blind hen is laying occasional eggs, and seems happy enough, then leave her be.

[joyofchicks]

Thankyou all for your replies. 

Aretha will continue to live out her dotage with us.

Here she is in May 2009 when she still roamed the garden!

[Roxy]

I discovered one of my hens was blind.  I would lift her out of the shed every day, and she seemed happy enough, pecking the grass.  Never ventured too far, but I did worry that she could not see approaching danger.  But she coped, and would wait to be lifted in at night.

Sadly she died one day while out in the field - no sign of an attack.

I would not cull a hen just because of it being blind, so long as it was happy.