Our buff leghorn chicken has been acting strangely this last week. At first I thought she had gone broody, as I kept finding her sitting on her egg – typical as she is the only one of the four laying; good as gold, an egg a day. The cream legbar, layer of the blue eggs has only given us a few, and seems to have stopped again…
Anyway, then the buff started sitting in the box without eggs, after we had taken it, and then today I noticed she has dark patches on her comb, which is a bit floppy. I’ve been googling but can’t find what it is, and with the current news decided to consult the vet. I don’t think the vet really knows what it is either, and described it as ‘a respiratory virus’ and gave her a shot of antibiotics. See already I see a discrepancy – antibiotics are not supposed to hit viruses are they? We are keeping her separate – to my son’s delight who had already commandeered a run down empty hen house as his own animal hospital (we had watched animal rescue as part of home ed last year…), and now he has his first proper patient (not that we are allowing him to treat her).
If you recognise the symptoms, please let me know.
The white earlobes are perfectly normal, by the way, as the colour of chicken’s earlobes indicate what colour eggs they will/do lay. And a buff leghorn lays chalky white eggs.
colour it green 