Ross Cobs as meat birds

Hey Jenny Yeah, been run off my feet the last few days. Hope you are OK - have you recovered fully now? I told my OH, Kes, about the water reservoir on the CPAP machines and no, he hasn't got one. He didn't know you could get them with this, so as he suffers from his throat and nose drying out in the night, next time he goes for a check up he's gonna ask about the water tank option. He said to say thanks very much And yes, I know what you mean when you say there is a definite Scorpio thing going on there! Kes says he looks like he's about to pilot a MIG fidhter plane.

As American TV here goes, we get LOADS of it!!!! Sci-Fi wise (Kes is a massive sci-fi fan too), we watch Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek DS9 and this great new series of hour long stories has recently come on called Masters of Science Fiction. Each week there is a dramatised version of a classic sci-fi short story. The last one we watched was 'Jerry Was a Man' (Robert A. Heinlein). It was really good. Next one is Watchbird (Robert Sheckley). I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, I think mainly because for some reason, it was a genre I was never encouraged to read or never thought I would enjoy. I think this is because I am female and women aren't encouraged to go down that road. I know there are lots of women who enjoy sci-fi (like you), but I think it is still quite male dominated. I have, however, promised to give some sci-fi material a go (even if it's just to try and do my bit in smashing a stereotype) starting with Iain M Banks. This is one of Kes' favourite sci-fi authors and, coincidently, I love his fiction under the name Iain Banks. So I figured this might be a good place to start. He also likes Asimov, Alistair Reynolds, John Wyndham, Michael Moorcock, William Gibson et al. However, having said all this, one of my favourite 'quick reads' is Michael Moorcocks Behold The Man. I read that ages ago and loved it. I think I've read it at least 7 times! I guesss I just didn't think of it as a sci-fi story which just shows my ignorance about sci-fi! Actually come to think of it, would Brave New World and 1984 be classed as sci-fi? They are also fave's of mine. I guess it's not all spaceships and unconvincing aliens!! I am learning now though!

Update on the chicks: now down to 6. The latest one with the head tilt just went down-hill after I posted my last update! It got to the stage where she couldn't feed herself or drink for herself and her neck was permanently twisted 180 degrees and she could only walk backwards in circles. Kes humanely dispatched her yesterday. So I am looking at a 60% survival rate thus far - not too great
The vet phoned me back and said that he didn't do an autopsy as DEFRA weren't worried that it was an identifiable disease. He said he'd spoken to a poultry 'expert', but he didn't tell me anything I hadn't already discovered thanks to this forum and the people on it! In fact all he said was that it was probably an infection that penetrated the brain and caused a neurological response (wow! No poop Sherlock)
Anyhoo, hoping that my remaining 6 do OK, but at this rate I could be down to one by freezer time. It would have to be the most expensive chicken dinner ever!

Is that the time! Gotta go now. Got pigs to muck out Speak to you soon. X

Argh to save money we disconnected the Satellite and I miss the Scifi channel. Thank you all for making me miss it even more.

Oh no, Bec I'm so sorry about your birds. It sounded like they were going to be ok. So it turned out to be an infection rather than vitamin deficiency?

Are you open to any last ditch efforts? If you have an herbal shop anywhere near you, here's some possibilities that you could try, if you still have a bird to try it on by the time you get this. It sounds like you have little to lose at this point.

1. Essential oil of oregano is anti bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. You can dilute it in olive oil, at the rate of 1 part e.o. of oreg. to 5 parts olive oil. You can then give it to the birds, 1 drop each, per day. You can just put a drop on a bit of bread or something else that you know they'll gobble right down.

2. Chapparal tea. This herb is also very strong against any kind of infection, brew a strong tea by boiling 1 TBS per cup of water, boil for about 5 minutes, let cool, and strain through a sieve. It won't hurt anything if a few little bits remain in the tea. Add the resulting tea to their water at the rate of 1 cup per gallon.

3. Golden seal root. Same directions as chapparal, but use 1tsp. per cup. Get the powdered root, don't bother to strain it, though. Just let the sediment settle to the bottom. It won't hurt anything if there's sediment in their water.

You don't have to use all of these, but I'd use the oregano oil plus one of the teas. Either of these teas can cause problems in humans with long term use, but should be fine for short-term. The oregano oil, I'd give daily for 5 days, the herb teas I'd continue for at least a week, up to 10 days.

If it isn't too late, this might help. I started to post this before, but thought the vitamin solution sounded like it was working.

Got to run, but later I'll share some of my favorite female sci-fi authors with you, I bet you'll like them!

Hey Deb, if you're Jonesing to much, you can rent them on DVD's! Or maybe get some at the library, for free. I understand missing your sci-fi!

I was in a rush yesterday, there's a couple of other things you should know:

Don't use essential oil of oregano undiluted. It will burn like strong cinnamon oil, but more. 4 to 1 (1 being oregano, 4 being olive oil) is the minimum dilution. I dilute 5 to one for use in poultry, 4 to one topical use on humans.

To take it myself, if I catch some or have an infection that requires that I take something internally, I use 1 or 2 drops undiluted, but I open an herbal capsule of some sort (I take feverfew daily for migraine prevention, so I usually use that) and put 1 or 2 drops inside the capsule, wait a few seconds for the herb to absorb the oil, close it back up, and take that, but always with food. I tried it an an empty stomach once, and it causes some upset pretty quick. No probs with taking it with food, however. I've had very good results with it.

I'm not recommending the same course of action to anybody, just saying what I do for myself.

It's Turkish oregano that the oil is extracted from, not your typical kitchen seasoning. You can order Turkish oregano, and brew a tea from it (nasty tasting for humans, but birds probably wouldn't mind it added to their water, at the rate of 1 cup tea per gallon of water, tea brewed like above in the last post.)

If Kes gets a humidified CPAP, I think he'll like it a lot better. My sinuses and nasal passages can't take the dry air at all. The one my DH has, is called a pass-over humidifier. It's a sort of flatish tank, with stems to attach hoses on the two front upper corners. You run a short hose from the CPAP outlet to one side, and the hose to the breathing mask from the other. The air picks up moisture as it passes over the water in the tank. The CPAP machine sits on top of the tank. Depending on what machine he has, he may be able to get a tank to add on to it.

Well I just bought some Ross Cobbs this morning and specifically asked if they were Cornish crosses and they are not. In Canada and I expect the US they are broiler, meat bird bred specifically for early processing 8 weeks. They are what we sometimes call the Frankenbirds and their actual genetic makup is a closely guarded secret by the breeders who produce them primarily for the grocery industry. Artificial selection where birds are continually selected for huge appitites and size. They are not personally my bird of choice but they are all I can find at this time of year.