Neighbor hates my chickens- will she do them harm?

[aart]

I can understand the hesitation to use poison when there are other animals around...and SCG has lots of them.
There are poisons coupled with baiting techniques that don't pose a risk to other animals...but if you don't know exactly what and how, it's scary.

Hopefully the exterminator can set something up that's safe for everyone involved except the rats!!

 

[ChaoSS]

Rat traps. Lots of them. Just clear them all out.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

The only happy animal on my farm right now is Bonus the chicken. No fluid has returned to her belly and she spends her days joyfully following me around the house. When I work at my computer she naps in the dog bed at my feet-much to the dismay of Mimi who would like her bed back. Bonus has discovered that food time for the dogs means a potential meal for her. She has tried Lyla’s canned beef food and Penny’s lamb and rice dry. She has sampled bananas and oranges and scorned just about everything except for the yogurt. That she loves.

Bonus has found her new flock-she never much cared much for other chickens anyway. That brings me to the unhappiness of my animals outside in the cold. The water pipes froze at the horse barn. That means all I can do is melt snow in the trough. Princess Grace does NOT like the snow melting in her trough. The water looks DIFFERENT and therefore should not be touched. And if poor Jester wants to drink he must be chased away from the trough. No drinking! This meant the two of them were hydrating by eating snow. Now why? Why eat snow, but refuse to drink melted snow? That horse is nuts! This was on top of boycotting her hay. There is nothing like running out of hay in the middle of February. I had to take what I could get. It’s not bad hay, it’s just not the SAME hay she was used to. Therefor Princess Grace wants nothing to do with it. So finally after 3 days of bolting her grain and kicking the stall wall we managed to melt the ice in the pipes and fill the tub up with water from the well. She drank it greedily and is now slowly returning to her normal crazy self.

The goats are no better. I am bombarded with tiny hooves trying climb all over me every time I go in the pen. They are TIRED of being cooped up. The water is TOO cold for them to drink more than a few mouthfuls but when I bring them hot water they tip the bucket over and soak my leg. They bahhhhhh at me every time I go outside. They need MORE hay, I do NOT give them enough hay and they are BORED! Every day I try to shovel just a little bit more snow out of their pen. But I am too slow. L They are full of noisy complaints. Finally today it was 25 degrees and they actually drank a few inches of water in their little bucket. And then tomorrow it will be -20 degree wind chill in the AM so back to the water boycott we go.

The chickens are also done with being cooped up. I have taken to feeding them scratch in the middle of the day. At least it gives them something to do besides chase each other around and squawk. I fear they are doing irreparable damage to their chicken relationships. All my animals are just as frustrated and sick of the snow and cold as their human caretaker is. Outside all three dogs put on their best Boo Hoo Hoo face. Together we dream of spring and a chance to leave the snow tunnels that run from barn to barn on the farm. Tunnels surrounded by feet of snow that block our access to the woods and fields that we used to walk through together every day. Melt, snow melt!

 

[poodlechicks]

I'm with you on that. I can't stand the cold either. The animals and I can't wait for spring!!!

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

It was an easy decision to bring Bonus in the house to take care of her when she was sick. She doesn’t really like the other chickens anyway. But it’s not such an easy decision with Lucky.

Friday about 2:00 when I went to check on the chickens, I found my 7 or 8 old Easter Egger rescue Lucky limping badly. She did not want to bear any weight on her right leg. Now for an old chicken she actually usually looks pretty good. But every winter it seems to gets harder and harder for her. She got quite a bit of arthritis in her legs and she's missing lots of toes. But this limp was different and I really couldn’t find a thing wrong with the leg. She just wouldn’t walk on it!

I have Crazy Lady on one side of me and on the other side there is a vacant house. Before the foreclosure an awful family lived there. Not awful to me because of race, education or upbringing. They were awful because they didn’t take care of their animals. I admit I can be a bit of a nut about animal care but these people were the opposite extreme. The husband was away because of his job most of the time. To fill the void “Trash Pile Lady” brought home animals that she didn't take care of and junk. The junk, mostly plastic bottles, food containers and paper littered the yard and then blew here and there all over our neighborhood. It would accumulate around the house and in their open three sided garage. Every spring it took a couple calls to the health department about the rats to get the ball rolling. Then the yearly forced cleanup of their yard and garage would commence.

And then there were the chickens. I’m not sure why Trash Pile Lady kept getting them-the family never ate the eggs. Three years in a row she got a handful of baby chickens every spring. All of the chickens except for one met untimely deaths. Trash Pile Lady had a “coop” of sorts but the tiny attached pen didn’t have a cover and the little house didn’t have a door. There was one smart hen that she brought home as an adult. That was my Lucky and at night she roosted high up in the eaves of the open garage all by herself. Then by day she would go and hang out in the little pen with the young chickens. Skunks visited that garage every night. She must have slept with one eye open. The skunks were drawn there by the rats, trash and piles of uneaten chicken eggs. The worst was the day Trash Pile Lady tied her little terrier puppy to the pen and left him there. When I went to feed my horses in the morning he was inside the pen. He killed all the chickens. It was only Lucky who escaped the carnage of that day.

Trash Pile Lady didn’t get any more chickens after that incident but she didn’t take care of Lucky either. Lucky survived on the garbage she could find in the yard. In the summer she had it better with the bugs and worms, but in the winter she struggled to survive. I used to stand by our fence and call her, but she wouldn’t stray far from the garage. The last winter before Trash Pile Lady left was the worst. We had mountains of snow and it was so cold. Many times I saw Lucky in their driveway, fruitlessly scratching in the snow. She was starving.

Somehow Lucky lived through that winter and when Trash Pile Lady left the house for good late that summer she abandoned her. The first thing I did was catch Lucky and bring her to my coop. Several of her toes were missing, presumably from frostbite, and she had a limp. A neighborhood kid told me the limp was from getting attacked by a loose dog. Lucky was terrified of my dogs. As gentle and as quiet as Lyla and Penny were with the chickens, Lucky did not trust them and would flee from them screeching in terror. Who could blame her? But in time she did let go of her fear because the flock was not afraid. She learned to trust the flock to help take care of her. What a relief it must have been to be able to rely on them to keep her safe! Over the next three and a half years she became a fat, happy hen who laid beautiful blue eggs. She ended up near the top of the pecking order despite her limp. I’m not surprised. She’s a tough bird. And for a chicken who had spent all those years alone how it must be such a relief to have a flock to watch her back.

It would break my heart to take her from her flock now. I just can’t do it. So since Friday I have gone outside every two hours to give her a dropper full of water and any food she will eat. After two days of this plus some Rymadol for inflammation she does look a little bit more comfortable. She is hopping around some and does put a little weight on her leg now. The other chickens have not been bothering her and I put her in the lowest nest box to sleep at night. This morning she drank by herself from a bowl and is eating a little bit if I feed it to her. Tomorrow morning I will call the chicken vet. If the vet feels Lucky might get better then I will keep going. If she feels it’s enough then I will let my Lucky go. What I won’t do is let her suffer while I turn my eyes away. I promised her that she would never be alone or unwanted again.


This is Lyla and skinny Lucky on her right. I find it amazing that this picture is just a few months after I rescued her. While she views Lyla with suspicion, she doesn't run away. I am constantly amazed at the abilities animals have to live in the moment and let go of the past.



And then here Lucky is last summer closest to the camera...with Spock keeping a watchful over her...as he should.

 

[WthrLady]

:crying:

 

[Cluckies]

Poor lucky But it sounds like you've given her a wonderful flock to grow old with. Thank you for taking such good care of her.

 

[Turkeytruff]

x2 crying - how some people get away with having animals when they treat them so badly

Lucky has been lucky to have you take such good care of her.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

Good news...Lucky looks wonderful this morning! When I went to feed she was hopping around the coop. She hopped to the food and ate on her own. She chased another chicken! Granted it was only a couple of aggressive hops, then she sat down and gave Rose the evil eye, but still! I will give Lucky Rymadol for a week and keep hoping for more improvement! But for sure not a broken leg or anything awful like that. I really think she's on the mend...sometimes that's all a chicken needs, a little TLC and some anti-inflammatories!

 

[HumbleHen207]

So happy to hear she is on the mend! One of my geese messed up one of my Easter Eggers legs pretty bad last fall, I thought I was going to have to put her down. Shockingly a few weeks in a separate coop and she could walk on her own. Chickens are tough!