***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[lonnyandrinda]

Auto-sexing question for you gurus...
Will mating two similarly auto-sexing breeds result in sexable chicks at hatch? Rhodebars and Cream Legbars for instance? I am months away, but I have a quartet of rhodebars chicks and two CCL baby girls. I thought it would be neat to house them together.

In the Rhodebars and Legbars they depend on the barring gene to get the sexable down. A female only has one barring gene so has a small or non-existant head spot and a male has two barring genes so has a large head spot. The Barring gene is sex-linked, she can only give it to her sons, not her daughters. Males are ZZ and females are ZW. That's why females determine the gender in chickens. Anyway, the barring gene is on the Z chromosome. So the hen gives a Z with barring to each son and a W with no barring to each daughter. Males give a barred Z to each chick. Theoretically yes if you crossed them you would still get sexable chicks. They would not be purebred but I assume you knew that. Hope that isn't TMI!

I need help as quickly as possible.

I have a guinea fowl who has really bad bumble foot. He wasn't limping but the others were cornering him, which they will do when one appears to be weak. I'd noticed some swelling on the top of one ankle, but he was very hard to catch and wasn't limping, so I didn't really worry about it. I was finally able to catch and examine him, and he has multiple pockets of infection on both feet and his hocks. The points of entry of the infection were not on the bottoms of his feet, but rather, on the sides and tops of toes. Most appeared to have traveled internally rather than from injuries. I've "operated" on him several times, to get as much of the infection out as I could. I've soaked his feet in Epsom salts, and after removing the infection slathered Neosporin on all the opened places--pretty much all over his feet and legs. There were no hard cores. I've treated them every day for around a week, and they are much, much better. I've also put the poultry antibiotic I have on hand in his water all that time. I'm handling him very carefully, with gloves on and a lot of disinfectant.

Was talking to another chicken person in Norman Saturday, and she said I needed penicillin that I could get at Atwoods, because bumble foot is a staph infection. I knew it was staph, but didn't know I could get penicillin. I got the penicillin today, but have no idea what dosage to inject. I've not injected any of my poultry, but used to give my own allergy injections, so should have no trouble once I now how much, how often, and how long.

In the meantime, his appetite continues to be very good and he's completely alert. Doesn't want me to come near him, however (can you blame him?).

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Found this on another BYC thread (for a chicken but probably correct for a guinea as well):

the dose is .10cc per lb
I use a 20 gauge needle. given in the breast muscle, alternating sides each time.
once a day for at LEAST 3 days. 7 days is about the limit for safely injecting.

 

[HeyBigRhondaq]

@lonnyandrinda
That is exactly what I thought, glad to get reiteration.
If they all make it to adulthood, I thought it would be an easy way to make an auto sexing EE, as well as being able to breed pure Rhodebars in the same pen (only a rhodebar roo). In not looking forward to feeding/watering so many pens!

 

[SharkmanDan]

Thank you so much for the information.  I'll start injecting the penicillin today.  Not sure I'm up to keeping him in the house another two weeks or more, though.  An adult guinea gets pretty stinky pretty fast.  However, if I let him loose anywhere, I'll have a terrible time catching him to treat him.  Guineas are much harder to work with than chickens!  I had looked up bumble foot on the internet and it showed how to do the surgery, but there wasn't ever a hard core that I could find any trace of.  There was nothing connected to skin, but there was a lot of infection.  Maybe it was a very aggressive infection and he hadn't had it long enough for the core to harden. 

Betsy,
Rinda has far more knowledge of this stuff than me. I would trust her judgement, over mine, every day. I did what I did, mostly out of desperation, and it worked. I may have over-dosaged her, but, in the end, she came out okay. I presume, that by waiting the two weeks, after completing the cycle of heavy penicillin doses, before returning her to the flock, may have helped the situation.

But, in all honesty, the number one thing, in my opinion, was getting that kernel out. The living being, has an incredible way, of being able to heal itself, once the foreign substance is removed. I tend towards thinking that the antibiotics simply speed that up. This is only a theory of mine, carried over from what my grandfather taught me about humans, and applying it to other animal life. It's only a theory, and I'm no expert in anatomy, or medicine.

Rinda knows infinitely more about fowl, than I will ever know, so I will highly recommend that you heed her advice over mine. Everything I did, was "off the top of my head" guesswork. The 1cc per day, was based on an approximated weight of 8 pounds, and using the formula of .1cc per pound, but adding the extra .2cc, just to give a good boost. And, I wasn't sure about how long to give it, I just gave it to her, until she looked like it was mostly healed up, and if I remember correctly, that was 13-14 days. But, I bandaged it, with a clean bandage, and Neosporin, every day, until there was no likelihood that scratching around in that which chickens scratch around in, would cause a recurrence.

But, yes, please, heed Rinda's advice over mine please. Because at the time, after cutting her open several times, the thought process in my head was, "This is going to cure her, or kill her". Thankfully, it cured her.

 

[BetsyOK]

I very much appreciate both of your advice, and will follow Rinda's, although your success would indicate you weren't far off. I don't know how much this guinea weighs--he's thin--and have you every tried to treat a guinea for ANYTHING? Most of them are not at all tame, even though they tolerate your moving around them outdoors if your body language doesn't indicate you're going to catch them!

The only needles I have are for insulin, so I may have to get Vashi to buy me some a bit larger. I was just too tired last night to deal with shots, so I'm going to tackle it now.

Thanks again!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I very much appreciate both of your advice, and will follow Rinda's, although your success would indicate you weren't far off. I don't know how much this guinea weighs--he's thin--and have you every tried to treat a guinea for ANYTHING? Most of them are not at all tame, even though they tolerate your moving around them outdoors if your body language doesn't indicate you're going to catch them!

The only needles I have are for insulin, so I may have to get Vashi to buy me some a bit larger. I was just too tired last night to deal with shots, so I'm going to tackle it now.

Thanks again!

You will need a larger gauge needle. The penicillan particles are large and will clog up the needle.

 

[BetsyOK]

I've given him a dose--had to use two needles as one won't hold enough--but it worked. That explains why I had a bit of trouble getting the syringes to fill. I'll pick up some larger ones tomorrow. He's awfully thin. I injected into his thigh because I wasn't sure I could find enough flesh on his breast--what with guineas being hard to hold. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up losing him because he's so thin. He is still eating well and is very alert. Of course he can't move around much in this cage, but there's no way I can let him into something larger as I would have such a hard time catching him to treat him.

I've had guineas and chickens for about 20 years, and have never had bumblefoot before. I guess I've been lucky!

Thanks again for your help.

 

[NanaKat]

I've been having computer trouble today!

 

[NanaKat]

Good luck with treating your guinea. Hope he isn't having other issues besides the infection in his feet.

We had another predator attack last night. something dug under the fence into the Cochin pen and attacked one of my Blue hens. It took the head and left the body. I've spent the morning filling the hole and reinforcing the perimeter of the pen. We will set the live trap tonight along with snap traps.

I've also been working with the eggs and incubators. Some Eggciting news...21 eggs went into lockdown with hatch expected Feb 13 - 14...why didn't I joing the Valentines Day hatch-a-long! Other hatches will follow on Feb 16, and Feb 19-20. I just set 65 eggs for hatch on March 6.

I had another nice conversation with the gentleman from Indiana who will be making the trip next week to pick up several birds from the Columbian Wyandotte, Blue Columbian and Birchen pens as well as eggs from the Columbian flock pen. He has Lavendars and said he could bring me either chicks or eggs and a nice Blue hen to add to my Blue pen. This should be an interesting visit.
Once he has taken his selections, I will be able to rearrange the breed pens and hit full swing into the Wyandotte and Cochin hatching season. Last year I didn't hatch as many as the year before and really need to produce the numbers to improve the Columbian flock to the SOP. I've done some test hatches along the way but really need to focus on hatching, culling and raising chicks. The higher the number of chicks, the better the selection for keepers for flock improvement.....of course that means there will be many for the layer flock and the freezer too.

 

[NanaKat]

Speaking of bumble foot...I haven't had a case in quite some time. I used a sander on all the board roosts to remove the possibility of splinters. Then using fall leaves on the floor of the coop cushions landings. I purchased punches from a medical supply company and haven't had to use any.

 

[audiomilk]

OMG! They're so cute!! Where did you get the brabanters from? I have a friend that really wants some.
Thank you!!

I believe we got them from Ideal