Arizona Chickens

Claws? Hissing? We are still talking about a duck, right? Mikey, I might need that bat house. Oh, can you also hang it for me before the fireman gets home?
I always thought the bat house had to be way up there, like at least 20' off the ground? We have bats around here every night when it warms up. It's cheap entertainment to toss small objects up in the air where they're flying and watch them dive at them.
 
WOW people! I was on vacation for 2 weeks, plus 1 week "catchup" and now I am finally through the 100s of posts on here...wowza you all can WRITE
big_smile.png


So.....sorry to those who have experienced losses and illnesses....
sad.png


.....and welcome to the new folks and new peepers!
welcome-byc.gif



So, I wanted to chime in on the 'decrowing' discussion. We had our Serama roo "Cujo" decrowed by Dr. Babcock at Palo Verde Animal Hospital (on Northern at 12th st) and it went very well. I had a lot of concerns about it, but it came down to whether or not we could keep him. He's a good mellow little dude, and we really wanted to keep him and possibly get some little serama chickies from him at some point.... (he is fertile)

We had it done back mid-January and he came through it like a champ. We did keep him inside for about 2 weeks until he was totally healed, since it is major surgery, going down into the chest deeper than I had imagined it would. There were two layers of stitches, and we took him back twice for check-ups and stitch removal. Cujo was a surprisingly well-behaved house critter! He liked to sit on the couch and relax with us, was pretty tidy overall and stood 'guard' when we took naps. It was sometimes disconcerting to wake up and see him sitting on the arm of the couch intently watching us. He would also make the "yummy" come-n-get it whistle noise at us when he thought he found something tasty to share
lau.gif
. Our opinions about 'tasty' often differed from his, though!


As far as the cost, it was not cheap. PM me if you want details, but we felt it was worth it, and Dr. Babcock was (and continues to be) fantastic with all our chickens. We had to take a hen in right before we left on vacation for strange wheezy sniffling symptoms, and Dr. Babcock has made himself available for phone calls on weekends/after hours, and has called to check in on her several times since.

Kevs, were you the person that had this happen too also? I was worried that it was IB and quarantined right away, got her on Baytril. She is on a second course of it now, but suffice it to say she doesn't appear to have anything that is treatable with Baytril. None of the others have displayed any symptoms at all and she is still a little sneezy. She is also drinking A LOT of water, but is laying and eating normally. I wonder if chickens can have allergies, or maybe if this is fungal or something else?

We are also about to do a total coop re-do next weeekend.....time to wire out the freeloader wild birds and make the coop easier to clean!! I want to borrow some of your gorgeous and functional coop plans, but alas I have a feeling it will go from being "Redneck ramshackle version 2.0 to Redneck ramshackle v. 3.0!"
roll.png
hmm.png



Edited to add: Cujo sounds like a squeaky toy now. I will try and get a video and post a link to it sometime....he sounds like "Whu WHEEP Beep"
big_smile.png
Yes although I'm 95 % sure it's nothing, maybe an allergy like you mentioned. All her symptoms are gone. I wonder if it had to do with the orange blossoms all the chickens were helping themselves too? Will that Oxine kill viruses? I'm going to look and see if there is something for chickens; if not maybe we will try the stuff that my DW uses around the house for the kids. They haven't been sick all year!
fl.gif
 
so after fearing the wind it got worse. the power went out. I wasnt even thinking becuase I was trying to get two uncooperative girls ready for church when I remember my incubators. AUGH......called DH and a power line had been blown down on the highway about a mile down. I had about 5 eggs that had pipped and 5 that were still wet, not to mention 2 incubators full of eggs!! So I got the girls in the can an loaded 3 incubators into the minivan and headed to church, unloaded them all and brought them to my class of 18- 3 year olds. I didn't know what else to do... the temps were crashing. It was pretty funny walking in the back door with all the little kids carring one incubator after another. What i wont do for my chicks and eggs. glad to report that the all hatched out and the temps are now back to normal. The water in the incubator spilled so the humidity is high but I opened all the vents and hopefully that will get under control soon!
 
How is the weather treating everyone? It still hasn't stopped raining out here in Apache Junction.

We had terrible winds and rain last night, messed up my satellite Internet enough that I couldn't catch up here or the Hatch-a-long thread. We woke up to snow this morning. It melted fast and now just have a chilly rain.

Easter Hatch eggs are set, Last weeks set all have veining (beautiful Lav Am's from Dak) and the week old chicks just keep getting fatter and sassier......so all is good in my chicken world. When the rain slows down I still need to get out to the coops.

Bats are cheap entertainment here too!! I turn on the bug zapper and sit in the dark to watch them swoop and dive. Kids love it.

Mikey, ChickenGirlie (grandbaby) turned 11 on the 16th. Only the great must be born 3/16!! No clue on what else to do for your chicken's eye. Probably need a culture to find the right abx?? Is Doc Tracy still around??

Tylan or Denagard and oxine mist....seem to be the current treatment for resp issues.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom