Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[MyHaven]

MyHaven What about Gangrenous Dermatitis?

http://www.upc-online.org/poultry_diseases/62504gangrenous.htm

It does seem to be most common in fattening and growing birds but a couple of things stood out from the above article:

Gangrenous dermatitis (GD) sometimes seems to occur almost spontaneously in birds 4-8 weeks of age.
 
GD usually starts with the appearance of small pimples on the skin, soon progressing to involve large areas.
 
The breast, wings, rump and abdomen are most commonly involved.
 
In addition, there has been speculation that some of the slow feathering modern strains of birds (particularly male broilers) are more susceptible to GD because their skin is less protected due to the lack of feathers .. which might explain the lesions on the naked neck??

However, some of the pictures are pretty gross and probably not what you are experiencing but I thought it worth sharing, just in case.

Edited to add: The outbreaks are frequently observed in wet and warm premises. The gangrene could begin and involve the skin of the head, neck and the breast.

Well done, thanks. There are a lot of similarities and you picked them.

Started as pimple looking lumps which went dark very quickly.

The age of the bird is right. The lesions being on unfeathered areas fits.

The chicks would have been stressed as I'd just brought them home. I don't know what conditions they'd come from.

But the images I googled are of far worse conditions.

The below photos are the second chick that died. There is only two infected.

I took these photos a few hours after I found this little girl dead. When I found the chick the black patches in the photos were bright red.

It would be nice to know what it is so I know how to decontaminate.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Well done, thanks. There are a lot of similarities and you picked them.

Started as pimple looking lumps which went dark very quickly.

The age of the bird is right. The lesions being on unfeathered areas fits.

The chicks would have been stressed as I'd just brought them home. I don't know what conditions they'd come from.

But the images I googled are of far worse conditions.

The below photos are the second chick that died. There is only two infected.

I took these photos a few hours after I found this little girl dead. When I found the chick the black patches in the photos were bright red.

It would be nice to know what it is so I know how to decontaminate.

That first pic is looking much more like fowl pox. Yes the lesions can be on other parts of the body.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/poultry/fowlpox/fowlpox_in_chickens_and_turkeys.html

 

[LuckysMum]

MyHaven sorry to hear you little didn’t make it. I hope you sort out you poor chooks and they get better quickly.

jessbonnitcha lovely chooks you have. I have heaps of phoenix and crosses I wish you were in Perth. Osta is very handsome

moandmcgee I’m so happy for you and Flower. I have an extremely persistent silkie she has been like this for weeks. We now have a door on the coop and her and one of the australorps will sit at the top of the ramp. As soon as anyone lays an egg midnight is on it. Luckily she will let us take the egg and then she will get up and walk around again. But I am more persistent and she will be broken. Hahaha

Teila I hope you are right about breaking broodiness out of experienced broodies. Midnight has been broody for so long. I found out while I was at work they were letting her in the nest. So I left strict instructions. No matter how much pleading she did, do not let her into the coop till 5:30. I am wondering now the weather is much milder if I should just lock them all out as they have a roost in the yard and one of the silkies has been roosting in a tree for weeks now. That should hopefully deter anyone else from getting any ideas.

I have been getting little eggs from my 16 week olds. Someone has been laying for more than a week so they would have been only 15 weeks old. Isn't that very young. I'm getting one egg a day so I'm assuming that more than one is laying there are 3 leghorns, 2 australorps, 1 Sussex and 1 bantam australorp in the coop.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

MyHaven how are things going this morning?

LuckysMum as mentioned earlier, with Cilla’s broodiness this time, I have not dragged the broody breaker out of the shed [yet

] and I am experimenting with the ‘keeping her out of the coop and run’ method.

Hubby has been watching and letting in anyone who wants to lay. However, I did walk out on Friday during my break from work and had to ask "where is Cilla?” to which he replied “In the nest box”

You just can’t get good help these days! LOL

So, we are on Day 4 of the ‘keep out of coop’ method and while she is wandering the garden with the flock, I am not convinced that she will be entirely broken by this evening. The looks she was giving the blocked off nest boxes and her actions this morning were indicative of her jumping right back on the nest if she could.

Just my experience with Cilla but I do think the broody breaker is probably quicker and easier plus, there is less chance of helpers letting her out of it than there is of soft hearted helpers letting her sit on a nest

However, it was interesting to compare the two methods with an experienced broody. If I do not need to drag out the broody breaker this afternoon, ready for tomorrow, I will definitely be dragging it out next time.

Cilla is a funny little girl though. Yesterday, once I was certain no one was likely going to want to lay, I blocked off the nest boxes and opened up the coop and run again. She ran straight up the ramp, saw that the nest boxes were blocked off and sat on the roost and sulked. She sat there from around 3pm yesterday, just before the storm hit and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon

satay I was watching the BOM yesterday and saw that you got rain? We got 20mm in approximately an hour when the storm hit here.

 

[Teila]

Ya gotta love Mother Nature's sense of humour .. one minute hoomans and chookies are not doing much because it is too hot, just leisurely pottering in the garden etc and next we are all running for cover to avoid being hit by hail.

The one time we did not worry about locking the girls up because the storm did not look like it was sticking around for long, it hails

Luckily we have a lot of vegetation for them to hide under and no-one got bonked on the head or injured. Two more storms incoming now but the gals are now safe in their run, which I am also pleased to advise held up under the hail, no holes in the roof

 

[Fizzybelle]

Ya gotta love Mother Nature's sense of humour .. one minute hoomans and chookies are not doing much because it is too hot, just leisurely pottering in the garden etc and next we are all running for cover to avoid being hit by hail.

The one time we did not worry about locking the girls up because the storm did not look like it was sticking around for long, it hails

Luckily we have a lot of vegetation for them to hide under and no-one got bonked on the head or injured. Two more storms incoming now but the gals are now safe in their run, which I am also pleased to advise held up under the hail, no holes in the roof

Dang, you got hail on your side of town? I'm on the east side, bit of rain but nothing really. Might check the bureau's website see what's coming our way next.

 

[Teila]

Yep, had some hail and we are just about to cop it again .. we are in Boondall, check out the nice little storm which has just got here, complete with wind.

Red arrows = direction of travel, blue arrow = Us



Aaaw, my poor ole tomatoes took a battering but I have just double staked them. 20mins later, the sun is shining as it sets and not a breath of wind. Must have been bad, the girls actually sheltered in the coop instead of the run

 

[Fizzybelle]

Ah, I'm in Carina. We got some really nice strong gusts of wind that felt soooooo good after today, and dark clouds with a light shower. I saw the forecast for temps in the high 20's this week, so fingers crossed that happens. I'm definitely getting the girls a fan for this summer. Why not, they're spoilt already, what's a bit more in the way of creature comfort?

 

[satay]

Hi everyone. Can anyone offer thoughts on this 16 week old aruncana cross? I'm really hoping hen as if it's a rooster I would have thought there'd be more comb and wattles!

That's a rooster.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

We had a total of 3 storms roll over yesterday, one with hail and one with reasonably strong winds but luckily, short lived. We are not too far from the Brisbane Airport and they are calling the storm that hit it a ‘super cell’ but I do not think we got the 157km hour winds they did

Cilla is so close to broken that I am going to call it.

So, I have the results from my little Broody Breaker verses Keepies Off with an experienced broody.

* Keepies Off probably took a day or two longer than the Broody Breaker.

* Keepies Off was definitely more work for me and possibly more taxing for Cilla with lots of ‘let me in’ attempts while in the Broody Breaker she usually accepts her lot and settles.

They let me sleep in until 05:45AM! Anyways, when I went out to give them breakfast, let them out and open up the nest boxes Cilla was sitting on the ramp, eyeing off the covered nest boxes. However, when I let them out, she raced out with the rest of the flock. I am pretty sure that if I had left them in the run and uncovered the nest boxes she would be sitting in one now. So ...

* The key to Keepies Off with Cilla was definitely to keep her amused, free range etc. I do not think it would work if she was locked in the run.