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

[satay]

Even though my boy is not a fan of photos as you can see I am sure he is grateful for everyone's well wishes for him

 

[Teila]

satay .. wow, I just got the shudders .. how awful if you had made the decision to put him to sleep. Granted, you would not know what you know now, in that it may be a misdiagnosis .. but yeah, shudders.

I have only ever had to make that decision once with a dog and that was Charlie-Bear whose epilepsy, at 13 years of age, had got totally out of control and was causing her severe convulsions with temporary blindness and it was my decision, not the Vet’s.

Just my humble opinion, but you know Zeus better than anyone and you are really the only one who can judge his pain level etc. Regardless of the diagnosis and what the Vet tells you, the decision on how he is doing should be on your judgement, not a Vet’s.

[I hope I conveyed that correctly]

 

[Anniebee]

,,,,,, continuing my query about Mindy and the softish kind of eggs .... ( the page 'snapped' and disappeared while I was typing it ).

So --- it is my intention to quite deliberately upset her apple cart for a week or two - by turning the cupboard around so's she can't get in. ( she has her towel covered brick she roosts on
on top of that, so don't want to stop her roosting, until I can figure out another roost for her ) ..

And putting down a box bed with sewn in old towelling on the bottom and some wood shavings on top of that - near the area she always layed in. The cardboard box will have
a part cut out of it in the front for her to step over an edge and inside. Something like this :

My idea is to give her a new area to lay in - with a dummy egg or two to stimulate her desire ?? .... and something soft for an egg to fall on. Meantime, I will be getting some calcium powder from the stock and produce merchant, which is used for horses and chickens ( cannot get specific calcium carbonate in that form ) to add to a bit of yoghurt or rice a few times a week.

All I am aiming at doing is stopping her breaking a vulnerable spot to eat the egg, or eating the egg once it has broken through no fault of hers.

Would appreciate some thoughts - am I doing the right thing. And if, in fact she has become an 'egg eater' what other ways of breaking a hen from that habit ?

.....

Adore all the beautiful new bub pix that many have posted here .... congrats to all who have had successful hatchings.


Cheers .........

 

[mamabokbok]

Oooh :-D I just have to tell someone! After 10 days patiently waiting, one of our new girls left us an adorable little white egg! And she used her nest box, so I'm really excited! I wonder how many we will start to get per week now, I cant wait to find out :->

 

[Anniebee]

Hey Anniebee, except for the Crows [mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble .. must resist urge to go off track] I, touch wood, have not had to deal with an egg eater.

I am pretty sure you mentioned that your gals get calcium [oyster shell?] and as you know I am no expert, but I wonder if she is eating the eggs that she can crack open for some extra calcium or something else that she is missing in her system which could also explain the soft shelled eggs.

But, if I remember rightly, we have already been down that path in the past?

Please forgive me Teila ... but I have had a few giggles over ' you and your crows' .... cos they are yours, whether you think so or not. They have attached to you as a food source ... and they probably by now could recognise you in a crowd of people . I know it is not funny - but some of your posts about them have been amusing to say the least.

Could they be ravens ? not that it would make much difference. Ravens are blue black, crows are brown black. http://pestkill.org/birds/crows/ A website you might be interested in. Some of it would not be suitable as you have chickens, and they may be impacted by noise or ultra sonic sound waves . But the whirly Repeller 360° might be of some use. This site in fact is not one for killing the birds - it has a variety of methods of controlling them or sending them away. Guess the words "pestkill" relates to various rodents, insects etc. also on that site.

.......

It is Mindy Araucana who will not touch oyster shell ( or any shell grit ), instead she picks up stuff off the ground. Tiny stones etc., but avoids even crushed up egg shells on the ground. And there ain't no calium in stones !!!

" Monster features."

Certainly something a little awry with her system works I would think, yet she is an incredibly healthy busy bird with a huge appetite for any types of food ( except oyster shell !! ). She makes some extraordinarily unusual sounds too. ( cackle, cackle - crow screech )

Will just have to keep on trying different ways of diverting her attention, and increasing her calcium intake as per the above ....

Cheers ....

 

[Deej211]

Cocci is everywhere and in everyone's soil some birds will be more severely impacted than others , regardless of age. Once the ocyst have multiplied by the tens of thousands you have an ' outbreak ' . Chicks will acquire some immunity if exposed to the soil from an early age, coop hygiene can also be a factor , as are wet areas around feeders and water dishes. Many people dabble in ' natural ' remedies but bring out the ' big guns ' when trouble rears its ugly head. Yoghurt will not reduce the numbers of cocidia in the birds nor will it afford the bird any level of immunity.
Baycox is what I would call a ' big gun ' and there are other products on the market , that aren't as harsh on the birds system. Just my opinion.

noted thank you. How often is amprolium needed to be administered and where is it available from. I got baycox as it was recommended by my local vet. Other research and the survival of my turkey when he got blackhead led me too the other remedies. I know cocci is in the ground. Thats why i had an off the ground wire bottom cage coming. But we had heaps of rain a week before. Kicking myself now but theres only so much u can do.

 

[Fancychooklady]

noted thank you. How often is amprolium needed to be administered and where is it available from. I got baycox as it was recommended by my local vet. Other research and the survival of my turkey when he got blackhead led me too the other remedies. I know cocci is in the ground. Thats why i had an off the ground wire bottom cage coming. But we had heaps of rain a week before. Kicking myself now but theres only so much u can do.

Never ceases to amaze me how vets are ready to recommend products that have withholding warnings on them. Our avian vet makes you sign a waiver before he administers antibiotics or drugs , to say that you are aware that the birds eggs are no longer fit for consumption. In some cases the drug might simply have not been through the necessary trials. But in your case you have a product (that granted you are only administering to chicks, but if your adults begin to show symptoms , chances are you will treat them also.) that the supplier states , ' not to be administered to layers '.
There are several online poultry stores that sell Amprolium and you should also be able to get from your vet. I buy mine at ' little valley poultry. '
There is no withholding period and the beauty of this product is that you can treat the entire flock amprolium is a thiamine inhibitor and it starves the cocci.
There are two regimes , treatment and maintainance , it's important to use the treatment dose in an outbreak.

 

[locknest4]

Oooh :-D I just have to tell someone! After 10 days patiently waiting, one of our new girls left us an adorable little white egg! And she used her nest box, so I'm really excited! I wonder how many we will start to get per week now, I cant wait to find out :->

Gr8 to hear

first eggs are always exciting!

 

[locknest4]

So many posts! Hard to keep up with them all.
Deej211 sorry to hear of ur problems with cocci.

anniebee the book on chooks we have by Jackie French suggests filling an egg (insides removed) with a mix of pepper and mustard and giving it to the egg Eater.
Also read somewhere that if you add a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to chooks drinking water it helps with hardening eggs. Not sure if it works. We used to add it to chooks water in our early chook keeping days. Didn't seem to hurt them tho.

 

[Fancychooklady]

So many posts! Hard to keep up with them all.
Deej211 sorry to hear of ur problems with cocci.

anniebee the book on chooks we have by Jackie French suggests filling an egg (insides removed) with a mix of pepper and mustard and giving it to the egg Eater.
Also read somewhere that if you add a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to chooks drinking water it helps with hardening eggs. Not sure if it works. We used to add it to chooks water in our early chook keeping days. Didn't seem to hurt them tho.

Try the golf ball first, doesn't always work, but much less hassle .