Buff Orpingtons and heart attacks? Lone sister help too? Long post.

[Mrs. K]

Very different dietary view point for chickens. I feed mine commercial feed and kitchen scraps. No dairy other than what might get scraped off a plate.

When I consider bird diet, I consider wild birds like turkeys and sharp tail grouse. If that would not come into their diet, I would not add it to my chicken diet. So while I do add meat if it has started to turn, I would not give butter or yogurt, or vinegar.

I would like to point out that the chicken digestion is quite different than human digestion. And their needs are different.

As a human, I seldom use commercially prepared food. I love to cook and make almost all from scratch. Always amazing how different people do different things.

Many people want their chickens to live a very long life. I do not expect that, I rather they be active and healthy and do not want to prolong their suffering. A small difference in outlook., to each his own way of raising birds.

Mrs K

 

[man_hammer]

I have found that raw butter is indispensable in preventing many health issues in chickens. Such as egg binding , peritonitis and respiratory problems. It's not only a great way to add healthy fat to their diet but to also lubricate their trachea, crop, gizzard and reproductive ducts. In the winter it provides an extra layer of protection against the elements. And in the hot summer it prevents dehydration.

From observation over the years. Chickens who do not have appetite for raw ground beef or butter tend to display more health problems over time and tend to live a shorter life span of about 5 to 6 years. My oldest 13 yrs old, seems to thrive with butter and beef.

Raw butter is easy to make, just put raw cream in to a blender for 30 sec and it turns into butter.

 

[Mrs. K]

haha - if I am making butter, it is going to be for me!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

…Acute heart failure is commonly called a Heart Attack. This is more common in large fowl that have been bred for size, especially cock birds but also in hybrid broilers that put on weight quickly.

The condition is made worse by poor genetic variation by breeders, inbreeding. Particularly if buying chicks from local pet shops…

I have to make a terminology correction here for the sake of those whose families and friends have heart disease. Perhaps acute heart failure is called a heart attack in avian medicine, but it is absolutely not (unless in error) in human medicine. They are both diseases, but they are different.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is the condition where the myocardium (heart muscle) has just pooped out and can’t contract (squeeze) hard enough to move blood around the body, including to the lungs. Fluid pools up in the lungs and body tissues, resulting in difficulty breathing and swollen limbs. It can be acute, chronic, or acute-on-chronic.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI, or heart attack) is when one or more of the coronary arteries that carry oxygenated blood to the heart muscle is blocked, whether by blood clot, atherosclerotic plaques, blood vessel spasm, etc., and the heart muscle downstream from the blockage is damaged or dies from lack of oxygen. This reduces the amount of healthy heart muscle able to pump blood, and if enough muscle is starved of O2, it can result in death.

An AMI (heart attack) can cause eventual heart failure by damaging enough heart muscle to result in overall weakness (failure) of the heart, but they’re not the same. At least in human medicine.

Patients’ families waiting in the ER hear “he’s experiencing heart failure” and immediate think (and say) “Daddy’s having a heart attack!” They’re not the same, they have different outcomes, and they have different treatments.

I’ll climb off my soapbox now. I’ve just spent a lot of time (for a non-clinical person) gently untangling confused people.

I’m sorry about those who have lost their chickens to heart disease. I have a Buff Orpington pullet, and this is one reason that I rarely offer treats.