Quote: Great to hear! On the topic, nettle is a great herb to give too, it's one of if not THE richest on-land plant source of the omega oils and good fats and is secondary only to kelp in terms of its value as food; it's also a powerful blood builder and if you could get some for her it ought to help her a lot. It's another of those staple herbs I automatically give to animals so often in injury or illness that I actually forget about it. Sorry about that!
Quote: It's probably a good idea to give some plain water too but during their sickest moments I didn't bother with that for my chooks. Now she's trying to get about some plain water might help flush her quicker. The honey water though would be meeting her basic fluid and food needs quite well if my experiences have shown me anything. Seems to me your chooks have some instinct remaining, a lot of the hatchery birds I got (which are required to be vaccinated over here, I don't know about over there) were too ignorant of what's good for them to be treated without it being a battle all the way. Might have something to do with their lesser ability to absorb nutrience. That's when 'quick fix junk food' looks more appealing to them, though it doesn't help them, mostly, but in the case of severely starved dogs, white rice is good because it converts to instant sugars, unlike whole rice which has more nutrience and takes longer to digest. Honey water would supply the same sugar fix minus the same level of carbs though so it's a toss up of whether or not the bulkier rice is a better option there. It may be.
Quote: While it's not easy the best way to start is often with damaged or sub par stock. This will teach you a world of necessary things and when you begin sourcing from naturally healthy stock or breeding/rearing your own, it's going to be so smooth and fuss free in comparison, it'll all be worth it. I believe so anyway. Despite the trials of dealing with weaker stock, it's worth it for experience, and I can now spot a host of issues from the first sight of a new bird and won't be buying some guaranteed failures like I have in past. Your hatchery birds are much better than mine were on average, I had some well below their level and some close to or slightly over... But I won't buy from large hatcheries ever again, only 'backyard' breeders and enthusiasts.
Quote: Might be OK to put her and Runty together and see if it's distressing to either, but shouldn't be an issue if you don't, either. Runty would see Wilma's not up to her usual antics, but being injured herself may just feel too scared to be happy with her. It's up to you. If you feel it's a bad idea, probably best not to.
Some of my chooks and other animals, particularly young or infant ones, would go downhill when not shown enough affection. I believe one of the main reasons, if not THE reason affection is shown by mothers to offspring in most larger animal species is because the babies have an automatic switch that flips on with affection and off with rejection or being ignored; this switch controls their will to live and not too many babies defy it. This is just a theory I've developed from years of dealing with wild and domestic animals, especially babies, over the years. There is doubtless more to it, but affection is necessary. When a baby emerges into the world, affection shows it that it has an invested mother, therefore a good chance for living, and should put its utmost effort into it. Rejection, or being ignored despite being tended, on the other hand tells it that it's as good as gone, since the environment needed to raise it is lacking, and the baby giving up on life means it will die quicker without prolonged suffering.
Many babies that are physically fine just up and die without affection; shown a storm of affection, though, even a baby that is well on its way into death will rouse and put in an effort and often recover seemingly on love alone. The initial studies into the role of affection in saving lives were driven in part by vivisectionists discovering that no matter what they did, certain wards of animals lived and some died, despite having identical treatments and surgeries etc. They checked out what the difference was... And found it was one assistant taking the time to cuddle and stroke and be affectionate to one ward of patients. The seemingly very rough licking and nudging mother cats, cows, etc give a newborn is necessary. Gentle licking or rubbing can leave them almost comatose and they can fail to 'quicken'. I've helped many different types of animal birth and know firsthand, do not be too gentle, the babies will not survive it, lol! There is literally a patterned sequence of rubbing and nudging that seems to do the trick every time. Roughly half of all babies born don't seem to take their first breath without that stimulation.
When a mother cat decides to smother a kitten, it will struggle once, then lay without moving as it awaits death, accepting its mother's decision. If the smothering was accidental and the kitten is rescued, even a second after being covered by the adult's body, the kitten is always depressed, noticeably, and its health will run downhill rapidly while it just sits and mopes its life away, unless frantically licked and made a fuss of immediately after being rescued; if the fuss is made, it brightens up and is playing with its siblings a moment later like nothing happened. It's a lot like that failure to thrive syndrome that kills humans babies, where the only thing they didn't get was affection. They just die.
This whole experience, if she survives it, could be that 'near death' experience I mentioned to you before, where a non tame or disinterested animal finds affection and trust for humans after being nursed through its severe issues. Many animals I've kept were going to be culled or re-homed until something like this happened and the sterling nature that emerged got them an experimental place on the breeding program, which they did so well with, I now assume any really damaged animal that got friendly during tending will produce beautiful natured offspring. This is a deeply felt reaction in them and of all the behaviours I know how of, it breeds strongest and deepest and truest and by far the fastest. I have it in spades in my flock now, which is beautiful, because most of my birds have at least one ancestor who went through something like that.
Offspring of a parent that turned into a pet through damage may inherit their parent's initial flightiness and dislike of human's company, but when caught and held, despite their initial alarm, they often melt like their parent, except with an expression of incomprehending astonishment, lol!
You can see the cogs start churning in their brains, after you hold them they're dazed with the force of the inherited recall of feeling peace and love in your company. They'll often fall over or land on their heads if you try to let them hop down like normal, and will stand there goggling at you, trying to figure out why they feel this way. Funny to see a chook trying so hard to think. I have also seen a similar expression on intensive commercial production hen's faces as they watch other hens with babies, staring unblinking and unmoving for hours on end, trying to reconnect the instinct that is awakening subconsciously. These hens will go on to be mothers despite not having experienced motherhood for hundreds or thousands of generations, and the near-death-experience-tamed chook's offspring will almost always tame quicker by far than others from unaffected parents. Worth it.
It's about the only way I know of that a vicious animal's offspring can turn around those ancestral instincts/ miasma in one generation flat. None of these birds or other animals I kept were absolute true nasties before the life threatening circumstance, just not high enough quality to be automatically on the breeding list. But some of them did come from less than well behaved parents, or parent possessing several marks against them for various faults of nature or acquired habit or whatever.
My family, having seen the animals I've nursed through issues so often become lovely natured, make jokes about nasty animals needing a 'near death experience' and it's so true... But it doesn't work for all, though it works for the majority. Truly nasty animals will not even care. An interesting side effect or direct effect is that animals can learn to show compassion to others. Many of my damaged but saved stock went from being unfriendly to other damaged animals, to showing them care, like chooks snuggling up to and putting their wings over a hurt or ill chook.
Interestingly it's now becoming accepted that animals do think, do feel, and do remember stuff well beyond the limits we were taught. Emotion is measurable molecules of endocrinal secretions and neural activity, and as far as the logic we thought was man's exclusive faculty, that's also being accepted to just be a method of reasoning out the world around a creature. Animals too show faulty logic, lol. Even fish have been recorded using tools, those magical things that 'separate man from the animals', and sheep are now proven to have a facial memory span of up to two years, and that's for humans, not other sheep, lol! Some of these sheep rival some strains of chickens for having intelligence and instinct bred out of them to a massive degree, so that's no mean feat. Not too many breeds of dogs are known for the ability to recognize humans facial expressions, either, and dogs keep climbing up the I.Q. charts attempting to quantify their intelligence by human standards. People still drag out that old corker about how we 'project' our emotions etc on animals, we 'humanize them so we identify with them better' and 'it's unfair to them' and while animals don't think/feel/reason exactly like we do or to those standards, they certainly aren't limited to being strictly autonomous, unthinking, instinct and hormone driven biomachines like we've been taught. I've missed so much info that was right in front of me by being blinded by scientific but biased studies and educated academical ignorance, and now (as always, history repeats) science is throwing the old mythology out the window... Very interesting stuff! (I've always been interested in animal behaviour, in case you couldn't tell... lol)
Quote: The butt-in-the-air thing I haven't yet figured out; if a hen tilts her rear end too high a rooster will slide right onto her head, but I have seen some chooks of adolescent age and both genders do that high butt tilt thing. It may be a practice sexual behaviour. Baby male and female turkeys take turns displaying like males and sitting like females, switching genders after each mock-mating as they take turns in this strange role play.
Plenty of hens and roosters from massive hatcheries never mate normally, neither did their ancestors back for who knows how many generations, so they display both normal and aberrant sexual behaviour to humans. Some crouch or jump on like normal, some tilt strangely (I would think it's maybe due to the human's artificial insemination technique) and some roosters think legs or hands are sexy (never both, each rooster who is attracted to humans seems to have a leg/foot or hand/arm fetish, not both)... Strange. I'm aware of more than a few artificial insemination techniques I disapprove of... The animals can mate just fine, why go putting your hands and arms where they don't need to be? Confusing animal's sexual instincts to involve humans as a stimuli is just wrong at best and dangerous at worst. We're still using frozen sperm from bulls who died in the 1960's, which brings inbreeding to futuristic levels. I'm aghast at the animal breeding industry's standards quite often, and their disconnect from connecting the faults they see and the genes they breed, even though these educated people actually do know better.
Quote: It's very good she sees them and they see her, it will retain her place as a member of the flock; not the exact social place but the memory of her as being part of the group. It will also give her a bit of inspiration, if she has any ability to live, so I would take it as a good sign, but of course it's no guarantee. Hoping. It's not cruel to let her see them, it's more invigorating as long as they aren't allowed to bully her.
Standing in the grass or on the dirt is necessary to connect with the 'earth' field to discharge static electricity, which builds up when insulated from the earth. We (and all living things) run on direct current, and our homes are wired with alternating current, which interrupts and interferes with our every cell's electrical activity. Being constantly exposed to AC and never getting back to our natural DC is harmful, since we depend on our bio-electrical systems to survive. Some lawyers have recently started making statements about the coming class action lawsuits against the makers and purveyors of 'dirty electricity' or electrical pollution will rival the tobacco, alcohol, and asbestos damages awarded combined. I'd find it a little over the top if I didn't personally know people who suffer electricity sensitivity syndrome, it can get pretty crippling in this modern technologically based world. Here I am typing away on a keyboard, not noticing any ill effects, when just doing this would cut off circulation and numb their fingers and hands and then arms within fifteen minutes. It's almost like AIDS to some people, it just gets worse and worse as they keep using electrical items over the years, their nerves retreat from the electrical fields.
Quote: It may be wisest to drain, though I'd worry about releasing something into her bloodstream while she's trying to convalesce. It's impossible to say for sure without knowing what it is, but most if not all people on these forums would advise you to drain it, judging from the usual responses to cysts, lumps etc. So I'd go with my judgment on it if I were you. If it feels hard, not hot, and isn't coming out though the wound on it, maybe it needs draining, especially if it's irritating her, which it seems to be. But if she's showing signs of recovering despite it, it might be best to wait until she's stronger. I don't know for sure. Best wishes with that decision and whatever following actions you take. I might do more research into stuff to apply to it that will seep through the skin and tackle it internally, but that NuStock stuff is supposed to be pretty good even for cysts, abscesses, etc.
One thing mum always told me was that itchiness means it's either healing or infected. But generally it seems more indicative of healing. Not knowing what made the lump is the biggest issue. It could be the body isolating a nasty dose of toxins or venom, and releasing it into her bloodstream now could be a mistake. But if it's a lump of dead white blood cells that have done their job and killed an infection, no problem. Same if it's a benign tumor, but if it's a malignant one cutting into it will disperse the cancer throughout her body. I really can't offer you any worthwhile advice there except to possibly keep applying the NuStock. Even then, I've never used it, so it's all just hearsay and hopeful conjecture. But hope is good!
Quote: You're very welcome, I only hope I can actually help. It's all a crash course, I know I would have liked having someone to question a lot of the time. But much of your experiences will be different to mine, even using the same methods, not least because you're in another country and everything in your birds, their feeds, their environment, etc will be subtly different. But chickens are incredibly tough as far as birds go, so where there's life, there's hope. There isn't any one perfect solution to basically any issue. I can tell you this though: silver's very potent and none of my birds showing the same symptoms as her wattles etc showed perked up that quickly. Silver's basically the only thing you've done so far that I hadn't. I wouldn't let her overexercise herself but some exercise and sunshine and peaceful social interaction and grounding from static electricity should help her. All the best.
EDIT: on the topic of affection, emotion, and healing: some white blood cells have recently been discovered to possess endocrinal receptors and transmittors, which opens up a whole new way of viewing how emotion impacts disease and injury healing. This was discovered in humans but I don't doubt animals have it too, possibly in even stronger form.
