BYC Café

[ronott1]

I hope Maggie does not have any more seizures!

 

[aart]

Do you have something like Front Porch Forum?

There's a community FB page, but I'm not much for communing with strangers.
It's a very small town, pop. ~8-900.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is ready.

We have a thin coating of snow out there and it's 13F.

I switched tactics last night. After I released Remi to go to roost, I snatched up Napoleon and tossed him in the ward. Tonk was busy warming a nest of eggs so I tossed her in there with him. I want to see how Remi does in the flock today without him around to harass her.
It's going to be a PITA today because it's staying below freezing and I'll have to keep taking water out for the inmates to drink.

Make a water warmer.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Maggie just had a major seizure. Heard thrashing in the dining room and thought that the Princess had gotten up and that Maggie was greeting her. Instead I found her thrashing on the floor. I've had dogs with seizures before and generally can ease/talk them out of the seizure. Didn't work with her. As she was coming out she started screaming and tried to bite me. I think she thought I was causing the seizure. She was scared of me for a bit, but now is extremely clingy. I've called our vet and am waiting for a call back. This scared/scares me, and I don't scare easily when it comes to my animals.

I hope she is ok. Very scary. She's just a young dog isn't she?

 

[Sally PB]

@sourland, I am sending positive waves and hugs to you, the Princess, and Maggie.


I have seen seizures in a dog (and a human), and they are terrifying to watch.

Extra hugs.

 

[CapricornFarm]

51° here, but feels like 38°. And dropping sharply tonight.

 

[DobieLover]

Apparently in young dogs this is frequently just a one time thing. It is not something I would even consider making her endure on a routine basis. Right now she is fine/normal. I am wrecked. Who wanted this damn dog?

That's what I read when I researched it. It also seems to hit herding dogs.
Hopefully it won't happen again.

 

[bruceha2000]

51° here, but feels like 38°.

That would have been nice here! Started in single digits. Made it all the way up to 15°F.
Similarly cold in the morning, might make 25°F at 4 PM. I don't see how March can go out like a lamb with rain and 35 MPH wind gusts on a base wind of 20 MPH on Thursday!

 

[Shadrach]

I'm really struggling emotionally keeping up with DHs decline. I basically have no life and I'm perpetually depressed. I'm getting nothing done here at the house and there is so much to do get it finished. So a couple of months ago I started looking into the next step for DHs care.

Right here in our home town are care giver homes owned by the same person that take dementia patients. They are private pay but I finally got access to all of DHs retirement accounts and he can afford it.

In talking with my nurse sister who works hospice, she told me she's had multiple patients at these homes. So that means DH could likely move to one of them and not need to move to a nursing home at all.

I've been talking with him about it and he was fine with it but when I mentioned I had made an appointment to go visit 2 sites, he almost started crying. I had to reassure him it was just to visit, that it wasn't time and hugged him until he settled down.

Today was visit day.

I'm relieved to report it went very well. He liked both sites. One of them is just over a mile away at the foot of the hill. One of the other residents there has a little dog that lives at the house and the owner of the business lives in a basement apartment in that site and has a little dog too. Dave liked both of them. That one is currently the one I prefer. I plan to continue to take him to his various appointments and bring him home one day a week so we can still spend time together but without all the weight on me to manage all of his care.

That's terribly sad DL.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is ready.
We have just a dusting of snow on the ground. We've reached our high of 33F and it will fall to 16F tonight with light flurries all day. I need to fill the wood racks.

I watched Remi on the ward cam last night pacing frantically at roost time. She'd been locked up for 5 days. Still keeping her right eye closed. She will open it briefly. I decided to let her roost with the flock and when I went out and slid open the door she flew straight up to the boards and hopped right up on the roost, one hen down from Fabio.

This morning when I went out she was not in the run with the flock and didn't come out of the coop. After I spread the scratch seed around I assumed I'd find her in a nest box. When I opened the coop door, yep, she was just standing on the perch in front of the boxes looking at me. She let me walk right up to her and pick her up and place her in front of the door to the ward. She walked in willingly enough and I closed the door.

While I was pouring seed and meal worms into a new enamel pot I bought to hold my "scratch" mix, I saw her racing back and forth trying to "get away" from someone. That someone was Napoleon who was "chasing" her on the other side of the hardware cloth wall. I had suspected he was the one that damaged her head and eye and now I'm leaning even more heavily in that direction.

So now I have a conundrum. Do I sell the Sebright trio or do I rehome Remington??
I really like my Sebrights and Napoleon is a real character (when he isn't trying to force a hen to be his). BUT I would like a smaller flock and it's just a matter of time before the battle with Tonk begins and I have her in a broody breaker more often than she's with the flock.
On the other hand, Remington's aberrant behavior may insight Ace to go after her. BUT I've seen her go after Ace to drive him of my little d'Uccle hen, Jody. AND she was so much better with her confidence this spring. Could she come around without Napoleon here to harass her?

Managing to keep more than one male in a confined flock for any length of time requires a settled flock and you seemed to have achieved this. If you have to move one or two on from time to time then that's good management in my view. I used to eat one or two. I've given related pairs (cockerel and pullet) away a few times when the tribes expanded to more than I could adequately house and take care of.
So, if new housing and two distinct groups is not a realistic option then you would know who might be comfortable with who and reduce your flock size.
I think I would choose a tribe of one rooster and four hens. I would want at least one of those hens to have shown signs of broodiness in the past. The others will get the idea from her if they don't have it already. I would let one hen sit and hatch each year, raise the chicks and assuming there had been no deaths that year, rehome the offspring.
In the event one of the initial group dies, each year you should have the opportunity to replace any losses with their offspring.
I'm sure you know all the above anyway. You've been doing this anyway but with more chickens than I would choose.