California - Northern

[Happy Chooks]

One of my nicer Dork pullets has a serious injury on her foot. It looks like she caught her center toe on something and almost ripped it off. The laceration goes 2/3 of the way around the toe.
I didn't see it right away. She's out on pasture (which is dirt, due to the drought) and there was all kinds of yuck in the wound. Infection has set in and the foot is swollen.
I noticed her limping and brought her in the house for treatment. My husband tried to scrub all the gunk out of the wound, which made it start bleeding. Bandaging a 5 toed fowl is a challenge.
Her behavior is normal. She watched him cleaning out the gunk with curiosity, I could barely watch. She seems perfectly healthy, other than the foot. She's not eating her chicken feed but scarfed down the cat kibble he gave her.
She is one of my first Dorking pullets to reach Standard weight, so I want to try to heal her foot and use her for breeding. I don't usually medicate chickens, but I want to give her an antibiotic to help the wound heal. My vet doesn't deal with chickens and would just tell me to cull her. I can't afford UCD vets.
What should I use and where can I get some penicillin or appropriate antibiotic for poultry?

Penicillin can be found at most feed stores. It needs to be refrigerated, so you'll have to ask for it from behind the counter. Get either a 20 or 22 guage needle. Too small and you won't be able to inject it as it's pretty thick. Lay the hen on her back on your lap and she should be calm enough. Inject into the left side of her breast. (not the side with her crop) If you do the leg muscle, there is a higher chance of hitting a nerve. I've only done it once, so I don't remember the dosage, but I believe someone already posted that for you. I do know it's dependent on her weight.

You can crush up 1/4 aspirin in 1 cup of water for pain.

Say hatching day is EXACTLY 21 days.

I set the eggs exactly 21 days ago at about 4pm.

should they be completely hatched at 4Pm today or begin hatching at 4pm today?

They would roughly be starting at 4PM today. If your temps are a bit high, they'll hatch earlier. A bit low, and they'll hatch later.

 

[chiqita]

I think Mario will be good. The best quote I heard  was from him. "Well you can't really count babies when it comes to counting how many chickens you have". And he was quite convinced this was the truth! Well played Shantih, well played! I think you can get him to see this your way as well.

Lol.he was like oh. He is haply I didn't bring more Crowers. I have been releasing the juvies on the lawn to play and forage and he can see them in the morning. He is pleased with the lawn ornaments. He showed more interest in me trying to sous vide a whole salmon then in bringing home 5 more chickens. 2 of them are buff. I wonder if I can put them in with flame since he is a buff based partridge. I have 2 more partridges I think are girls.

Also *** my head silkie rooster had gone postal. He was fighting with poor moppet who has never approached a girl in his life! He is bald now too. Do I have to separate him or will that make it worse?

 

[juststruttin]

The busy Brabanter. See why I'm hoping for pullets for the hen house? Crossed with SS and BO's, ought to be pretty birds!









He is technically my Mothers but she can't have chicken so we keep him on the farm. We are dearly hoping to get him some of his own girls some day. I've noticed his tail is really improving. He will be a real stunner once fully matured!

He looks great. I finally gave in and put one of his brothers in a pen with my only Brabanter girl.

I swore I was not going to work on another breed, but I really like the Brabanters. I originally hatched eggs from MissMolly for pasture ornaments, but their cuteness got the best of me.

Unfortunately, my pullet is an egg eater and I have not been able to collect any eggs. Urg.... I need to build her a roll out nest box so I can get some darn eggs.

 

[PetRock]

Unfortunately, my pullet is an egg eater and I have not been able to collect any eggs. Urg.... I need to build her a roll out nest box so I can get some darn eggs.

That reminds me, has anyone bought any of the $10 egg rolling nest boxes off of craigslist? The seller is in Santa Rosa. I was just wondering if they work well.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/grd/4304395173.html

 

[Audio51]

Quote: I wonder if these are homemade. Too bad he didn't include a picture. $10 for a nestbox is a great price...but a little too far away for me.


And on a side note....I was a bit amused when I ran the spell check before sending this reply. When it got to Juststruttin's name, the first correction option was "castrating". Not sure how it came up with that one!

 

[tls_ranch]

 

Unfortunately,  my pullet is an egg eater and I have not been able to collect any eggs.  Urg....   I need to build her a roll out nest box so I can get some darn eggs.

That reminds me, has anyone bought any of the $10 egg rolling nest boxes off of craigslist?  The seller is in Santa Rosa.  I was just wondering if they work well.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/grd/4304395173

  I wonder if these are homemade.  Too bad he didn't include a picture.  $10 for a nestbox is a great price...but a little too far away for me.


And on a side note....I was a bit amused when I ran the spell check before sending this reply.  When it got to Juststruttin's name, the first correction option was "castrating".  Not sure how it came up with that one! 

Has anyone tried these? http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/roll-out-tray-with-flap-for-chickbox.html
I think they can be used to modify regular wood nest boxes into rollout nests.

Trisha

 

[Audio51]

Quote: I wonder if these are homemade. Too bad he didn't include a picture. $10 for a nestbox is a great price...but a little too far away for me.


And on a side note....I was a bit amused when I ran the spell check before sending this reply. When it got to Juststruttin's name, the first correction option was "castrating". Not sure how it came up with that one!

Has anyone tried these? http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/roll-out-tray-with-flap-for-chickbox.html
I think they can be used to modify regular wood nest boxes into rollout nests.

Trisha

I saw those yesterday and they look pretty cool. They look like they are to use with the nests on thre same page. Those are pretty pricey though. I couldn't use them because my nests boxes are attached to the elevated coop and have access from outside the coop.

 

[PetRock]

I wonder if these are homemade. Too bad he didn't include a picture. $10 for a nestbox is a great price...but a little too far away for me.


And on a side note....I was a bit amused when I ran the spell check before sending this reply. When it got to Juststruttin's name, the first correction option was "castrating". Not sure how it came up with that one!

Here is another link to a CL listing from the same seller. I wonder if the rolling ones look like this with a slight modification?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/grd/4304394454.html

 

[Audio51]

Quote:
I saw that one too. I wonder if the floor is just sloped backwards so the egg rolls back.

 

[chrissyr]

@juststruttin -on the above post: are you sure she's an egg eater? I swore up and down my hens were. I put a video camera in the catch who's doing it and cull. To my surprise…It was a blue Scrub Jay! He would break a hole in them, take a sip, and leave. All day long he was breaking them. The hens would clean up the left overs. I wouldn't have believed it, but I got the video to show me