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Cinnaminute
Songster
September 2023 - New layers! 
September kind of just flew past me in a blur. All my Crevecoeurs who hadn't started laying yet all began laying. Though this was exciting news, I ran into a health issue that kept me busy, distracted, and wrecked my sleep for most of the month...
Helga's Crop Issue
On the 2nd of the month, when I was letting everyone outside in the morning, I noticed Helga's crop was large. Typically I refill their small feeder in the late evening so they can fill up and go to sleep. Sometimes a little food is left and I also leave water in there. I told myself that maybe there was more food left and she polished it off in the morning, but I had a suspicious that wasn't the case. Still, her crop didn't feel squishy so I let her be but that night I picked up the feeder.
The morning of the 3rd her crop was still large. I brought her in and monitored her for a bit. She was passing pencil thin poops so I suspected an impaction. I started giving her massages and olive oil with scrambled egg to eat. Her system didn't seem too slow, since the olive oil passed through within a few hours. I also made sure grit and oyster shell was available to her at all times. She definitely gobbled down a lot of grit despite always having it available so that was very suspicious...
Such a full crop first thing in the morning:
Very thin poop:
On the 4th she started doing the "need to lay an egg" panic dance inside so I opted not to quarantine her inside all day. I let her out into the run with everyone and she laid her first egg! So I was happy she wasn't egg bound but concerned something reproductive could be going on. Still, I gave her more olive oil and scrambled egg. I also kept her from free ranging in the grassy yard.
Helga's first egg!
Helga enjoying a dust bath. I was happy to see her behavior was still normal.
The morning of the 5th she seemed to be doing a bit better. Her crop wasn't as large. I did my same treatment and let her be with her flock as normal.
On the 6th, she was suddenly worse. I made a post about her condition: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...g-likely-blockage-looking-for-advice.1597461/
She was visibly uncomfortable. Her crop was very large and squishy.
Her poop was a mix of being very thin and extremely loose & watery.
Her cecal poop looked normal, albeit a lot darker than usual.
I was worried her crop had gone sour due to the assumed impaction. I felt overwhelmed so I kind of started hitting her with everything.
By the 8th, she seemed to be getting progressively worse. Her crop felt like a balloon, really full and tight. She'd often stand around in discomfort, sometimes she'd start twisting and jerking her head around because her crop was bothering her so much. On the plus side, her poop was returning to normal so I could only hope the impaction had cleared.
Normal poop!
But a lot of poops that were still loose had bubbles:
Anyway, I got some wonderful advice from some wonderful folks. I bought fennel seeds to make fennel tea, coconut oil to use instead of olive oil, and some other stuff I ended up not using for her. I also finished her crop sling.
Helga sporting my poorly made crop sling:
My day by day schedule is outlined in the original post, but over time I began to stop certain things when I noticed they weren't working, made things worse, or she rejected them.
Normal!
She still laid eggs regularly so that was a good sign too that she was doing okay. Her behavior was still relatively normal, but of course she was still bloated and still felt icky from it.
I did a lot of thinking on the 14th. 12 days and although I couldn't say she hadn't improved, she was still doing worse than she should've been. It was time for a change.
So on the 15th I decided to quarantine her against her wishes. She spent time with me very willingly and that's a clear sign she didn't feel good.
My ferrets were mad that they had to go in the cage while Helga was in the room.
I stopped all prior treatments. I came to the conclusion that her crop bacteria might be out of whack so I pulled out my Sav-A-Chick probiotics and that's all I let her drink. All she got to eat was her feed watered down with the probiotic water. I was going to withold food completely but she was so hungry I caved. I figured the feed would be fine.
The very next day I saw results! The probiotic seemed to be just the thing she needed at this point. Her crop was no longer ballooned in the morning. It was smaller and squishier, felt pretty floppy. Each morning after was further improvement. I was so relieved! And also scared to be relieved for fear she'd get bad again.
On the 18th, she no longer wanted to peacefully sit with me by the computer and I started letting her out into the run again. Her crop went nearly flat but there were hard pieces still in there. I thought maybe grit, but one piece seemed a bit too big for that. Interesting to note that on the 21st and 22nd her crop had swelled up a little bit again. Just slightly squishy but relatively small. However, while eating her probiotic soup feed concoction, she "puked" up her food and I found a piece of hard brittle plastic. I have noticed that my egg laying girls tend to have a fascination with anything white they find in the yard, especially if its hard. Even though they always have oyster shell available...
Is this the last of what caused Helga and me all this trouble?
Perhaps she gobbled it down thinking it a calcium source as she prepared for laying her first egg.
As of the 23rd onward, Helga is 100% back to normal! She feels great, she's active, her crop is flat in the morning as it should be and full at night before bed. She eats good and poops completely normal. I'm so relieved!
The heavy rains we've been having seem to be unearthing a lot of junk in the yard so I'll be more vigilant from here on out. I would offer layer feed but last time it was a huge flop. It's possible the Crevecoeurs might like it so perhaps I'll give it a try again.
My Ferret, Dib, Almost Suffocated
Yeah, that happened.
September 9th, Helga's crop was getting worse and I was already stressed about that. I always put my ferrets in their cage when I go to bed and let them out when I wake up. So I gather everyone up as I usually do. I found my oldest, Grim, sleeping in an xmas stocking I gave to them weeks ago. I showed him to my family and they thought it was cute. They put him in the cage, stocking and all.
Going left to right we have Koko, Dib, Gumby, and Grim.
Now I just have to make a point real quick. I got Grim in October 2020. So it's been nearly 3 years of owning a ferret, Better yet, I got Koko and Dib September 8, 2021. So it's my 2 year anniversary with those two. I know that's not a lot of time, but you'd think something like this would've happened long ago if it was going to happen. Especially when they've had this stocking for over a year. I give it to them periodically to play with and when they bore of it, I store it for later.
Baby Dib when we first brought him home on September 8 2021
September 10th rolls around. I'm mentally focused on Helga, so I don't let the ferrets out in the morning first thing like I usually do. However, I checked on them. Everyone was sleeping all fine and dandy. I ended up checking on them again later around noon before heading to the store to make sure they had food and water. All good. Finally around 2pm, I'm back home and done getting things in order. I go to let them out.
I found Dib in the stocking. At first I thought he was sleeping in there. I decide to show my family what seemed "cute" at first. Then I realized, his nose was peeking out of a hole. He sounded like he was wheezing a bit. Somehow he got stuck between the outer layer of the stocking and the inner layer. We ripped it open to free him.
I don't have any photos for learning purposes. I was too afraid for his life at the time. He was breathing heavily and drooling. Seemed to be hyperventilating. He was also very hot even though the room was very cool. His body was very limp and although ferrets do go limp at times of relaxation, he wasn't relaxed. He was weak. His nose was also red instead of the usual light pink. I was just panicking. I tried dipping his feet in lukewarm water to cool his temperature down. Tried getting a little water in his mouth but he didn't want any. I called my mother over to help me because I was at a loss and on the verge of calling a vet but scared I couldn't get him to a vet on time.
My sweet mom, I'm so glad she could think straight. She gave him CPR. She put her mouth over his mouth and nose then breathed in and out. That calmed his breathing but after a couple minutes he'd start breathing hard again. It took a few more tries before his breathing finally stabilized. I watched over him for a couple hours. He ate a lot and drank a lot then took a long nap. His body temperature returned to normal pretty quick and after about an hour, his nose turned light pink again.
His lip did have a little sore on it, probably from his struggle to escape the stocking:
Happy to say he recovered quick but wow, that was terrifying. I'm so grateful to my mom for saving my little casanova. I need to work on improving myself to operate better in times like this.
Dib thankfully does not seem traumatized by this:
Presenting the new layers!
With most of September seeing me stressed and sleep-deprived, I didn't keep the best record of my new layers. As of the start of September, the only non-layers of age were 5 Crevecoeurs (Leslie started at 4mo in June) who were all 7mo by now.
So I confirmed Helga laid September 4th.
September 11th, found a darker off-white egg.
Yzma had been squatting a lot the past week and stopped after I found this so I suspect it's hers!
Alice started squatting soon after so I think this egg on September 20th is hers:
I can't quite recall the order for Mim and Gaz. I got a little mixed up at some point with them and thought both laid in September. Mim first, then Gaz. However, I think the egg on September 22nd actually belongs to Mim. I know you can't always judge the size of the egg by the size of the bird, but Mim is bigger and much heavier than Gaz. Gaz is probably the smallest of the bunch.
September 22nd egg
Back on October 2nd, I found this little egg which I believe is Gaz's:
So hurry to all my egg-laying ladies! That leaves just Peaches, Pooka, and Hazel who are all currently too young to lay. But not for long! I can't believe they're already over 16 weeks (4mo) old!
Fun Photos!
And now for photos! Next month I want to do some fun stuff for Halloween with my chickens as well as get a really nice glamor photo of each of my chickens. I also want to do a cool collage with a baby photo, current photo, and their first egg. Hopefully I have the time for that and no more problems!
So I have this baby photo of Truffles I took beside a pumpkin plant of mine. During the summer, I never transplanted it into the garden so the little pumpkin on it stayed the same size but eventually turned orange. So I got the idea to take a current photo of Truffles next to the very same pumpkin!
July 5th, Truffles
VS
September 10th, Truffles
He's grown so much in two months!
Speaking of pumpkins and Halloween, there's been a young black cat that started hanging around. I'm not kidding, this cat is pure black and I have never seen it before. I know the neighbor diagonal to me has two older cats, one of which is known to prowl the neighborhood. And one time I saw a cat with a collar hanging around sometime in August but I haven't seen that one for a long time.
This cat seems very friendly. Approached me and just stretched all at ease in my yard. It's been hanging around staring through my fence at the chickens. I know some cats are okay with chickens but I do worry so I've been making sure my Sheltie is on guard in the yard to keep my younger chicks safe.
I added on a little attachment so I can introduce my young chicks to the older girls slowly over time and I just let Truffles wander the yard now, though he stays close by to the run.
But as you can see, unlike the run, this attachment is chain link. Very not-safe for chickens. Not that the other stuff is as safe as hardware cloth, I don't have small predators I have to worry about thankfully. However, I do plan on still putting up hardware cloth in the future as I finish settling everyone into this run.
The babies have been much happier now that they get to spend most of the day outside. Though I can tell they want a little more room. I'll be taking care of that soon.
Pooka is looking more and more like Ella every day.
Peaches looks so regal!
Hansel is such a pretty cockerel!
I need a better photo of Hazel, but she's really pretty. I like how much white she has on her. I hope she continues to be so heavily speckled.
Truffles looking after everyone as he does:
Truffles does a lot of sunbathing and I swear he has the most dramatic poses out of everyone!
I also discovered the joy of hanging things from the tree! Don't worry, I kept an extremely close eye on the bungee cord. It took a while for them to start to actually enjoy the cabbage. They were a little freaked at first.
From left to right: Zelda, Moose, and Stitch. I wonder what they're scheming...
Despite all the troubles and chaos, I adore these birds and look forward to the many days, months, and years ahead.
And a big thanks to BYC for helping me get this far and take the best care of my girls that I can!
September kind of just flew past me in a blur. All my Crevecoeurs who hadn't started laying yet all began laying. Though this was exciting news, I ran into a health issue that kept me busy, distracted, and wrecked my sleep for most of the month...
Helga's Crop Issue
On the 2nd of the month, when I was letting everyone outside in the morning, I noticed Helga's crop was large. Typically I refill their small feeder in the late evening so they can fill up and go to sleep. Sometimes a little food is left and I also leave water in there. I told myself that maybe there was more food left and she polished it off in the morning, but I had a suspicious that wasn't the case. Still, her crop didn't feel squishy so I let her be but that night I picked up the feeder.
The morning of the 3rd her crop was still large. I brought her in and monitored her for a bit. She was passing pencil thin poops so I suspected an impaction. I started giving her massages and olive oil with scrambled egg to eat. Her system didn't seem too slow, since the olive oil passed through within a few hours. I also made sure grit and oyster shell was available to her at all times. She definitely gobbled down a lot of grit despite always having it available so that was very suspicious...
Such a full crop first thing in the morning:
Very thin poop:
On the 4th she started doing the "need to lay an egg" panic dance inside so I opted not to quarantine her inside all day. I let her out into the run with everyone and she laid her first egg! So I was happy she wasn't egg bound but concerned something reproductive could be going on. Still, I gave her more olive oil and scrambled egg. I also kept her from free ranging in the grassy yard.
Helga's first egg!
Helga enjoying a dust bath. I was happy to see her behavior was still normal.
The morning of the 5th she seemed to be doing a bit better. Her crop wasn't as large. I did my same treatment and let her be with her flock as normal.
On the 6th, she was suddenly worse. I made a post about her condition: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...g-likely-blockage-looking-for-advice.1597461/
She was visibly uncomfortable. Her crop was very large and squishy.
Her poop was a mix of being very thin and extremely loose & watery.
Her cecal poop looked normal, albeit a lot darker than usual.
I was worried her crop had gone sour due to the assumed impaction. I felt overwhelmed so I kind of started hitting her with everything.
- Massages - about once every hour
- Nystatin (Medistatin that I used for Marcy's sour crop)
- Plain Greek Yogurt
- Olive Oil
- Scrambled Egg
- Watered down feed (nearly a soup)
By the 8th, she seemed to be getting progressively worse. Her crop felt like a balloon, really full and tight. She'd often stand around in discomfort, sometimes she'd start twisting and jerking her head around because her crop was bothering her so much. On the plus side, her poop was returning to normal so I could only hope the impaction had cleared.
Normal poop!
But a lot of poops that were still loose had bubbles:
Anyway, I got some wonderful advice from some wonderful folks. I bought fennel seeds to make fennel tea, coconut oil to use instead of olive oil, and some other stuff I ended up not using for her. I also finished her crop sling.
Helga sporting my poorly made crop sling:
My day by day schedule is outlined in the original post, but over time I began to stop certain things when I noticed they weren't working, made things worse, or she rejected them.
- Massages - Good
- Nystatin - Not Helpful
She refused the meds and even with me forcing them on her, it didn't help her. That tells me it's not yeast. - Plain Greek Yogurt - Not Helpful She loved the yogurt but it bloated her up every time she ate it.
Olive OilCoconut Oil - Good But she did eventually begin to refuse it.- Scrambled Egg - Good It's a light food like her watered down feed. Easy to digest.
Normal!
She still laid eggs regularly so that was a good sign too that she was doing okay. Her behavior was still relatively normal, but of course she was still bloated and still felt icky from it.
I did a lot of thinking on the 14th. 12 days and although I couldn't say she hadn't improved, she was still doing worse than she should've been. It was time for a change.
So on the 15th I decided to quarantine her against her wishes. She spent time with me very willingly and that's a clear sign she didn't feel good.
My ferrets were mad that they had to go in the cage while Helga was in the room.
I stopped all prior treatments. I came to the conclusion that her crop bacteria might be out of whack so I pulled out my Sav-A-Chick probiotics and that's all I let her drink. All she got to eat was her feed watered down with the probiotic water. I was going to withold food completely but she was so hungry I caved. I figured the feed would be fine.
The very next day I saw results! The probiotic seemed to be just the thing she needed at this point. Her crop was no longer ballooned in the morning. It was smaller and squishier, felt pretty floppy. Each morning after was further improvement. I was so relieved! And also scared to be relieved for fear she'd get bad again.
On the 18th, she no longer wanted to peacefully sit with me by the computer and I started letting her out into the run again. Her crop went nearly flat but there were hard pieces still in there. I thought maybe grit, but one piece seemed a bit too big for that. Interesting to note that on the 21st and 22nd her crop had swelled up a little bit again. Just slightly squishy but relatively small. However, while eating her probiotic soup feed concoction, she "puked" up her food and I found a piece of hard brittle plastic. I have noticed that my egg laying girls tend to have a fascination with anything white they find in the yard, especially if its hard. Even though they always have oyster shell available...
Is this the last of what caused Helga and me all this trouble?
Perhaps she gobbled it down thinking it a calcium source as she prepared for laying her first egg.
As of the 23rd onward, Helga is 100% back to normal! She feels great, she's active, her crop is flat in the morning as it should be and full at night before bed. She eats good and poops completely normal. I'm so relieved!
The heavy rains we've been having seem to be unearthing a lot of junk in the yard so I'll be more vigilant from here on out. I would offer layer feed but last time it was a huge flop. It's possible the Crevecoeurs might like it so perhaps I'll give it a try again.
My Ferret, Dib, Almost Suffocated
Yeah, that happened.
September 9th, Helga's crop was getting worse and I was already stressed about that. I always put my ferrets in their cage when I go to bed and let them out when I wake up. So I gather everyone up as I usually do. I found my oldest, Grim, sleeping in an xmas stocking I gave to them weeks ago. I showed him to my family and they thought it was cute. They put him in the cage, stocking and all.
Going left to right we have Koko, Dib, Gumby, and Grim.
Now I just have to make a point real quick. I got Grim in October 2020. So it's been nearly 3 years of owning a ferret, Better yet, I got Koko and Dib September 8, 2021. So it's my 2 year anniversary with those two. I know that's not a lot of time, but you'd think something like this would've happened long ago if it was going to happen. Especially when they've had this stocking for over a year. I give it to them periodically to play with and when they bore of it, I store it for later.
Baby Dib when we first brought him home on September 8 2021
September 10th rolls around. I'm mentally focused on Helga, so I don't let the ferrets out in the morning first thing like I usually do. However, I checked on them. Everyone was sleeping all fine and dandy. I ended up checking on them again later around noon before heading to the store to make sure they had food and water. All good. Finally around 2pm, I'm back home and done getting things in order. I go to let them out.
I found Dib in the stocking. At first I thought he was sleeping in there. I decide to show my family what seemed "cute" at first. Then I realized, his nose was peeking out of a hole. He sounded like he was wheezing a bit. Somehow he got stuck between the outer layer of the stocking and the inner layer. We ripped it open to free him.
I don't have any photos for learning purposes. I was too afraid for his life at the time. He was breathing heavily and drooling. Seemed to be hyperventilating. He was also very hot even though the room was very cool. His body was very limp and although ferrets do go limp at times of relaxation, he wasn't relaxed. He was weak. His nose was also red instead of the usual light pink. I was just panicking. I tried dipping his feet in lukewarm water to cool his temperature down. Tried getting a little water in his mouth but he didn't want any. I called my mother over to help me because I was at a loss and on the verge of calling a vet but scared I couldn't get him to a vet on time.
My sweet mom, I'm so glad she could think straight. She gave him CPR. She put her mouth over his mouth and nose then breathed in and out. That calmed his breathing but after a couple minutes he'd start breathing hard again. It took a few more tries before his breathing finally stabilized. I watched over him for a couple hours. He ate a lot and drank a lot then took a long nap. His body temperature returned to normal pretty quick and after about an hour, his nose turned light pink again.
His lip did have a little sore on it, probably from his struggle to escape the stocking:
Happy to say he recovered quick but wow, that was terrifying. I'm so grateful to my mom for saving my little casanova. I need to work on improving myself to operate better in times like this.
Dib thankfully does not seem traumatized by this:
Presenting the new layers!
With most of September seeing me stressed and sleep-deprived, I didn't keep the best record of my new layers. As of the start of September, the only non-layers of age were 5 Crevecoeurs (Leslie started at 4mo in June) who were all 7mo by now.
So I confirmed Helga laid September 4th.
September 11th, found a darker off-white egg.
Yzma had been squatting a lot the past week and stopped after I found this so I suspect it's hers!
Alice started squatting soon after so I think this egg on September 20th is hers:
I can't quite recall the order for Mim and Gaz. I got a little mixed up at some point with them and thought both laid in September. Mim first, then Gaz. However, I think the egg on September 22nd actually belongs to Mim. I know you can't always judge the size of the egg by the size of the bird, but Mim is bigger and much heavier than Gaz. Gaz is probably the smallest of the bunch.
September 22nd egg
Back on October 2nd, I found this little egg which I believe is Gaz's:
So hurry to all my egg-laying ladies! That leaves just Peaches, Pooka, and Hazel who are all currently too young to lay. But not for long! I can't believe they're already over 16 weeks (4mo) old!
Fun Photos!
And now for photos! Next month I want to do some fun stuff for Halloween with my chickens as well as get a really nice glamor photo of each of my chickens. I also want to do a cool collage with a baby photo, current photo, and their first egg. Hopefully I have the time for that and no more problems!
So I have this baby photo of Truffles I took beside a pumpkin plant of mine. During the summer, I never transplanted it into the garden so the little pumpkin on it stayed the same size but eventually turned orange. So I got the idea to take a current photo of Truffles next to the very same pumpkin!
July 5th, Truffles
VS
September 10th, Truffles
He's grown so much in two months!
Speaking of pumpkins and Halloween, there's been a young black cat that started hanging around. I'm not kidding, this cat is pure black and I have never seen it before. I know the neighbor diagonal to me has two older cats, one of which is known to prowl the neighborhood. And one time I saw a cat with a collar hanging around sometime in August but I haven't seen that one for a long time.
This cat seems very friendly. Approached me and just stretched all at ease in my yard. It's been hanging around staring through my fence at the chickens. I know some cats are okay with chickens but I do worry so I've been making sure my Sheltie is on guard in the yard to keep my younger chicks safe.
I added on a little attachment so I can introduce my young chicks to the older girls slowly over time and I just let Truffles wander the yard now, though he stays close by to the run.
But as you can see, unlike the run, this attachment is chain link. Very not-safe for chickens. Not that the other stuff is as safe as hardware cloth, I don't have small predators I have to worry about thankfully. However, I do plan on still putting up hardware cloth in the future as I finish settling everyone into this run.
The babies have been much happier now that they get to spend most of the day outside. Though I can tell they want a little more room. I'll be taking care of that soon.
Pooka is looking more and more like Ella every day.
Peaches looks so regal!
Hansel is such a pretty cockerel!
I need a better photo of Hazel, but she's really pretty. I like how much white she has on her. I hope she continues to be so heavily speckled.
Truffles looking after everyone as he does:
Truffles does a lot of sunbathing and I swear he has the most dramatic poses out of everyone!
I also discovered the joy of hanging things from the tree! Don't worry, I kept an extremely close eye on the bungee cord. It took a while for them to start to actually enjoy the cabbage. They were a little freaked at first.
From left to right: Zelda, Moose, and Stitch. I wonder what they're scheming...
Despite all the troubles and chaos, I adore these birds and look forward to the many days, months, and years ahead.
And a big thanks to BYC for helping me get this far and take the best care of my girls that I can!
