Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Back2MyRoots]

One of my chicks recieved a small tear in a wattle and it bled some. I was concerned about the other chooks pecking at the wound so after cleaning the tear up with clean water I put her in quarantine. Then I got to thinking I need something to treat the girls with in case they recieve a wound more substantial than this. What would you OT's recommend. Some kind of antibiotic? A spray maybe? Also, how long should I keep her in lockdown?

So beyond NOT an OT---Our chickies are only 14 weeks old; they are our first. Though, we have already had to deal with the girls "hen pecking" each other. Actually, when we bought our chickies, there were several ages mixed in. (We bought the littlest ones---major on the CUTE factor!) The bigger pullets had been picking on two of the tinies, so OF COURSE they came home with us! lol, ANYWAY, the guy who owns the feed & seed where I got the girls urged me not to buy those two because the other chicks would pick at the sores and eventually turn canibal. (EW!) I bought some peroxide, cleaned the sores (on their necks and wing tips), but they just kept bleeding, SO I got one of those styptic sticks over in the shaving section at WalMart (it was less than $3) and dabbed the sores after I cleaned them. Ta da! No more blood. Worked well and total cheap fix!

 

[Back2MyRoots]

Ok, need the voice of experience again! A friend of mine bought a boxed lot of rabbit feed at an auction and mixed in the bags was a 25 lb bag of exotic bird treat. It has standard little seed, boss, dried apples and oranges, and dried green and chick peas. She has no use for the stuff and doesn't know any one with birds to take it, so she dropped it off for me to use if I could, or to just pick the boss out of for the chickes. Do yall think it would be ok to use the stuff as scratch for my chickens?

 

[qball53]

Well that is quite a different response than we got.... I guess enough folks complained!

Update on these. THEY DID START TO OVERFLOW AT EXACTLY 2 WEEKS. I contacted Premier Fence (where I bought them) and this is the reply I got:

"I am very sorry to hear of the trouble you have been having with the
mini cups. Yes, we are aware of its cons and what it is, if you were
to unscrew the base on the cup, there is a float inside that does not
hold its seal. After some use, which is what you have noticed, they
begin to retain water inside the float and that just causes it to run
all the time. There is no shut off from the float because its
flooded. So, I would be more than happy to refund your money for the
mini cups. We are waiting to get the improved version from our
manufacturer hopefully soon. I am told. I am not sure when but we
will announce on the website when they are here. Please let me know
what you would like to do. Thank you for your detailed report and I
again apologize for the inconvenience."

So I got my money back. Too bad. I really liked them while they worked. Hopefully the new ones being developed will work better.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ok, need the voice of experience again!  A friend of mine bought a boxed lot of rabbit feed at an auction and mixed in the bags was a 25 lb bag of exotic bird treat.  It has standard little seed, boss, dried apples and oranges, and dried green and chick peas.  She has no use for the stuff and doesn't know any one with birds to take it, so she dropped it off for me to use if I could, or to just pick the boss out of for the chickes.  Do yall think it would be ok to use the stuff as scratch for my chickens?

I don't know how many chickens you have, but I see nothing wrong to use it as scratch. The reason I mentioned how many chickens is related to what someone, I think Al, said recently, Moderation. Just give them a little as a feed supplement and they should be fine. They will pick what they want and leave what they don't want. Just make it a supplement, not the main course.

You might look at the ingredients and see if you see a lot of calcium if you have young growing chicks. With adults it should not matter. Even with young chicks, a little extra won't hurt them, but I'd make it very little. It's not about what percent calcium is in the feed, it's about what total amount of calcium they eat in a day for several days running. Moderation.

 

[al6517]

Treating small bleeding cut's can effectively stemmed using common white flour, after cleaning and drying it just apply the flour with your fingers until the bleeding stops. Leave it that and seperate the bird lest they get bum rushed by the others instincts to go after them. Once it's started healing well, a week or so +/- and let it scab over, it heals better and faster if allowed to do so. For major tears like on a comb or severe wattle tear/split just stitch it with regular thread stop the bleeding with flour and then after a week remove the stitches, and continue to let it scab over. The scabs will fall of when there ready.

No need for any vet visits or special procedures and certainly no need to freak out and be overly concerned, just get it treated and everything will be fine.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Just my experience, I had a bag of chickadee feed left over and contained alot of those types of fruits and seed, I figured if they could eat it, and it could have fallen off a tree I gave it to my broody and chicks like a quarter cup at a time, scattered around so they had to seek it out....still alive today - well,not the extra roos.... I also had a roos that limped home, managed to hop in the coop...I hadn't seen him for a day or so, I went to check on him and his comb had been torn off...I couldn't tell if he still had an eye or not from all the dried blood...too weak to get on a perch I caged him for protection and waited for daylight. He had been completely dubbed and the bleeding had stopped on it's own...still had both eyes. I let him out of the cage and he managed to survive, no infection....he looked strange but otherwise was OK. I hadn't wanted to put him out of his misery, and was happy to leave him alone after all, he made it that far. Later in the year he was finished off by prob the same critter.....fortunately I have many of his hatched out...but he never was the same after that...he'd lost his top gun spot, but still died a warrior.

 

[Minchi]

Quote:
You are hard core, I get squeamish at the idea of trying to stitch my girls up. I know that is wrong but I am weak, I don't want them to be in any more pain then they have to. I almost cried when I gave them there baths and the water was too cold for them so they freaked out.

 

[fowlman01]

This is kind of a gory example, but cock fighters cut the comb and wattles off their birds and almost never lose a bird. They don't stitch them up and usually only use flour as Al mentioned to stop the bleeding........just saying that these are tough birds if raised properly. (I am not condoning cock fighting just using an example).
Some Commercial egg producers also used to cut the combs off the laying hens. I don't suppose they do that these days, but yet another example.The eyes are the delicate spots on the chickens head, the rest will usually take care of itself.

Walt

 

[al6517]

As walt mentioned it's called dubbing and in all gamebird show stock it is required by the SOP or it's a DQ if their not dubbed. Iam not sure of why they do it but they do and the birds are none the worst for wear from it. I do know it is best done during a full moon when the bleeding will be restricted. the worst thing you can do for your birds when they become injured is freak out and start crying, that doesn't help the bird and certainly doesn't help your ability to quickly and effectively treat the injury. You have to go in confident and with resolve, have you ever been to the ER with an injury and the Doctor say's I know it hurts but I am just trying to help and it will all soon be over and fixed up. That is how one must approach an injured animal, the animal is scared and has natural fight/flight responses, so being firm and fast and accurate ensures success and the animal can sense this. it can't respond well when your freaking out and then it starts freaking out and then everybody is freaking, out trouble just compounds itself.

For most pet chicken folks though There is an answer if your not able to handle your own animals accidents and injuries, dig deep into your wallet and go see some quack bird vet if you can find one happy enough to charge you about $500.00 min for using his own flour on a cut comb. Proper animal husbandry requires more than just feeding and calling it by it's name.

 

[Minchi]

I know, I also have a sturdy husband to help with the difficult stuff. He helped me cut my poor Zoe's toe off when it had been injured. I also have done a lot or research so I do know many common problems and solutions to them. One of the reasons I got the chickens was to get tougher, I know if something bad happen I would have a hard time doing what was needed and chickens seamed like a good first step to getting that strength. Plus I get good eggs out of it.