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

[Beekissed]

That was adorable!!!! What a cutey!!!

I think she has a thread on here somewhere, though....I recognized the efficiency of her techniques as described on the U&R thread. No wonder pet roosters grow up to attack later on...can ya blame 'em?

 

[fowlman01]

That was adorable!!!! What a cutey!!!

I think she has a thread on here somewhere, though....I recognized the efficiency of her techniques as described on the U&R thread. No wonder pet roosters grow up to attack later on...can ya blame 'em?

I was impressed that she had the proper use of a pointed stick down already

w.

 

[Beekissed]

Me too!

Sea monster, indeed.

 

[thedragonlady]

hope this is a better pic of eye -

This bird is probably not infectious according to what I have experienced. It is a sinus infection. I had an 8 year old top winning Silkie who came down with something like this. After I expelled the cap over her eye by pressing from her nostril towards her beak, she was fine.If you are of the" healthy,or lop 'em" school, and don't want to treat her, go ahead and end it, as it is very painful to the bird.

 

[fowlman01]

This bird is probably not infectious according to what I have experienced. It is a sinus infection. I had an 8 year old top winning Silkie who came down with something like this. After I expelled the cap over her eye by pressing from her nostril towards her beak, she was fine.If you are of the" healthy,or lop 'em" school, and don't want to treat her, go ahead and end it, as it is very painful to the bird.

If you risk the rest of the birds is probably good enough? These labs can't diagnose diseases properly when they have the bird there so, I'm not going to take a chance online. I am a California Poultry Health Inspector and I would not keep it with my flock from what I have seen and I would also seize the bird for diagnose if I ran into it anywhere......they kill the bird when they do that... No one can make that call kind of call online. We hobbiest need to make sure nothing ever starts in a backyard flock. So far it has only been the commercial guys who have started the big problems.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

Agreed.

Any inflammation, sinus infection included, is caused by a pathogen of some kind. If this bird can get an infection from it, so can others. It may sound hard-nosed and preemptive to just lop 'em when they show infection....but one has to determine also if one wants a bird that develops infections so easily in a natural, normal chicken environment. If the other birds don't show infection, then this bird has a faulty immune system and no one wants to nurse this animal along during it's life. It's really not worth the time, effort, stress or money.

And then, what Walt indicated...do you really want to risk the health of the rest of your flock if this is something more serious than a sinus infection?

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I am far from experienced, but I will tell ya one thing - you won't ever see a bird like that on my property. If I ever did see one - it would be killed and the body burned. I wouldn't take a chance of risking the health of all of my birds. One bird is just not worth it.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

It just makes plain sense when you see something like that to isolate it far far away from other birds. Within snot slinging range is too close. If the bird is obviously in pain I'd hope you'd step up and end it's suffering. I think after you have critters for awhile you can tell if something is an injury and infected or is some weird disease. Oh, beekissed - I think I was there the day of the dogbiscuits...some one was aghast that i thought it helpful my puppies licked the chicken poop clean off my poarch... I should have told her about the chicken eating that feral cat I neglected to bury deep enough...what is that smell and why are my chickens sneaking off down there? Yikes. I mean, who can dig through clay and rocks anyhow, they thought it was delicious poetic revenge. :/

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Advice needed - My Lavendar Orp's eye is really swollen - she is scratching at it - I believe it to be a pecking injury from my RIR who recently took over as "Alpha Chicken" RIR has become more agressive during the last 2 - 3 weeks. Been watching fairly closely til this weekend when I wasn't as available to spend time with them as before. I am not "wing holding" just watching to get to know the chickens ways and figure out if RIR is too agressive. I have 4 pics will try to post here. So far, all I have done is isolate her. if it isn't due to pecking maybe it is something else. either way - if I can treat it easily enough ... Hate the idea of processing her - but may have two for the pot. (the aggressive one may need to go too).

7-23 her normal look

8-6 her good side (not so much)

8-6 top of her head

8-6 her swollen eye

I really hope that the same thing that happened to my hen won't happen to your's, but I had a hen get pecked in the eye by the rooster. No infection developed, but she is now completely blind in her left eye. You will know in time if this is the case, a blind eye will turn a dead gray color. My half blind hen gets around fairly well, but you can definitely tell that she isn't like she used to be. Her eye still bothers her when it is windy.

 

[FirewifeJess]

So I have a question for you old timers who know it all

I'm still waiting on a first egg out of my 12 pullets, but only 7 of them are just now 18.5 weeks, the rest are younger. That aside, my RIR has been squatting the last couple days when I reach for her, which I know is good, but also when I give her some praise and a good back scratch she literally squirts clear liquid out of her vent! Is that normal? Is her body just getting really ready to lay?? Thought it might have something to do with the bloom...