NEED ADVICE ON A SICK CHICK
I went down to check on the silkies and clean out their food bowl, i noticed the water was full of shavings again, so I took out the water to go refresh it. All of them were totally fine as i was doing this, but as i was heading back (not even 2 minutes later) i heard a loud squawk and came back and Amber (the tiny one) was on her back with her feet straight up in the air. I pulled her out and she was completely limp and acting like she was gasping for air. I ran upstairs with her, got a syringe and gave her a couple drops of water. She started perking up a bit and holding up her head. My DH made me some save-a-chick and I got her to drink about a spoon full. It's been about 20 minutes now and she's in a shoe box and lightly chirping, kinda acting normal. I'm not sure what happened. Anyone have an advice? I don't want to put her back with the other two if she is sick. It almost seemed like she was having a seizure or something. This is my first time having any troubles with the birds at all, so I'm hoping I did the right thing by getting some electrolytes in her.
Wow, Tweety, I don't know what to tell you and so many are gone today. I'm just so sorry to hear about Amber. I hope she comes out of it and does just fine. You cannot go wrong with the electrolytes. I would continue giving her some of that now and then and then try mixing it with some feed and see if she'll take that. If it was like a seizure, vitamin E is really good neurologically. You could mix some of that in with the wet feed. Hope she stabilizes. It's so heartbreaking when we don't know what to do for our chickies.
Danz, so sorry about your turkeys, but I was amazed to read that they are still alive this morning! I will say a little prayer for them!
Karen, so sweet to describe that story about Chopper, and you processed 20 birds?! WOW! Later, I'll have to ask you your system, because that is a lot of birds. Killing cone or hatchet? My dad always used a hatchet on a block and it was pretty fast and we'd let them drain and then start plucking. Did you pluck?? Danz described something about skinning them, which seems pretty easy.
I use the cone. We skinned them instead of plucking. We don't eat the skin anyway so better to just do it up front. It was a lot of birds and we have 20 more yet to go, but NOT today! I got this box cutter thing with razor blades I can change out so I don't have to worry about a dull knife. It works better than any of my brother's sharpest knives, so I've decided it's the way to go. The birds don't react to the cut at all, like they can't even feel it and then they go to sleep. That makes me feel as good as possible about it because I would just hate for them to suffer in any way. Two of the kids were "catchers". They caught and brought the bird to me. I did the cone thing and drained them, the catchers took the bird to the skinning table and then got another bird for me. The skinners got the birds skinned and put them in a huge tub of salty ice water. With four skinners I just kept up with them at the cone. After all the birds were skinned and I was finished at the cone, my oldest daughter and I taught the others how to gut the bird and then we all did that till we were finished. With all of these helpers it went really fast for that many birds. Our youngest turned the water hose on and off for us as we needed it to rinse. Once everything was done, we rinsed the birds really well and placed them in salted water over night. I'll change the water this eve and then let them season for 3 days in the frig before freezing. This is what I learned to do from YouTube.
My Mom was going to teach us all this stuff but sadly, she's not with us anymore. Once we were all finished the kids started talking about Grandma. How proud she would be of us and how surprised that they all participated. I think that is the reason they all wanted to participate. It was for her. My Dad remarried barely a year after my Mom passed, but I supported him and her and ran interference with the rest of the family. However, Dad's been remarried for almost 2 years now and their "new" grandma became increasingly critical of me and everything I do and my dad has always been that way with me. My Dad and I did fine until she stepped into the picture and when she shared his views, it became dogpile on me time. My kids got enough of it and tried to talk to them, whereupon they began to mess with the 3 that stood up to them. I can take a lot of stuff when it's me, but my girls don't deserve to be treated that way and they shouldn't be made to feel like they need to defend their mother, and I won't have it. I gave him several opportunities to apologize and reconcile with them and me and he would say that's what he wanted but then a week or two later, he was behaving like a rabid dog again. We don't have contact anymore, my choice. It's a horrible choice to make but I know in my heart I did everything I possibly could to keep it from happening. He is currently in the process of doing the same to my older brother, but not his kids. My brother's kids are biological. It hurts me for my kids, but my kids are strong and we're doing just fine without being biological and without any grandparents, DH's are deceased. In my Dad's eyes I've always been a disposable human being.
My Mom was totally different than my Dad. She connected with the kids in a very real way. While my Dad always bragged about how he loved my kids just as much as his grandkids, in front of them. Do you see anything wrong with that statement? Duh, Dad, my kids
are your grandkids too. Anyway, this project was more than just processing the birds and we were all proud of our accomplishment and the kids just chatted away as we worked and talked about what their friends were doing -- NOT THIS! And laughed. The kids can aggravate me like nothing else but they also fill me with pride and joy like nothing else.
So there's my dirty laundry. All of that out of a simple curiosity into how we did it. I know it's more than you needed to know but for some reason, today, I just needed to acknowledge what has happened to us. We've lost a father and grandfather and it's hard. It's been about a month now, so I guess the edge is enough off the pain that I've experienced this huge weight off my shoulders from no longer having to listen to his constant critique of everything I do, say, and am. Still, it's sad to feel that way about your father.
I knew most everyone would be gone this morning, so I appreciate the responses.
