Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

An update on my duck with the bumblefoot. I had my DH help me do surgery on her foot last night. We think we got all of the infection, and she looked tremendously better this morning and still this afternoon. I got some spray-on vetericyn and some vet wrap at Orschelns (had been just using neosporin and gauze bandages). I put the vet wrap and vetericyn on her when we got home, so I hope that will help it heal faster. I did not end up giving her an oral antibiotic, and I now don't think I need to. I saw a website that suggested just using vetericyn on the bumblefoot if you caught it before it got bad, so I plan on trying that with the other birds because I REALLY don't want to have to do bumblefoot surgery on the other 2 that I found it on. Either way, I am THRILLED that my duck is doing better! One question though... Despite the bumblefoot and the high fever I"m sure she had yesterday, she still layed an egg this morning. Is it safe to eat it?

 

[chicken danz]

Sure why not. You aren't going to eat it raw and you didn't give here antibiotics. I would hate to think how many times many of us had a sick bird and ate their eggs without having a clue.

 

[Trish44]

Wow today was busy & hot, the worst thing is that Weds. it's supposed to get even hotter. I got sick after doing that garage sale in the heat for two days. I came down with sinus drainage & a fever & have been coughing some due to the drainage. I went out anyway today while my DH was around to help & we worked on the goat shelter. We got the floor put in & put up the supports for the roof, but we have to get the right nails for the tin to put it on & a blade to cut it with. Danz, this is used tin & it was some that the wind tore off of a friend's horse shed, so there are holes in it. Is there a good way to patch the holes besides just some silicone? I mean you can't complain when the stuff is free, even if it does have some holes. We haven't had to buy too many materials for this goat shed, most of it has been free, except for the OSB we bought for the floor & we will have to buy siding of some sort for the outside & paint, but the bones of the thing was all free. We had enough free 2x4s for the roof supports & building up the front so the roof slants back to the back for drainage, so that was awesome. My DH thought I was nuts when he saw all of this stuff sitting out behind my breeder coop, but now he appreciates it.

Well for those who know about my Wheaten Ameraucana who was broody & now she has been raising the chicks, she just has two of three left. The third died today, so that was kind of sad after they made it for so long. That momma has been trying so hard to take good care of them.

 

[cherwill]

Well for those who know about my Wheaten Ameraucana who was broody & now she has been raising the chicks, she just has two of three left. The third died today, so that was kind of sad after they made it for so long. That momma has been trying to hard to take good care of them.

That's too bad. I hope the other two do well.

I didn't do much today. Spent a couple of hours in the garden weeding, harvesting beets, carrots and radishes, and watering. Then I came home and took a nap. I think I needed water, because now I'm still trying to catch up.

Stay cool everyone, it's supposed to be a rough week.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Oh boy, it sure was hot in the afternoon today. Trish44, so sorry you lost a chick. I thought having mama raise the chicks will be much easier and mortality rate should be lower. It certainly is not the case with mine. Although both of them are first time moms.

I had to work early this morning @ 2am. I didn't get to go to bed till 6:30am. Seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong!!! All the hard work from the last 3 weeks was wasted. My project didn't go out. The function was turned off in the last second. Very disappointed. So tomorrow I'll need to assess the issue and go from there. I did get back up around 9:20 am to feed the chickens. They were hungry!!!

Enough of this work talk. Lets talk about more interested stuff like chickens. I let the 2 mamas out of the coop with the chicks. I saw the 2 week old has sprouted a bunch of tail feathers already. Hopefully it's a girl. I let them roam around for a few hours. Both moms took turn to teach them scratch and peck, looking for goodies.

On a sad note, my salmon faverolle rooster disappeared. DH and I looked every where. He is the only one missing. I'm very sad. He was my most favorite rooster. I was planning to breed him in a few months. I don't hold out hope that he will come back. It has been gone for 2 days.

Keep cool everyone. I saw triple digits on the forecast tor Wednesday to Friday.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, so sorry about the Wheaten chick - I hope the other two do okay. I have mostly had good luck with broodies raising chicks but lost one a few days ago myself, thanks to my stupid sheep. I've been putting them in the chicken yard at night, since there is lush grazing there and we are still waiting on our fencing. I have a broody Mama who was raising 2 chicks, and I had her in a little A-Frame "nursery" coop for the first few days. The sheep leaned against the little coop and moved it a few inches, somehow managing to squish one of the chicks. I was so mad when I found it the next morning, though glad it was the only hen with 2 chicks so she still has one to raise. The others each only have 1 chick so it would have been worse to lose their only chick. I've since blocked it off so the sheep can't do that again - it was a freak accident I never could have predicted.

I finally ordered the Valbazen and it arrived very quickly and I dosed everyone on Saturday. Hoo-boy, that was NOT fun, and it has to be repeated after 10 days too. Egad. Unlike the Ivermectin, it can't be put in the water, so each dose has to be administered orally. Someone suggested soaking it in a piece of bread. I tried that but while it is an effective way to dose, it is hard to control who gets it. Even when I gave the bread to a specific hen, others would run up and grab it away from her, and I wound up with the original bird getting half the bread while someone else got the other half, and then one hen ended up with 2 full doses so I decided to quit that and start administering one at a time with the syringe. Grabbing them was the hardest part (in the case of the no touches), though I made my job easier by doing it at bedtime so many of them I was able to grab off the roost. I did find that sitting down and tucking them under one arm was the most effective way to hold as that left the hand on the holding arm free to grab the wattles and pull down to open the mouth, while the syringe hand squirted it in. I was able to dose most of them very effectively once I honed my technique, though there were several who shook their heads spraying me with the stuff and leaving me wondering how much they actually got. I only did the adult chickens and turkeys, in the hopes the babies don't need it yet, and the ducks would be almost impossible to handle. I can do them later if I find it necessary. So - in 10 days I get to have that fun all over again. I'm glad to have got going on this though. Now seems like a great time to do it as I have to withhold eggs, but with all the broody hens and mamas, so few are laying, and of the ones that are laying, I am collecting eggs from the NH hen and soon the BR hen, to incubate under the broodies, so I won't have to waste too many eggs giving hem to the dogs or back to the birds.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety unfortunately there are lots of losses when a broody raises their babies. I guess that by nature is why a chicken lays so many eggs in the first place. And then when the chicks get to a few weeks old the Mom usually leaves them up to their own devices and many don't make it. They become bait for about anything or get lost or whatever. I am always finding a broody raised bird out running around about dark because they lost their way.
I found four big nests of eggs yesterday in my over grown flower bed and in the bushes. I took all the duck egg and put them in the incubator cause I have no idea how old they are. Then I picked out the oldest looking or smallest chicken eggs and broke them them in the dog food bowl. I took the biggest ones and shoved them under a couple of my broody hens. I figure if they are going to be stubborn and sit if I load them up with eggs maybe they'll quit stealing every other hen's eggs. Some of them had some slight development in them so we'll see what happens. I guess that means I'll end up with more mutt chickens running around the yard.
With it being so hot, I can't force myself to shut up the chickens so they all lay where they should.
I have my back really messed up and couldn't hardly make it out of bed this morning. I need to get back on cleaning the house so it doesn't get out of hand but I hurt too bad to do it.
Stupid arthritis! It sucks to be old.
Trish the only thing I know of that would fix those holes would be to get a container of Bondo and mix some up and patch them with it. You can use a putty knife and if you feel the need you can always sand it down afterward to make it look better. I doubt the goats would care though. I have used bondo to patch holes in metal and wood and just about everything. It is amazing stuff. You can virtually rebuild anything with it if you are patient enough. I need to patch some holes in my kitchen cabinets with it where I changed knobs. I just haven't gotten it done. I had switched the sides the handle was on my back storm door and filled those holes with bondo. It's been a couple years and it has worked perfectly. Other than the color cause I never repainted it. I've fixed cracks in wood when I refinished things and just about everything imaginable with Bondo. You can get it at Walmart too. I think it's in the automotive department.
I've got a bunch of chicks I need to get a new shelter and pen made for. These are more valuable ones but I need to get them out of the brooder. I have a bunch of the mixed chicks I hatched from Frank's eggs that I think I am just going to move to the old garage. I was close to getting all the birds out of there but the overcrowding is getting ridiculous. Plus I've gone through a complete 50 pound bag of chick starter in 3 days. I can't afford that. They are choosing it over the other feed.
Hechicken, I can't imagine dosing that many chickens one by one. I would loose track for sure.

 

[HEChicken]

Hechicken, I can't imagine dosing that many chickens one by one. I would loose track for sure.

That was my concern too, but it went pretty smoothly. It wouldn't work if you have a bunch of the same breed you can hardly tell apart but almost all of mine are different. I have two Reese NH hens but since one of them is broody and the other in the hoop coop there was no way to get them mixed up. And, I have a no touch who I was afraid I absolutely would NEVER be able to grab but she is broody right now so I actually was able to get her off the nest. Hopefully chicks won't hatch before she needs the second dose so I can get her again then. I did end up with a couple of hens that I wondered if they got the dose - simply couldn't remember. So I erred on the side of caution and didn't dose them, as I thought that might be better than giving them a double dose. But overall I was able to keep track by thinking of them in groups. I.e., these 6 are all hatchmates, so I'll do them one-by-one and then move on to the next group, and so on. So, even though they are all in the one coop, by dividing them mentally into smaller groups like that, I was mostly able to keep track of who had been dosed already.

I was most nervous about doing Ned because he is so big and strong that if he fought me, I could have ended up wearing the Valbazen unsure of how much he got. But he was very good and allowed me to open his mouth, put the whole dose in, and didn't spray a single drop back out at me. The Valbazen is effective against every other type of worm as well, and he's been looking a little peaky lately, so I'm hoping this will perk him up.

 

[chicken danz]

So how is the valbazen dosed. Is it by weight or what? That is always a concern with me. I certainly can't weigh every bird. Is there general dosing amounts for a chicken or a turkey or do you have to guess their weight?

 

[ivyrash]

We have a sick bird this morning. She is a silver duckwing hen. Very lethargic, hanging her wings. I didn't notice anyone else acting odd. She is my 11 yr. old daughter's favorite, she calls her Little Ann. We separated her and started her on meds for cocci. Normally I would have waited to look for more signs but I was getting ready to leave for work and will not be home till around 7:30 tonight. Any other ideas at this point?

Has anyone tried the Kickin Chicken they sell at Orschelns? They gave me a sample at the store and I gave it to the birds a couple nights ago and every one of my hens laid an egg yesterday. I know it doesn't mean anything, I was just curious if anyone else had tried it. Out of my 12 laying hens I usually get around 9 eggs a day right now so I was a little surprised to get so many yesterday.