Consolidated Kansas

[TaraBellaBirds]

Warning Complaining Ahead:

I need to vent to the only people who can understand my frustration.
I sold three of my mix-breed pullets on Sun to some people that have had chickens for a couple of years now. They recently lost two to a dog attack and were looking to replace. They have 3 adult hens and the pullets are 14 weeks and pretty big. Now they did not have a place to quarentine, but their original flock is also from my stock so we thought that would be alright. I made sure that they had adiquate places for the pullets to hide and plenty of space for all.

Transition went fine and day one was a success. Well yesterday the owner went out of town for a couple of hours and decided to lock all 6 birds in the coop

! I got a call at work, one bird was killed outright, one was completely scalped and had a badly damaged eye and the third was plucked and bleeding. I told them what they needed to do and told them to stop by my house to get some electrolytes.........I got home and they had dumped the two gilrs that made it on my Husband! My wonderful man had set up a crate and watered the two injured girls.

Well the one with the injured eye didn't make it through the night. The larger white pullet is still alive (she looks just ****** off honestly) but I can't get her to eat or drink much yet.
I am just so frustrated that they could not manage to deal with their mistake, and I feel so guilty for puttting my poor girls in that situation

. Needless to say I will not be selling any more birds to them. Some people!

Question, the surviving pullet is covered in blood, what do you guys think about a quick wash and dry for her?

 

[spree56]

I feel so bad for you and the poor remaining girl, but you just got to ask, "what was she thinking"?
If your girl is calm, I'd bath her, but there are many more experienced here that might think different. I'd want her cleaned up and you'd get a better idea of what she has going on.

 

[chicken danz]

Warning Complaining Ahead:

I need to vent to the only people who can understand my frustration.
I sold three of my mix-breed pullets on Sun to some people that have had chickens for a couple of years now. They recently lost two to a dog attack and were looking to replace. They have 3 adult hens and the pullets are 14 weeks and pretty big. Now they did not have a place to quarentine, but their original flock is also from my stock so we thought that would be alright. I made sure that they had adiquate places for the pullets to hide and plenty of space for all.

Transition went fine and day one was a success. Well yesterday the owner went out of town for a couple of hours and decided to lock all 6 birds in the coop

! I got a call at work, one bird was killed outright, one was completely scalped and had a badly damaged eye and the third was plucked and bleeding. I told them what they needed to do and told them to stop by my house to get some electrolytes.........I got home and they had dumped the two gilrs that made it on my Husband! My wonderful man had set up a crate and watered the two injured girls.

Well the one with the injured eye didn't make it through the night. The larger white pullet is still alive (she looks just ****** off honestly) but I can't get her to eat or drink much yet.
I am just so frustrated that they could not manage to deal with their mistake, and I feel so guilty for puttting my poor girls in that situation

. Needless to say I will not be selling any more birds to them. Some people!

Question, the surviving pullet is covered in blood, what do you guys think about a quick wash and dry for her?

That's so sad. Yes definitely wash her. Put her in a sink with warm water and let her relax. She might be freaky at first but warm water will calm her down. Be sure she stays warm and let her calm down. I would just rinse her with water or use basic dawn dishwashing detergent to wash her off. When you are done wrap her in a towel and lay her on her side and use a hair dryer on a low heat and speed while fluffing her feathers. If you don't have one, put her in a cage or something with a space heater blowing on her. You don't want her getting chilled or further stressed right now.
Give her some probiotics and maybe treat her to something special like cucumber.
Zig I just throw black oil sunflower seeds in the pens on the ground. The girls love them and will appreciate being kept busy finding them. They are an excellent source of protein and vitamins.
We got our first frost last night. It wasn't freezing per say but it did frost. I guess it is time to go pull the tomato plants.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Thanks everyone. Great tip about the space heater chicken danz, I actually don't own a blow dryer cause I have super curly hair LOL! Spree56 I have no clue what she was thinking.... I'll get my girl bathed a post updates of her progress, I'm not too terribly worried about her, even though she still isn't eating much. If you could see the expression on her face you would know what I mean. Poor girl looks so angry!!! I'll see if she'll eat some yogart after her wash!

 

[chicken danz]

You just can't imagine how dumb some people can be about birds. I think they forget they are a living creature. Sometimes I really hate selling birds to people when I see them acting irresponsibly toward them before they ever leave my driveway. Like putting them in a hot hot car while standing around talking, or throwing baby chicks in the back of a truck in cool weather.
I cause enough tragedy myself....mostly because of overcrowding the chicks and juveniles. I feel awful when I start loosing birds because they just don't have enough room. Hopefully I'm slowly getting things organized and under control so we won't have those problems in the future.
I will always do some hatching but I'm about done until January or so.
I've been slowly selling some birds trying to get things down to a manageable level for winter. I do have my brooder house totally full right now though.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

You just can't imagine how dumb some people can be about birds. I think they forget they are a living creature. Sometimes I really hate selling birds to people when I see them acting irresponsibly toward them before they ever leave my driveway. Like putting them in a hot hot car while standing around talking, or throwing baby chicks in the back of a truck in cool weather.
I cause enough tragedy myself....mostly because of overcrowding the chicks and juveniles. I feel awful when I start loosing birds because they just don't have enough room. Hopefully I'm slowly getting things organized and under control so we won't have those problems in the future.
I will always do some hatching but I'm about done until January or so.
I've been slowly selling some birds trying to get things down to a manageable level for winter. I do have my brooder house totally full right now though.

You will have much more room soon. How is the building going?

It is frustrating. My Husband thought I was crazy at first because I would ask potential customers specifics about their coop set up, experience with poultry, etc. By now I think he understands why I do that.

Her wash had me close to tears. It is worse than I had thought. Her whole chest is tornup to her neck on one side. I understand now why I haven't seen her lay down, she is in so much pain. She has missing feathers and cuts everywhere. She is resting in her cage, I will feed her some yogurt after she has had a rest. She loved the water being poured over her back. I sure hope this poor baby makes it. It's funny how you can work so hard to save one, even after processing others!



She was pressing in to my hand for support. Poor baby girl.

 

[Trish44]

TaraBella I'm sorry about your chicks. You just never can tell about people. I try to sell to people who care about the birds, but at the same time you don't know how they really treat them when they get them home. I hope your little girl that is left makes it. I have a young Ameraucana rooster right now that was being stubborn about going into the coop at night. One night I had just had enough of his running away from me when I tried to get him in & left him out all night. The next day he was missing & I found a few feathers in the yard so I figured well something got him while the dogs were elsewhere. The following day I found him injured & he was missing all of his feathers from the middle of his back & around under both wings. He was very sore & traumatized. The other chickens picked on him so I sprayed blue kote on him all over where his feathers are missing & he is slowly getting better. He has been very diligent about getting into the coop at night now, he sure learned his lesson the hard way. I guess the point is that chickens are pretty amazing a lot of the time with being able to recover from things like that. When I first saw this guy after he was injured I told my DH well he probably wouldn't make it, but he has been around at least a week or more like that & he's still walking around.

 

[zigzag45]

@TaraBellaBirds - Poor thing. She looks really beat up. I'm pretty new to chickens and not one to give advice... maybe you've done yogurt with your birds before and been successful, but anytime I give mine a cultured milk product (yogurt, kefir...), it gives them the runs. I thought I was being an overachiever by giving them this wonderful, healthy snack that they loved and turns out it was not a good fit for mine. I still give them kefir grains as it doesn't seem as bad as straight kefir, or I'll soak scratch grains in kefir, but even that produces not fun results. They had kefir over the weekend and I have runny poo puddles all over the concrete walk and deck steps now.

On a side note, they do like kombucha scobys. Not sure how it does digestively for them.

 

[chicken danz]

She doesn't look good at all. I suggest getting some triple antibiotic ointment or some blue kote on her wounds. I would also give her some pedialite, gatoraide or a mixture of honey or sugar, salt, lemon juice or ACV. You need to get her beefed back up and keep the stress from killing her. I would keep her caged and warm for a few days until she is acting totally normal.
Saving a bird will get you super bonded to her and even if it were a rooster you would butcher later it's rewarding if you can save their lives.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Yup Trish you are right on. I've had several injuries where I thought the birds wouldn't make it and lo and behold they pull through. I've had a chicken completely scalped survive.

zizzag45, I won't give her much. Too much dairy will give them the poos just like with people. There honestly isn't much I don't feed my birds. Raw potatoes, onion/garlic, and citrus are among the few that they don't get.

Chicken Danz, she has had electrolytes since last night, that was the first thing I did. I put antibiotic (don't worry, plain kind, no pain relief) on her wounds after she dried up. She is hanging out in the warmest room in the house and will be inside for a least a week I am sure.

She took a couple nips of yogert when I put her beak in it but she won't eat much. I am going to give her a syringe of electrolytes here in a bit, I am not sure how much she has taken.