Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

LN2008, I LOVE your coop! I really love the look of pallet coops, they are so charming!

checoukan, I could never let one of my dogs go. Not to mention, your dog didn't just arrive well trained over night. Sounds like you've put a lot of work into him.

Danz, I'm with you, I hate this cold and rain and no sun. It just kind of makes me miserable. I think I'm coming down wiht something, too. Sore throat, neck, joints hurt. I think the start of a sinus infection. I'm drinking lots of tea to soothe my throat. When you said you were irritable, I was like ME TOO!!! ha! But I don't handle others well when I'm not feeling well myself. Ugh. Going to take Benadryl when we get back tonight.

Tonight, my oldest son has a music program. I hope I can hold out as yucky as I'm feeling. It starts at 7pm. Sigh. Usually I really enjoy this stuff, but tonight I just hope it's quick and painless and we can get the little ones to bed on time.

 

[chicken danz]

We are two of a kind I think. Must be that Leo thing! My sister calls this ouchy and grouchy. That is why I left my project today. I didn't want to get DH mad at me. I feel like a total be-atch today. When I don't feel good I recluse and try to stay away from people so I don't alienate any one. I've been feeling pretty crappy since at least Saturday. Sunday was awful, but today was the worst.
I go to my neurosurgeon tomorrow. No matter how bad I've felt for days or weeks the day I go to the doctor I always feel better, so it's hard to identify where and how my pain is. So after several days of this, I'm hoping it last until I get done with my appointment.
After I get home I plan to pill up and hope to feel better.
I've got several little peepers in the hatcher. I'm just going to leave them there for tonight and then move them to the brooder tomorrow morning.
Oh Hawkeye, one of my black silkies has been laying in a secluded spot. I had about 6 eggs she laid that went to the incubator today. It will be interesting to see how many pure bred babies I get. Should be hatching about 11-29 or so.

 

[Trish44]

Well it's been nasty here all day, rainy & cold & it hasn't gotten any better as the day went along. I agree, I'm a warm weather person, I hate winter, it makes me hurt worse than ever. IVY, thanks for the compliment on my GP puppy, I can't wait to get her home. We should pick her up the Sat. after Thanksgiving, then the work begins. Danz, if you have puppies I might be interested depending on how much you sell them for. I was told that you really need two dogs so one can rest while the other one works & that I should wait about 6 months & get another one, so I will be wanting a female, I prefer them over male dogs myself.

Have any of you done surgery on a hen for bumblefoot? My pretty EE hen has been suffering with it, limping worse & worse until today I decided after picking her up to look at her foot I couldn't wait any longer to deal with it because it felt warm to touch. I took her in the house & soaked her foot in epsom salts first, she kind of seemed to enjoy that after figuring out I was trying to help her. After soaking I opened up the nasty swollen knob on her foot, eek, it stunk! I was holding her on my lap wrapped in a towel lying on her back. She really took it all pretty darned well considering me digging in her foot. I cleaned it up after I got all I could out & there is a pretty good hole there now that I left open to drain & wrapped it with a gauze & some vet wrap. I will check on it tomorrow & probably soak it again. I sure hope it gets better, she is one of my favorite hens.

Then this darned cold wet weather is still affecting my chickens, there are more getting colds, so I'm having to treat them again. I have ordered the VetRx, but it still hasn't come. Valley Vet doesn't carry it, I was hoping they would & there is no place around here that has it. When I finally get it I will have some on hand, but it doesn't help for now. I'm still giving them the vitamin/electrolyte stuff in the water too, it can't hurt. This is no way to start out cold weather!

LN2008, that's a nice coop, good job! I haven't tried building anything with pallets as of yet, but I have thought about it. Are you going to paint the outside or leave it natural?

 

[LN2008]

Quote:
I think I might just seal it with a clear coat. I already have a can of it and I don't feel like buying anything else! My pockets now have dust bunnies in them..

 

[SeramasLovers]

time to turn on them heating lamps.. its snowing so bad outside! its beautiful but yet ugh i hate the cold.. i am so not ready for winter!.. time to cuddle up with my daughter under the thick blanket tonight.. ugh i am so worried for my babies outside.. i hope them heating lamp keep them warm through the night.. good night guys!

Chicken danz- I hope you feel better..

 

[chicken danz]

My alarm shut itself off so I'm running an hour late already. I like time to relax in the morning before I get moving. Trish I was thinking I got my vetRx from Valley vet but it must have been Cutler's instead. They also ship fast. Weren't you giving your birds some kind of antibiotic as well? I have duramyacin here but haven't been impressed with the way it works for chickens for the various things I've used it for. I'm so sorry your birds are sick. I have given my chickens children's ibuprofen when they have had injuries that cause swelling. Just a tiny bit with the dropper. It does amazing things for them. I had one roo I thought was going to loose his leg it was so swollen. ONe dose of ibuprofen and the next day it was normal size. He limped for a couple months but is back to normal now. I think hemust have broken a bone or something because there was no outward injury.
I only ask $100 each for my pups. I tend to screen homes to some extent. I refused to sell one to a guy that was going to leave a pup out on a farm with adult sheep that he only visited every day or two. It would have gotten trampled for sure if not starved or something. I figure chicken people are just naturally animal lovers. I disagree with the whole concept of a dog not being a guard dog if you interact with them. GPs still bond to the animals they are guarding as well as you.
We didn't get snow but I see several of you might have. Seramaslovers I have a bunch of Seramas that just hatched. They're still in the hatcher so I haven't seen what colors there are just yet. I'll let you know later.

 

[checoukan]

Hawkeye, thanks about agreeing with me and my dogs. Casper is Earls son. We had a female that I gave to a friend who needed help with their goats now.... Coyotes.... anyway DD had pups with earl, the kids wanted to keep casper. Anyway we left him out with earl and DD while she was here. He is 200% guard dog. He loves his goats, we never messed with him much, he lets you know if he is hungry, but you cannot walk up and pet him. If you do get ahold of him, he acts like he has been beaten or something, does not want human touch.

Trish44, you need to be isolating, and get some tetracycline of some kind, and give 1/4 cc in large birds 1/8th of a cc in bantams, in the breast. NOW. do not wait. You may be fighting MG, and if you are, you got to get this stopped, or you are going to have to depopulate

to get it stopped. Birds that survive MG, are carriers, and spread it all the time. Any eggs that come from recovered birds, are contaminated too.

Well, was going to go deer hunting, but, we had 3

STRAY DOGS

go up the center hedge row, so guess I had better go on a dog hunt.

I hate people that allow their dogs to run.

But, the only way to get rid of the dogs, and then there will not be any problems.

 

[ChooksChick]

Trish, I agree, and if you can find them, Baytril and Denagard are both shown to stop MG from becoming chronic and may prevent your birds from being carriers.

Baytril nearly always has to be provided by a vet because it's very difficult to find otherwise. Denagard is available from a website, but I forget which one.

Best of luck!

 

[rittert3]

I've been told over and over that GPs will do a much better job if they're left with the sheep or goats (from weaning) and only fed so they think that the animals they are gaurding are their pack and not you and your family, however I think they do need to be close to the house and checked on a few times a day and with younger animals to start with. I also know alot of farmers that only want females because males will go insearch of a female where as a female will stay close, and I've personally seen that this tends to be the case with GPs. Most of the males I've seen "range off" ussually fall victom to cars or trains. So who all else got snow last night?

 

[Ivywoods]

I came home from work a little early, 2:00a.m. There was 3 inches of very wet, slushy snow on the ground. I shudder to think how much snow we would have gotten if it had been a little colder. The ground is still snow covered, but the sun is out and it is melting. They said it is supposed to get up to 50 degrees today. I hope it does.

On the VetRx-I can't remember now where I got mine. Does Smith poultry supply carry it? They ship fast and they are a Kansas company.

On the LGD's. Here is a picture of Runt last winter. One of my hubby's goats had kids. When it is cold out we bring the babies in to our little bathroom in the hallway to warm them up. Our young great pyrenees, Runt, wanted to be with the baby goats. He would lay down with them, lick them, and take care of them just like he was their mama. We never trained him to do anything. He does it all naturally. That's the great thing about these dogs. Guarding is so instinctual for them. It is important, however, to get them bonded with the animals you want them to guard. We like having ours bonded to the animals AND us.

Runt was just that...the runt of the litter. When he was a few days old, my step son went out to check on the pups and found the mama laying on Runt. Runt was not breathing nor could we detect a heartbeat. My step son gave him CPR and revived him! Well, needless to say he became very attached to Runt, so out of that litter, that was the one we kept. If I went to get a pup from someone else's litter, this one would have been my last pick out of the litter. HOWEVER... Runt is a GREAT guard dog. That's the neat thing about these dogs. They love to do their job, and Runt is no exception.

This isn't the best picture of Runt doing this, but it's the only one I could find. Runt was only about 6 or 7 months old in this picture.

Trish44-I have treated bumblefoot non-invasively and was able to get it to go away, but it did come back about 6 months later. This was on a hen owned by someone else. She has since treated it by excising the core, wrapping with antibiotic ointment and vet wrap. Last I heard the hen was doing okay. There is a good video "somewhere" about treating bumblefoot and excising the core. I can't remember how I looked it up, though. Be sure to use that antibiotic ointment. Bumblefoot carries about a 50% mortality.