Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

If it's a virus it will have to run it's course. If it is a secondary infection antibiotics need to be continued until all sings are cleared. How do you tell the difference? Got me; unless you have a lab. Did you ever get any vetRX? That might help clear up the left over mucus.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Oh right! I got all distracted about buying the vetRX because that was around the same time I gave up and took them to the vet and started the Baytril. I looked into the ingredients of it- and it is all essential pure oils. I even have most of them. I'm a nut about pure essential oils and I have a lot on hand. Tea tree oil was one of them- I have that. I wonder if I can mix up my oils in the order they list them and use it? Of course, I can just order it already mixed, too. BTW- I've never used it on birds, but Tea Tree oil is the ONLY essential oil that treats all three problems: Virus, bacteria and fungal. It is amazing stuff. When I was using cloth diapers, I used it to drop into my diaper load when washing because it was guaranteed to leave no trace of bad stuff after they were sick. The Tea Tree grows naturally in Australia, and it's more like a shrub than a tree, so at least it's easily renewable and easy to get a hold of. The leaves are put thru a distillation process. I didn't even have to look all of that up! LOL It's like burned in my brain now, having done the Natural Parenting and Natural Baby for so many years now.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, I like Tea Tree Oil too, it is a natural antiseptic. I have used if for cuts on my hands & have used it for my chicken with the bumble foot after I worked on her foot. BTW, after doing surgery on her she is doing great now, she has a very slight limp but if you weren't looking for it you probably wouldn't notice. I did find out last night after looking at my little Partridge Rock rooster's foot that he cut his foot. I hadn't been able to see if until I brought him in & hubby & I really closely examined it. I at first thought he might have a thorn in it, but didn't find one, just a cut. He's still limping, but it doesn't look infected at all & I think it will heal. I cleaned it with some antiseptic & put him back out in the coop. He still won't walk on it, just hops around on one foot most of the time. We have a lot of things around here for them to potentially get hurt on, lots of rocks, we have limestone here, & hedge trees with ugly thorns.

 

[chicken danz]

There's no reason you can't mix up your own version of VetRX if you have the stuff already and save some $$. You can drop this stuff in their nostrils or mix a little in their drinking water. Works well. I think it smells good too. I got some in my work coat pocket when I added some to water and my coat smells fresh now instead of like chicken poo!

I've been working on making some more water heaters this AM. I had a heated dog bowl that the cord burnt out on. I'm using the heating element inside a metal dog water pan I bought for plant saucers. I am sealing the plastic cap in with silicone to keep it water proof and going to use it to set one of the vacuum type waterers on. Instant water heater where a heated dog bowl isn't practical. Also I'm sealing off one of those food heating trays I collected to set a 5 gallon metal waterer on. I have a thermocube to control the temp.

 

[Ivywoods]

Gee whiz. Another injured chicken. DH was looking out the patio window and said, "You've got a rooster upside down." Sure enough, one of my free range golden lakenvelder roosters was on his side and unable to get up. He was out in the goat pen near their hay feeder. DH retrieved the roo and brought him in the house. Whatever happened to him must have not been long before we found him. He was warm, but he couldn't stand up or hold his head up. One eye was closed but there were no other signs of injury.

So now he is in intensive care (a cardboard box) and seems to be waking up a bit, but he can't seem to keep his feet under him or keep his head in a normal position. He keeps turning it back at a pretty severe angle.

Not sure if he got flogged by one of the bigger roosters or if he got cold-cocked by a goat. Guess we will see how he does.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, gosh sorry about your rooster, it must be the season for it. I wonder it if got kicked by a goat or something with the swollen eye, I hope he gets better soon.

I'm not too happy about my chickens ranging further out since there is less & less for them up close to the pen to eat. The further they get from the coop the more risky it is for predators to get them. Grow puppies, grow! I wouldn't have thought as cold as it is with the wind & all today that they would have wanted to come out, but they were waiting at the door & ran out when I went out there this morning. There were 5 deer in my orchard this morning right down from the front yard & the pups didn't even notice them. I really don't know at what age you can expect them to be more alert to things like that around them. They're just little pups & act like little pups right now, I just don't know what my expectations should be of them at this age.

All but one of my hens is laying up on top of the straw bales still, so I don't know whether to take the straw out of the run & put it somewhere else to see if they would use the nestboxes then or if they would just lay them outside somewhere. At least they're in where I can find them I guess, I just would like them to use the nestboxes.

I'm going to Wichita tomorrow for a Dr. appt. so I think I'll go by TSC & get some of that goat probiotic while I'm there. Hawkeye, how much do you put on your chicken's feed? We stopped by Atwood's Sat. while we were in town & I found some black oil sunflower seeds cheaper there, so I picked up some of those. I didn't see much of anything there for chicken meds, so that was kind of disappointing. I just found out where the CO-OP is in Ark City, so I think next time I'm down there I will check it out. I think they have a better one than we have in Winfield.

 

[Ivywoods]

Well fortunately the rooster is doing a little better already. He can keep his feet under him and he has both eyes open now. He can almost stand up, but still flails around a little in his efforts. He still wants to turn his head around, but it's not so severe now.

I wonder if he got in a head crunch with a goat????

 

[Hawkeye95]

Danz, I really should be acting more productive today. It's sooo cold, I didn't want to do anything. I really need to make my cookie tin heaters, I even have everything I need. After I did my morning chores with the horses and chickens.. I was sort of done in with the wind and chill.

Ivy, you sure are having bad luck with injured birds! I hope the rooster just needs some rest and will be back to normal.

Trish, as for the probiotic, it comes with a tiny little scoop and then goes on about body weight and how much to give. I just dumped an entire scoop into their little feeder-- I have a chick feeder in with the silkies. I imagine if you are doing this for a larger feeder-- I would just keep sprinkling it around the feed until you got it covered. I'd put it on the outside --on the feeder lip, so they'd all get at it right away. I bet if you dumped it on the inside, it would just become dust at the bottom. Oh and you can put it in water too! It tells you how much to put in.

Well, I bought the VetRx from Amazon for $6.69 and then they wanted $5 on shipping. Geez! But I checked other places and they were more expensive or wanted more on shipping. Atwoods said they used to carry it and I'll have to see if they can get it back in. They lady was surprised when she couldn't find it. She said they had it last winter. Anyway, i paid about $12 for a 2 ounce bottle. Eeek! I think I'm going to write down all the ingredients and take it to "Food For Thought" and buy everything to mix my own for cheaper.

 

[chicken danz]

VetRX is very pricey but it goes a long long ways. I bought one of those little bottles a year and a half ago and it still is 3/4ths full. It takes so little to do the job. If I had a place to buy the ingredients I certainly would attempt to mix my own.
You know years ago I knew a PA that used to use some stuff called Gimp. It is sold as an antiseptic to put on scratches. But he recommended using this for everything. I even used it to clear an abscessed tooth. It is very similar to VetRX but I think it is missing the tea tree oil. Maybe that would be a way to mix some as well. I don't have any around or I'd check ingredients. Very smelly stuff but works very well.

 

[Trish44]

Whew, I went out a couple of times in that wind & cold today, but the last time this evening about did me in. I came in from getting all the chickens back into the run & coop, filling feeders, water, feeding puppies, & getting them into their run & I was frozen solid. I'm having some hot tea now to try to thaw out. I decided after chasing the darned chickens around in the cold trying to get them all in so I wouldn't have to come back out in that wind that I don't care how much Red yells at me tomorrow, if it's like today they're staying in. I had trouble with about 4 hens at the last, they had their BOSS & then ran back out into the yard. The one Speckled Sussex hen that I have doesn't like me anywhere near her, so she kept running around the back of the coop & up under an old trailer frame sitting up there & then she would come back around to the front wanting in until I came to open the door for her. I had all but her in & was getting really frustrated with her. I finally chased all the others into the coop so they wouldn't run outside again & propped the door just long enough to run the last silly hen in. She doesn't seem to stay with any certain group, even her rooster, I wish she would so that she doesn't disappear too.

I haven't had a chance to use the VetRX since I got it, but I have it just in case now. I'm slowly building up my pharmacy & first aid kit of things for my chickens. You just can't afford to get it all at once.