Dominique Thread!

[Sylvester017]

I absolutely love little Dom chicks. Other breeds might actually have more exciting colors as chicks, but there's something super special about looking at the package that makes up a Dom chick, and being pretty sure that you know the gender.

Hubby and i harvested 5 roosters today. There's about 6 more roos to go and about 5 pullet/hens left to do. I'm exhausted! A lot of work processing, and I'm super slow. But, I have 5 lovely packages of meat to go in the freezer, each package should give my family of 4 at least 1, if not 2 good meals. the backs and necks will be cooked down into broth, I'll pick the meat and package meat/broth in 1 qt containers for a nice winter "just add veggies" soup.

We don't eat our birds - DH won't allow it LOL! But my friend didn't know what to do with her CornishX feet so I took them, boiled them down, picked out the bones, and fed the gelatanous meat back to the my chickens - extra protein.

 

[Alaskan]

OK, question....

Today, looking at my growing Dominique chicks.. One pullet is suddenly skewed! Looking at her, I thought her tail was suddenly askew, but it looks more like the bend is higher up on her back.

Odd that it is all of a sudden. They have been all locked up, no free ranging.

I am FRUSTRATED!

 

[Sylvester017]

OK, question....

Today, looking at my growing Dominique chicks.. One pullet is suddenly skewed! Looking at her, I thought her tail was suddenly askew, but it looks more like the bend is higher up on her back.

Odd that it is all of a sudden. They have been all locked up, no free ranging.

I am FRUSTRATED!

Do you mean "wry neck" or "stargazing" ? I'm not sure what you mean by "skewed" ? If it's wry neck/stargazing that's usually a vitamin treatment - if you have Poly-Vi-Sol no iron on-hand treat her with a drop every couple hours on the side of her beak until her tongue licks it up and don't force it down her.

I lost my Dom chick last Fall to a sudden seizure out of the blue!

 

[lazy gardener]

I think what you're describing is scoliosis, or translated: a sideways bend in the spine. One of my Dom cockrel chicks developed severe scoliosis last spring after being "successfully" treated for Vitamin E encephalopathy. He also had what I believe was heart failure, as well as gleet by the time I put him down. Sylvester is right, wry neck or stargazing can be treated with Polyvisol w/o iron, or Nutri-Drench. I won't raise chicks without having Nutri-drench in my "tool box."

 

[lazy gardener]

Alaskan, your pullet may just be "crooked" but otherwise be able to function and be a normal layer. But of course you won't want to let her play in the gene pool. Then again, sudden development of scoliosis may point to other underlying problems.

 

[Alaskan]

I don't know why only one chick, out of all of my 60ish chicks and 20ish hens would have a vitamin nutrition problem, and all of the rest be perfectly fine.

I am starting to wonder if she just flew into something, my Dominique are all very active, and will bust out a bit like a covey of quail, when they are all entering the run..... Also, being young, she probably isn't fully coordinated yet.

I guess scoliosis or something similar could also be a cause.

I felt her all over this afternoon.... I think it feels like her hips are messed up, or where the one leg bone enters the hip. It was very hard to figure out exactly what is wrong.

However, she was mostly comfortable, definitely not crying, and can still run about.

Here are some pictures:

 

[Sylvester017]

I don't know why only one chick, out of all of my 60ish chicks and 20ish hens would have a vitamin nutrition problem, and all of the rest be perfectly fine.

I am starting to wonder if she just flew into something, my Dominique are all very active, and will bust out a bit like a covey of quail, when they are all entering the run..... Also, being young, she probably isn't fully coordinated yet.

I guess scoliosis or something similar could also be a cause.

I felt her all over this afternoon.... I think it feels like her hips are messed up, or where the one leg bone enters the hip. It was very hard to figure out exactly what is wrong.

However, she was mostly comfortable, definitely not crying, and can still run about.

Here are some pictures:

Boy, I bet my vet would love to see her. He does surgeries so that if it is an injury he would've corrected it on the spot before any joints set. He does emergency surgeries. Do you have a vet?

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks for the opinion....

But I view chickens differently. I greatly enjoy them, and they are my pets, I definitely spend more money on them than I should... But to me they are still livestock. For an infectious disease, to pinpoint the disease, I would take one to a vet, but other than that, I am not spending money on a vet.

Someone else, on a different thread mentioned that it was either genetic, or, if it was caused by an injury in a controlled environment (not caused by a predator), that she must not have as strong connective tissue, or joints, or something.

Either way, I should not keep her for breeding. So, I will probably wait another month, then eat her.

I was just disappointed, since I had wanted a large group of Dominiques to choose good breeders from, and so every loss is disappointing.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

I don't know why only one chick, out of all of my 60ish chicks and 20ish hens would have a vitamin nutrition problem, and all of the rest be perfectly fine.

I am starting to wonder if she just flew into something, my Dominique are all very active, and will bust out a bit like a covey of quail, when they are all entering the run..... Also, being young, she probably isn't fully coordinated yet.

I guess scoliosis or something similar could also be a cause.

I felt her all over this afternoon.... I think it feels like her hips are messed up, or where the one leg bone enters the hip. It was very hard to figure out exactly what is wrong.

However, she was mostly comfortable, definitely not crying, and can still run about.

As year old hens our Dominiques will still burst from the ground like a bouquet of pheasants. If they see the door curtain move, or hear the door open, or see me coming around the side of the house, they will literally go air borne to try and be first to reach any treats.

 

[Alaskan]

I don't know why only one chick, out of all of my 60ish chicks and 20ish hens would have a vitamin nutrition problem, and all of the rest be perfectly fine.


I am starting to wonder if she just flew into something, my Dominique are all very active, and will bust out a bit like a covey of quail, when they are all entering the run..... Also, being young, she probably isn't fully coordinated yet.


I guess scoliosis or something similar could also be a cause.


I felt her all over this afternoon.... I think it feels like her hips are messed up, or where the one leg bone enters the hip. It was very hard to figure out exactly what is wrong.


However, she was mostly comfortable, definitely not crying, and can still run about.

As year old hens our Dominiques will still burst from the ground like a bouquet of pheasants. If they see the door curtain move, or hear the door open, or see me coming around the side of the house, they will literally go air borne to try and be first to reach any treats.

I can believe it! In all of my years of chickens, I have never had ones like this.