Well...spent the afternoon in the pouring rain constructing a temporary holding pen for these soup roos. It looks like a hillbilly rig but it will keep them dry and shaded on one end and out in the sunshine and on some grass in the other end. It's about 1/3 the size of their usual run so they aren't losing out by much. Three of them had lice..the older rooster was just eaten UP with them and some parts of his reddened, bare skin was bloody from it all. Three had scale mites. One of the roos was a hen...HUGE and heavy, she looks to have some WR in her breeding,whatever that was! To our credit she had so little feathering and was so very big, we mistook her for a rooster in the dark of the coop. She's older and not laying, so she too will be soup.
And, to no surprise, the brattiest one of the bunch to handle and treat was the silkie...
Had scale mites in those darn ugly feet of his, so his dirty little feathery feet now are coated and slathered in castor oil.
When I called the lady to tell her I had one of her hens and to tell her about the infestations, she was shocked that she had these parasites and wanted to know what to do for them. She's had chickens for 5 years in these conditions and has acquired chickens from other flocks just willy nilly, so who knows how long these birds have suffered? This...right here...this scenario is what I see on this forum over and over and wherever I go and for some reason no one seems to think this is animal abuse or neglect, but you leave a dog outdoors for the winter and they will call the humane society on you so fast it'll make yer head spin.
Don't mean to get my panties in a wad but these are the same type of people who claim they cannot kill their own chickens because they just have too tender of a heart. Over and over I hear that same song...I can't kill my babies, but I can sure leave them in a dirty, poopy run and coop that's too small. I can not ever ~in fact, I won't even try to educate myself on how to do so until it's too late~try to manage their health... but I can sure throw the feed down so they are really, really fat because that equals good care. I can leave them to be eaten alive by parasites from the outside and inside but kill them? I could NEVER do that? Oh, how do you DO that? (insert whine here that implies those who kill chickens are some kind of cold blooded murderers)
Sorry...rant over. Didn't mean to step off the deep end on y'all but sometimes my soul cries out for understanding of this horrible new society who doesn't seem to understand the definition of love.
And, to no surprise, the brattiest one of the bunch to handle and treat was the silkie...
When I called the lady to tell her I had one of her hens and to tell her about the infestations, she was shocked that she had these parasites and wanted to know what to do for them. She's had chickens for 5 years in these conditions and has acquired chickens from other flocks just willy nilly, so who knows how long these birds have suffered? This...right here...this scenario is what I see on this forum over and over and wherever I go and for some reason no one seems to think this is animal abuse or neglect, but you leave a dog outdoors for the winter and they will call the humane society on you so fast it'll make yer head spin.
Don't mean to get my panties in a wad but these are the same type of people who claim they cannot kill their own chickens because they just have too tender of a heart. Over and over I hear that same song...I can't kill my babies, but I can sure leave them in a dirty, poopy run and coop that's too small. I can not ever ~in fact, I won't even try to educate myself on how to do so until it's too late~try to manage their health... but I can sure throw the feed down so they are really, really fat because that equals good care. I can leave them to be eaten alive by parasites from the outside and inside but kill them? I could NEVER do that? Oh, how do you DO that? (insert whine here that implies those who kill chickens are some kind of cold blooded murderers)
Sorry...rant over. Didn't mean to step off the deep end on y'all but sometimes my soul cries out for understanding of this horrible new society who doesn't seem to understand the definition of love.
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