Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Marie2020]

Well, moult update
3 new candidates for possible nekkid bird. Not there yet, but definitely getting patches

View attachment 3288657Pear has a mass of pin feathers running down the back of her neck, and has lost her tail feathers.
View attachment 3288656Storm is doing a fair imitation of a naked neck. Still has a few tail feathers, but they're sparse.

View attachment 3288655PITA has lost the long tail feathers, is getting skimpy around her head and is about to lose her wing feathers. Her shoulders look a bit prickly too.

View attachment 3288659Nellie, on the other hand, while having some more loose neck feathers (the few she kept to avoid pure nekkid), has a whole slew of sparkly new feathers in a "V" between her shoulders and her tail feathers are looking great!

Cheetah has a number of new feathers coming in across his back, but hasn't popped any porcupine areas. He seems to be going more slow and steady moult. He also isn't cooperating for pics this morning. Hoping to try again later.

Dawn temps are mid-low 40s (F), but day time highs are still ranging 60s-high 70s. The wind blowing in the afternoon is likely the biggest source of staying in the coop. Having it ruffling prickly pins and shaky old feathers has got to be very uncomfortable.

Bless these babies they certainly go through the mill with their molting

 

[Marie2020]

Ignoring the 10% rule
In spite of @BY Bob’s helpful visualization of the ‘only 10% treats’ rule I decided that getting any calories into Maggie was more important than ‘healthy eating’.
So I brought out the big guns.
Corn on the cob. As you can see, Maggie is obsessed with it.
I recorded it in SloMo but YouTube won’t show it in SloMo which is a real shame as on the original SloMo video there is some great swinging wattle action!

Edited to add. I figured out SloMo. Watch this instead.

That's reminded me to get some corn for my girls today

 

[RoyalChick]

I rarely read this thread, and am not sure if I have ever posted in it, but I happened to be reading it yesterday and wanted to give you my deepest condolences. I know your heart is hurting, but Chaco is no longer in pain.

I hope my own story will give you a little comfort. Colic can be such a difficult thing to deal with, and can range from a mild “stomach ache” that is easily dealt with, to a massive impaction that is frequently fatal. I dealt with the full range of that in my beautiful gelding, Strider. He was my pride and joy. I owned his mother, and had bred him, raised him, and trained him all myself. So the first time he colicked at around 5 years old I was determined to save him. The surgery cost several thousand dollars, he had a coastal impaction. So I never fed him coastal again, he got only alfalfa. The recovery took a few months or restricting his activity and monitoring his diet and incision. Finally he seemed to be all healed up.

About a year later, he colicked again and I rushed him to the vet. They tubes him and this time it turned out to be a simple fix. We had seeded part of the pasture to try to get it to grow some winter grass, and he had discovered the grass seed and licked it up from the ground. Along with a ton of dirt. And once in his stomach the grass seed swelled up. They flushed/drained his stomach through the tube, and took about 3-4 five-gallon buckets of fluid/seed/dirt out of it. Once again he seemed to recover just fine.

A year later it happened again. He colicked and I rushed him to the vet. They examined him and decided it was something more major, and would require probably require another surgery. They recommended that I take him to the Texas A&M vet college/hospital for further examination. So we made the hour long drive. After more testing and a lot of tears I decided to let him go, to not put him through another surgery and recovery, and held his head as they put him down. Because it is a teaching hospital I gave them permission to do a necropsy on him, which would also let them practice some surgical skills. The next day they called me and said I had definitely made the right decision. His intestines had dozens of adhesions that had developed from the first surgery, which were keeping things from moving freely. They said it wasn’t uncommon for it to happen after an abdominal surgery, and that at that time they hadn’t figured out any way to predict when it would happen, or what caused some people/animals to get them worst than other. They were surprised he had made it as long as he did without colicking again, and said he would have been prone to it happening frequently for the rest of his life.

I miss him still, and even though it has been over 10 years since I let him go it took me several hours to type this. I kept having to take a break because I couldn’t see through the tears. But I take comfort in the good memories, and in knowing that he never again has to go through that pain and discomfort.

Worst part is right now I can’t even find any old pics of him to post.

Thank you for sharing. It brought tears to my eyes just reading your story.
If you find pictures I am sure we would love to see some here.
We focus Sunday for horses (well any quadruped really) but we love seeing them any day of the week really.

 

[Marie2020]

Give me corn right now
At last corn grown by a friend tastes really good

 

[BY Bob]

Situation with Chaco is now over. Yes I am understandably upset about this whole thing. But I believe that I have done the right thing regarding her. She was such a sweet princess horse, and didn’t deserve to get sick. I’m okay with my decision. But yes I’m terribly sad about it too. I just need to finish some paperwork. Glad I have lots of pictures of her to remember her by.

 

[BY Bob]

Loving memory of Chaco:
View attachment 3287099View attachment 3287102

She was beautiful and sweet.

 

[featherhead007]

I rarely read this thread, and am not sure if I have ever posted in it, but I happened to be reading it yesterday and wanted to give you my deepest condolences. I know your heart is hurting, but Chaco is no longer in pain.

I hope my own story will give you a little comfort. Colic can be such a difficult thing to deal with, and can range from a mild “stomach ache” that is easily dealt with, to a massive impaction that is frequently fatal. I dealt with the full range of that in my beautiful gelding, Strider. He was my pride and joy. I owned his mother, and had bred him, raised him, and trained him all myself. So the first time he colicked at around 5 years old I was determined to save him. The surgery cost several thousand dollars, he had a coastal impaction. So I never fed him coastal again, he got only alfalfa. The recovery took a few months or restricting his activity and monitoring his diet and incision. Finally he seemed to be all healed up.

About a year later, he colicked again and I rushed him to the vet. They tubes him and this time it turned out to be a simple fix. We had seeded part of the pasture to try to get it to grow some winter grass, and he had discovered the grass seed and licked it up from the ground. Along with a ton of dirt. And once in his stomach the grass seed swelled up. They flushed/drained his stomach through the tube, and took about 3-4 five-gallon buckets of fluid/seed/dirt out of it. Once again he seemed to recover just fine.

A year later it happened again. He colicked and I rushed him to the vet. They examined him and decided it was something more major, and would require probably require another surgery. They recommended that I take him to the Texas A&M vet college/hospital for further examination. So we made the hour long drive. After more testing and a lot of tears I decided to let him go, to not put him through another surgery and recovery, and held his head as they put him down. Because it is a teaching hospital I gave them permission to do a necropsy on him, which would also let them practice some surgical skills. The next day they called me and said I had definitely made the right decision. His intestines had dozens of adhesions that had developed from the first surgery, which were keeping things from moving freely. They said it wasn’t uncommon for it to happen after an abdominal surgery, and that at that time they hadn’t figured out any way to predict when it would happen, or what caused some people/animals to get them worst than other. They were surprised he had made it as long as he did without colicking again, and said he would have been prone to it happening frequently for the rest of his life.

I miss him still, and even though it has been over 10 years since I let him go it took me several hours to type this. I kept having to take a break because I couldn’t see through the tears. But I take comfort in the good memories, and in knowing that he never again has to go through that pain and discomfort.

Worst part is right now I can’t even find any old pics of him to post.

I only pray, that anyone reading our posts, learns something about raising horses. It’s not an easy job to do, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I know how you feel as well. I’m going to miss Chaco forever I imagine. Thank you for your post, it’s a relief for me.

 

[GregnLety]

He's full of beans today and refused too go out this morning because he wanted an extra nap. Two hours ago he demanded too be let out and he'll be back in another two hours for his food

I'm in the process of getting him a harness, so I can train him to walk with us a little because there may come a time we might have to change location and I dont want him getting lost and will need to get him used too a new area before letting him free again

When I read the first line I thought you were talking about Alex

 

[BY Bob]

I still think you should move there out of the way of the nasty neighbors. Hard to suffer too much from neighbors on nearly 15 acres. Maybe in time you will get another horse to make use of the barns. Or maybe an emu.
You could rename the barns in Chaco’s honor.
Just rambling.

I kind of agree with this. A fresh start for you and your feathered friends.

 

[featherhead007]

When I read the first line I thought you were talking about Alex