Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

I can't get any vet care for my chickens. My primary vet (dog/cat) won't see chickens.

I generally purchase chicks through a hatchery (or get reduced ones through TSC - which is Hoover Hatchery - and still vaccinated) Mine are all vaccinated for Marecks. Some - depending on hatchery, if offered - are vaccinated for coccidosis. However, I do have a number that have hatched on site and aren't vaccinated. The smallest vial of Vaccine I could find for Mareck's vaccinated 1000 birds, and is just too expensive for only needing it for a few. Especially, like last year, when I had 2 broodies hatch chicks and then about 7 weeks later another broody hatch some. The first vial would have been no longer good, and I would have had to buy 2 separate vials -for 13 chicks!

Getting anti-biotics for my chickens is impossible. The only reason I was able to give Crop Girl some post surgery is because I had a knee replacement (recent) and have to take a prophylactic anti-biotic before dental cleanings - which I do more often than average due to issues...and I opened one of those capsules, mixed with water, and dosed her accordingly from that.

You are absolutely correct - the veterinary and pharmaceutical world needs to get on the stick and accommodate Chickens/small farmers and backyard farm animals/pets.

You did an amazing job with her - just awesome.

Agreed with that, but I am 100percent certain that it’s a money thing, they just wouldn’t make money with the BY chicken industry. I also keep meds from myself for the chickies, fortunately many of the meds for my horses also can be used.

 

[Ponypoor]

@Ponypoor I really need to thank you. I guess since Rosie is not coming down with strep but other respiratory viruses as well it never crossed my mind that her tonsils could be part of the problem. That and she is almost 15, around here at least, tonsils get taken out before they are 10. Discussed it at her doctor appointment today and he looked at them closely and agreed that they are a big part of her problem. They are very enlarged and he wants them removed. There is a hiccup in the process though and of course it is insurance. Because she has not tested positive for strep 10 times in a year she first has to have a sleep study done to check for sleep apnea to be approved. We discussed the signs of it and I am confident and so is he that she has at least mild sleep apnea. She cannot sleep flat on her back without snoring almost immediately. He also said just due to her tonsils size he bets she has it, said that they were a +3, what ever that means. They are working to get the sleep study scheduled. I'm hoping it will not take too long and hopefully in the next month or two be able to get those tonsils removed. Her doctor seemed hopeful that realistically it should be able to be scheduled in about a month.

Poor Rosie those are grapes! And yes will contribute to sleep apnea issues by occluding her airway poor lass.

Sleep is very important and poor sleep can contribute to how well a person combated any illnesses.

————

Marty update - no egg from her today and no interest in sitting in a nest box!

 

[Ponypoor]

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Dixie and baby photos.
I feel horrible. I left the brooder open since i was supervising and the babies came out, walked around, and went in the pet taxi where Dixie hatched them and fell asleep in the nest scoop she made.. My hearts broken, poor things.

Poor wee babes, can you put the brooder plate in there ?

 

[Ponypoor]

Right, exactly. I read about the leaky Mareks vaccine on BY chicken initially and people were going back and forth like a verbal tennis match.

So, knowing I had unvaccinated chickens I dug deeper. I am not a scientist but I love to read and research. Ohio State Ag department and a few other academic sites I looked at had published some studies on the subject and I dug into them. I read through several papers, I am far far from an expert but the jist of what I read said that yes its leaky BUT the chances of a vaccinated chick giving the virus to an unvaccinated flock is very, very low according to the studies I happened upon.

So, low risk but no one is willing, and rightfully so, to say there is no risk. It is a hard decision but so far I have been in the camp of future chicks should be unvaccinated just to play it safe.

There does indeed seem to be a gulf of missing easily accessible answers for chicken keepers on a multitude of subjects not just this one. I have found many poultry studies but they are typically geared more towards mass production solutions and risk analysis vs backyard beloved pets. What a production farm or hatchery should do doesn’t necessarily always apply to a backyard environment. So, it ends up being quite the quandary and we are left doing what we feel we can live with and afford a lot of the time.

BY_Bob is an expert and is well versed in chicken issues, but also I know he is super busy right now. If and when he has time to type about it, it would be lovely to hear his explanation/ take on the Mareks vaccine, I agree.

There are always two components to Risk Management: the first is how frequent something happens, the second is how serious or large are the consequences.

Take safety for instance, Slips, Trips & Falls: these happen very frequently, the majority’s are minor injuries, but the risk is there for a fatality, this the slips, trip/fall instances are rated as serious.

So with the attenuated vaccine they do rate the risk as low, because 99 percent of the billions of chickens in factory farms get it this are not ill but for us BY people the odds are stacked against us as we don’t have thousands of birds, we may only have a dozen. So of 1 in 100,000 get ill from and attenuated virus bird you can bet it will be one of ours!

Good thing is, older birds have likely been exposed to it naturally in the environment, like us old farts and childhood illness like common colds, kids get about 8 / yr! We old farts not so many, our immune systems have been exposed to those viruses. So it mainly from what I read chickies up to 30 weeks who are at risk.

Who knew having chickens was so stressful! Now I am worried about getting my chicks next month!!!!! What if they introduce something to my herd??

 

[Ponypoor]

Strange Roosting
We are getting wind gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph) tonight. The high winds have resulted in a couple of strange roosting occurrences tonight.

1. Hattie is on a roost!
2. Betty has left Hattie House for the security of the main coop.

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Oh I am so glad she is there with everyone, it been crazy windy here also. All the kiddos were on edge all day, the barn doors and windows were groaning and snapping and rattling.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Poor wee babes, can you put the brooder plate in there ?

Unfortunately it’s much to small to fit that, the water container and the food container inside. I will see what i can do about moving the crate inside the brooder tomorrow, though.

The babies come out whenever i turn the light on in my room and use it as a potty break, demanding i then put them back in after they get a quick drink and relieve themself. I turned on the light to grab something and out they all came.. Sneaky things.

 

[Ponypoor]

That was early in the morning and Aurora was quite grumpy. It was cold, her water was frozen and I was out of corn.

She was not having a good start to her day.

Well ya! HRH expects her human to have everything just so!

 

[Ponypoor]

Unfortunately it’s much to small to fit that, the water container and the food container inside. I will see what i can do about moving the crate inside the brooder tomorrow, though.

The babies come out whenever i turn the light on in my room and use it as a potty break, demanding i then put them back in after they get a quick drink and relieve themself. I turned on the light to grab something and out they all came.. Sneaky things.

They have you well trained

Oh I love having babies around, and yours are so darn sweet

 

[Ponypoor]

With a comb like that she is no song bird!

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Wow she sure has blossomed into a beauty! Love those wattles and comb

 

[Chicken poppy]

They have you well trained

Oh I love having babies around, and yours are so darn sweet

Me too. They make my heart melt. They seem to age so slow and then you look at a picture of them younger and realize just how fast they grew!