Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

We are of the same mind on this actually, thanks for spelling it out!

I think there is something not working right with her gizzard, there's too much undigested things in her poop that are tough, like corn, or hulled sunflower seeds, the day after she has that food, compared to everyone else. Mealworms seem better. So continuing this easy to digest baby bird food for now and waiting to see how it goes makes sense. She doesn't like crumbles mash made with water or yogurt (she does like yogurt). I haven't yet figured out a better way to get her to eat enough of the nutritious feed except by tube feeding.

Can you try giving her good size grit (manually popping into her beak) one piece a day for 3 or 4 days straight.?? The gizzard can't work properly without grit - and, as you saw, too much small grit can just get 'jammed up. Given what she pooped later - the fibrous grass - she may have instinctively know she needed grit to break it up - but a) took in too much small stuff (that got stuck as she was already backed up) and b) the fibrous grass was too far along at that point for the grit to help (was past her gizzard)

I am thinking only one decent sized piece a day...but for a couple days...in case it isn't staying in her gizzard....but also so it isn't overloaded all at once with 'indigestible'

Anyone with more anatomy knowledge, can you answer this question:

Since a huge plug of matted, fibrous 'stuff' came out of Butters through the vent - could it, if it had gotten semi stuck on the lead end and gradually been forced through the system - damaged or stretched the 'exit valve' of the gizzard? If so, could it (might it?) stay stretched - meaning some 'solids/unground' food will pass through? Or might it heal and or the gizzard muscle compensate over time to reduce what passes thought the 'exit valve' over time???

@BY Bob @RoyalChick ?any one else have some knowledge/experience/ideas on this????

 

[Gigachad poultry]

Yes, I realized that my complement was ambiguous ...
It is this face.
View attachment 3623783

But Kelly, you have a cute little face too, you do! I just didn't want to make that a public statement.

She's giving you the "where's my treats" look

 

[Ponypoor]

She's giving you the "where's my treats" look

Yes she has trained me up real well!

 

[rural mouse]

Can you try giving her good size grit (manually popping into her beak) one piece a day for 3 or 4 days straight.?? The gizzard can't work properly without grit - and, as you saw, too much small grit can just get 'jammed up. Given what she pooped later - the fibrous grass - she may have instinctively know she needed grit to break it up - but a) took in too much small stuff (that got stuck as she was already backed up) and b) the fibrous grass was too far along at that point for the grit to help (was past her gizzard)

I am thinking only one decent sized piece a day...but for a couple days...in case it isn't staying in her gizzard....but also so it isn't overloaded all at once with 'indigestible'

Anyone with more anatomy knowledge, can you answer this question:

Since a huge plug of matted, fibrous 'stuff' came out of Butters through the vent - could it, if it had gotten semi stuck on the lead end and gradually been forced through the system - damaged or stretched the 'exit valve' of the gizzard? If so, could it (might it?) stay stretched - meaning some 'solids/unground' food will pass through? Or might it heal and or the gizzard muscle compensate over time to reduce what passes thought the 'exit valve' over time???

@BY Bob @RoyalChick ?any one else have some knowledge/experience/ideas on this????

Interesting thought..... I don't know enough about bird anatomy, but it seems plausible.

 

[rural mouse]

Thirsty family

Quartz, Granite, Nimbus, Storm, Cardhu, and Cumulo

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Improvement is good. It is hard to know what is going on in her body, but sounds like there is a good chance that she makes a full recovery.

I have tube fed Light twice a day. But most of these days she probably only got tube feeding once because I was a tube feeding newbie and made mistakes like not making paste liquidy enough. She was also eating on her own a bit so it seemed ok give up tube feeding at times.

It sounds like Butters is in the same boat? Maybe only once a day?

I think twice a day, I was wavering yesterday because she was so gung-ho to eat mealworms. But by 7pm she had very little in her crop and I want her to have a good crop for the long night. Plus it was going to be in the 50’s (F, 10C).

 

[GregnLety]

I was going to submit these photos last week but work interfered. This hen is one of our originals. I was carrying fresh water to Goldie and she comes running up. I sat it down in a shady spot and she drank her fill.

 

[RoyalChick]

Can you try giving her good size grit (manually popping into her beak) one piece a day for 3 or 4 days straight.?? The gizzard can't work properly without grit - and, as you saw, too much small grit can just get 'jammed up. Given what she pooped later - the fibrous grass - she may have instinctively know she needed grit to break it up - but a) took in too much small stuff (that got stuck as she was already backed up) and b) the fibrous grass was too far along at that point for the grit to help (was past her gizzard)

I am thinking only one decent sized piece a day...but for a couple days...in case it isn't staying in her gizzard....but also so it isn't overloaded all at once with 'indigestible'

Anyone with more anatomy knowledge, can you answer this question:

Since a huge plug of matted, fibrous 'stuff' came out of Butters through the vent - could it, if it had gotten semi stuck on the lead end and gradually been forced through the system - damaged or stretched the 'exit valve' of the gizzard? If so, could it (might it?) stay stretched - meaning some 'solids/unground' food will pass through? Or might it heal and or the gizzard muscle compensate over time to reduce what passes thought the 'exit valve' over time???

@BY Bob @RoyalChick ?any one else have some knowledge/experience/ideas on this????

Hmmm. Maybe. I am not so sure about stretched, but I suppose it could have some damage and be working less well - maybe even infection.
I wonder if there is any chance she ingested some hardware - like a screw or metal shard - that would be sharp enough to pierce the gizzard and could have had an abscess form around it maybe.
Either way I think a few pieces of good sized grit as you suggest is a good idea.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Be sure that the yogurt is the most expensive kind. $$$
My chooks will only eat the special Greek yogurt

Well I make it myself, it’s very thick like Greek yogurt, don’t have to strain it. But sometimes I need to refresh it with new cultures so I buy pretty good stuff then…

 

[lightm]

OK I dug up all the back and forth I had with Bob, the dosing info i researched from academic studies, Merck veterinary manual, Poultry DVM etc.

The bottom line is for the 10% solution you give 0.1ml per kg of weight two times a day. The mistake on the bottle is that it says to only give that amount daily.

So if she is 5.1875 pounds she is 2.35kg so 0.23ml - which rounded up is 0.25ml. And you give that twice a day.
Casportpony's 0.7ml per lb is more than the 0.1ml/kg but I think in the range of dosing I found from the academic literature.
Also, even with a 1ml syringe, it is hard to be accurate in actually drawing it up so I think you are aiming to somewhere between 0.25-0.35ml for each dose and you should give it twice a day.

It is actually a very small volume of liquid so if she has appetite I would drop it onto a bit of bread (bread absorbs liquid very well) and have her eat that (but only her). I found that quite easy even with Maggie and when Maggie wised up that it wasn't normal bread I was still able to pop the bread in her beak quite easily.

Finally, how many days. Bob and others advocate 5 days. There is some research to say 3 days is enough. I have always gone with 5 days.

Good luck - PM me if you need anything.

Honey is not doing well. She has been laying soft shelled eggs for a long time and 2 days ago her bottom was really dirty. I gave her a bath. Afterwards, she pooped out yolk, egg whites, and also small but good looking poop at the same time.

I am afraid she has her soft shell broken inside her. Immediately gave her calcium citrate tablet and hoping the soft shell will pass. She has done this before in the past unfortunately.

But nope, I don't think it's passed because today she appears more lethargic. I am thinking antibiotics is in order for her. :-(

I am quoting an old post on Baytril dosage. @BY Bob However I have Baytril 10% powder on hand and it says 5 grams per gallon of drinking water. This obviously requires confining her 24/7, and not ideal.

I tried very hard but not able to find a proper dosage of powder baytril. The best I can come up with is based on their consumption of water. I think our birds drink 1 cup of water per bird daily. That means 5/16 grams of powder daily. But I don't have a scale to measure that precisely, so I think I need to go buy a scale with mg units...

Any thought is appreciated.