Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

I also suspect MG in the group here due to Hazel's bubbly eyes and Annie & Tedi's illness, but haven't been able to verify it either way. Annie swabbed negative for anything, but that was after antibiotic treatment.

You may recall I've had Hazel's eyes swabbed twice, before any treatment, and come up with negative results both times, though the last one detected e. coli (because of the run dust collected in her eye, we think). $700 for that last visit with all the panels, highest ever.

If MG is as endemic as everyone says, then why not treat it as an unavoidable thing? Thought through this and decided I didn't want to wait until everybody aged out and I certainly wasn't going to cull. I brought in the new Buckeye chicks, and gave them a round of Tylosin when they began sniffling and having clear nasal discharge, and it cleared up quickly. They have been fine since then. A vet online suggested IB as possible but had no problem with the Tylosin saying the antibiotics would be good to help with any secondary infections.

Yes a couple of mine also had the frothy eyes, Mr P a bit, and Daisy was the worst. Also Cayenne a bit. I think dropping some of the Tylosin mixture in their eyes really helped to dry up the moisture.

 

[BY Bob]

I though I would show you how Flopsy is with her first big moult. She’s another one who doesn’t want to walk much, sinks down, goes sideways, backwards…. Though not as bad as Rose was with her first moult.

Fascinating. The poor girl. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ponypoor]

Poor Eli-too! I'm sorry for her and you, there's a lot on your plate going on, just in your flock! What breed is she?

Forgot to mention also it was either Peanut or Hazel for her bubbly eyes who also had a throat swab and blood drawn when they were there for Peanut's distended belly, and those were also pretty much negative for any actionable information. None of these tests were helpful in diagnosis or treatment.

The only tests that were helpful were x-rays, which showed Peanut's cancer, and Butters' lack of visible cancer, so at least there was a positive result and dispositive result.

Yes I understood the online vet was talking about secondary infections with IB which are common occurrences.

Eli is a Mr P daughter who’s mum is one of the barnyard mutts here. Could have been Sophia is her mum as she and Tilly as so much alike. And I know Tippy is Sophia’s egg child.

Could be that Sophia might be some sort of production breed, my cousin couldn’t remember what she was. I think Petunia was also a Sophia daughter, all three of those hens were so similar, and Petunia had all sorts of issues and died suddenly last winter.

Tippy is very robust - though I also thought Eli was robust. You never know with one’s pets how they will do, they are just like people.

So who knows, maybe all three were Sophia babies and maybe Sophia passed along some sort of genetic mix
making them not overly robust. And out of the three 2 had issues.

Of course it’s all speculation, all one can truly say is that they are all waiting for something to happen - same as us!

 

[Ponypoor]

Fascinating. The poor girl. Thanks for sharing.

She’s eating well and clobbering the newcomers so she’s doing ok. Tylenol helps, and the fresh pears and pumpkins are a nice treat for her.

It’s just too bad her tail feathers aren’t falling out! They need replacing!

 

[BY Bob]

Dakota is not fairing well with her moult either. She fell off her perch in the chicken room and came across the hall to my bedroom.
I don’t want to be teased about it, but she spent the night with me.
Minimal mess to clean up. And we had scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast.

I love how you take care of them. You are very good to them.

 

[featherhead007]

Wow it wasn’t stepping on a foot in the pasture, it was on the stone floor, so how is the silkie okay?

Lucky that there wasn’t a flat Silkie that time

 

[Ponypoor]

Wow it wasn’t stepping on a foot in the pasture, it was on the stone floor, so how is the silkie okay?

It’s in the stall in the shavings bedding, she digging through poop and I guess Reenie stepped on her feathers more than anything - trust me I about murdered Whiskers and Reenie, I have chased them out of there so many times turn my back for 10 seconds to grab another bucket and screaming starts - and stupid Reenie just stands there - I ran in and scooped up baby who stopped screaming when I picked her up. But there was a lot of screaming and swearing on my part. Those darn chickens are everywhere, and get into everything.

Anywhoo when I put baby down after checking her she limped on her foot a bit, but nothing was broken, I think she just got the feathers caught.

So now I put the feed in the stalls before letting the chooks out, this way they can’t get into the stall to eat the yummy poop.

I am too old for that stress!

 

[Ponypoor]

Lucky that there wasn’t a flat Silkie that time

Yes - the little so and so’s are nothing but trouble, they are into everything, they follow me around get under foot.

I stepped on Mr LC’s foot this afternoon - poor beast let out a mighty screech - followed by me tripping and screeching! But sheesh he gets right underfoot following me around looking for treats and snuggles. Same with those darn silkie chicks - and they are so fast darting about. I just lock them in the run now, too much worry of them getting stepped on by me!

Been a stressful week dealing with the sickness - chasing chooks out of stalls is frustrating. No more stall access until all horses are outside.

 

[BY Bob]

As an inexperienced backyard flock owner I had no idea what was even ailing Mini. Hindsight w/ experience gives us 20/20 vision but just too late at times

 

[ChicoryBlue]

If it's mycoplasma it will always be there. You can test in a couple of weeks and find out.

Theoretically true, but none of the tests I’ve ever had done have shown anything, much less MG. Yet I know there has been something respiratory with Hazel, though maybe it’s just her own particular sensitivity to dust and stress? But Annie was seriously sick with something at one time too, and Tedi was sick then but recovered on her own. Some kind of sneaky bacteria? Sample collection error, lab failure? Two of the three tests were done after antibiotics I think.

Now I think I’ll never know, the testing has not resulted in answers and were big $$. I’ll assume it’s MG if the symptoms are the same and just support Hazel to fight it off - the Terramycin script for her bubbly eyes was the best thing we got out of the last vet visit.

It really did help her eye comfort. At least she acted like it did - she was squeamish about the vet putting it in her eye, and then with me putting it in her eye - but only with the first application: pulling her head away, closing her eye, etc. Perfectly natural reaction. But after that, she let me do it easily, all calm and no trembling, eye kept wide open (that amazed me) as my finger approached, totally unflinching. I assumed she must have felt much better with it in and welcomed it.