Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

Hold it. How does that diagnosis, compared to the other possibilities, make this so especially horrible? I think you are experiencing the second-guessing that grief brings. Please forgive the following rant, but I hope this will ease your mind some:

It is not how much cancer you have but what & where it happens to be impinging on, interfering with, pushing against (or not) that causes pain and discomfort. People can go along with a lot of cancer in them and not know it, and I would guess chickens too. That is why cancer is such a sneaky disease. I'm being flippant but in some ways I would rather have deadly cancer than deadly infections like salpingitis, where infection eats away at you right from the get-go and one has pain right away. One can live pain-free with quite a bit of metastasis. The ascites itself causes discomfort because of volume and you did help her there. Cancer in joints and bones can be painful, yes. Unless it originates there, for most people that is close to the end of their journey. Masses in the belly and elsewhere aren't necessarily painful.

But understand that pain can change as the disease of cancer progresses. It can even go away, and then pop up eventually somewhere else. Know that it's not necessarily a cumulative experience of pain as the cancer spreads. Humans can also have extremely painful non-cancerous cysts or growths, or be filled with cancer and be fairly pain-free, it depends. It's a judgement call between patient and doctors on how to treat, what pain meds to give and when and how to administer palliative care when needed. Everyone's experience is unique.

Often, our perception of cancer patients' trials and tribulations - the severe weight loss, the paleness, the hair loss - often that is due to the treatments, which can cause nausea, taste loss, blood problems, etc, not necessarily the cancer! Humans are able to eat a lot of calories. Maybe chickens cannot make it up the way humans can? Cancer is indeed hungry, it is rapid cell division, and weight loss can be due to the inability to keep up with the demands of both the cancer and the normal cell metabolism. But humans may both lose weight or gain weight with undiagnosed cancer. Ruby was eating and pooping up to her last days as I understand it, so in my opinion she was not likely blocked until the very end.

You observed Ruby very carefully. She had what appeared to be many good days in this journey because of your care. Try to remember that.

 

[RoyalChick]

An old video for Fluffy Butt Friday!

Oh my!

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

New Roost Added

I did add a new lower roost today.

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That will be good for the Littles.

 

[RoyalChick]

I get this, Shad. I feel terribly for assisting Ruby to live so long. At the same time, she really seemed to WANT to live. I do understand I could be anthropomorphizing, reading her prey behavior incorrectly. But I did my best.

Here she is the day before she died. Not perfect by any stretch, but did not necessarily seem ready to die. I knew there was nothing more I could do for her and was trying to make her as comfortable as possible through the weekend to have her euthanized on Tuesday when the avian vet would be open.

Awww - you can't feel bad for letting her have that day.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Anyone up for their landscape tour? Im going to take some photos of their play-areas and run

 

[BY Bob]

Speaking of hawks, one visited again late this afternoon. It swooped low across the yard. I did my best to do the alarm call and most ran for cover, but a few of the younger ones were clueless. I tossed the ball to place the dog where the hawk was sure to see her (she’s very fast!) I also marched in the hawk’s direction when it was perched on a power pole and declared, “I see you, hawk!” I continued to show the dog to the hawk and it left. When my neighbor drove in, I told him about the encounter and he shared a recent bald eagle sighting. I know they live here, but usually (and rarely) only see them near the reservoir, except once when I saw one soaring WAY up high near our place. Apparently my neighbor’s sighting was right nearby. Good to know, since a bald eagle could easily lift and carry a hen away. My brother-in-law witnessed a golden eagle grab his cat and fly off with it.

The good news is that bald eagles are primarily scavengers and are unlikely to make off with one of your hens.

The hawk is more dangerous. Hopefully the dog sighting will give it pause. They don't carry off a chicken and would have to remain in the ground to eat. That makes the dog very dangerous to a hawk.

 

[micstrachan]

Hey everyone, some bad news. We’re getting rid of truffles on Monday. We found a great home for him with 16 hens and 0 other roosters, in a nice feild, think about 3-4 acres like ours. I still have lots of photos i’ll be sharing of him, but he wont be in the flock anymore.

Awww… I’m sorry. But also not sorry! It sounds like he’s going to a great home.

 

[micstrachan]

The good news is that bald eagles are primarily scavengers and are unlikely to make off with one of your hens.

The hawk is more dangerous. Hopefully the dog sighting will give it pause. They don't carry off a chicken and would have to remain in the ground to eat. That makes the dog very dangerous to a hawk.

Oh yes, I know that about hawks. Last time I was chasing it, yelling with my hands waving in the air and it still went after the chickens. It was when I told Lexi to “get it!” that she bolted for it and the hawk flew off. Hawks can dive bomb their prey in open areas and stun or injure them, then start eating them alive. Brutal predators!

I have never heard that about bald eagles. I know they are considered fishing birds, but have seen with my own eyes one carrying some sort of plump mammal; I thought it must have been a rabbit, but could not tell for sure. Why not a chicken?

 

[Chicken poppy]

Awww… I’m sorry. But also not sorry! It sounds like he’s going to a great home.

It sounds like he is aswell, im happy that he has a good home to go to

 

[micstrachan]

Molt Updates

I have been focusing so much on the chicks that i have been ignoring the other happenings in the tribe. Let's talk about molts for a minute.

I am afraid that Sydney's molt is going to be much harder this year. 2 day's ago she had 2 tail feathers.

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Yesterday she had none.

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By the end of the day yesterday her shoulders were bare. She did not have any bare patches last year. You can see the shoulders starting to bare in the photo above.

Lilly's molt

I was looking very closely at Lilly yesterday and her feathers are showing absoutely no wear and tear at all. What do I mean? Look at this closeup. The ends of her feathers are perfectly round showing very little wear or fraying.
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Compare that to Sansa. The new feathers are instantly identifiable. You can see the old frayed ones and the new rounded ones. By the way Sansa has been molting for well over a month at this point.

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Now I have seen no feathers which I could associate with Lilly molting. I feel like I must have missed her molt or otherwise she has done an amazing job of keeping her feathers in top condition all year.

Hattie is deep into her molt. She is fluffy scruffy mess. I will say this, I can now see some of her new feathers coming in and she will be spectacular once it is complete. Every year i say this. I wish here feathers were as pretty in the summer as they are in the winter post molt. She will be truly lavender in color after her molt and by the time summer arrives she will look more grey than lavender. Here is my poor messy lady.

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Great post, Bob! Molts are coming along nicely!
There are varying degrees of molt in my girls and maybe I’ll try to do an update like this.