Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

Sansa Update

The vet and I connected today. The blood work revealed three things.

1. Her calcium is very low. It is low even for a non-laying hen or rooster.
2. Protein electrophoresis has uncovered a low grade infection of some kind that is not causing a temperature.
3. She was dehydrated.

So what to do. The vet reached out to an expert with chickens. She said when I was there that she had not seen this before. I love people who admit they don't know and consult others. They were equally curious as to how all of this is connected. They are certain that her low calcium is having an impact on the feathers. They also believe that the infection, wherever it might be, could also be involved, especially if it is somewhere in the digestive tract where it might be interfering with the absorption of minerals and nutrients.

The vet left it up to me if I wanted to treat the infection or not. At this point I want to attack the situation aggressively so I agree to treat. We are putting her on Trimethoprim Sulfa. A combination therapy that has broad antibacterial bandwidth as well as antiprotozoal capabilities.

In order to dose her we needed her weight. So I went out and tried to catch her in the big run. Frankly, the Cluckle Hut has essentially ended that possibility. It is like she knew. Only her head came out to eat the meal worms the tricky human had used to try and lure her out.

View attachment 2928428

So I waited and plucked her off the roost, and weighed her.

This is really good news. Back on11/15 she was around 3 lbs/1.389 kg. Today, just about a month later after being weighed last, she is a respectable 4.55 lbs/2.064 kg. That is basically a 50% weight gain. She has been on a diet of chick food since 11/23 and it is working. I knew it as soon as I picked her up. This video from 11/30 shows how she has been chowing down and since they have been locked in because of the hawk (silver lining?) she has no other food source. The chick food has worked at least in getting weight back on her.

That leaves us to the conundrum of getting calcium into her. If I switch her to layer that would be the easiest way to increase her calcium intake but it will be at the expense of calories and protein. Additionally, the whole tribe would then be on layer when they are not laying. I am trying not to do this with Lilly as she really doesn't lay any more. I could segregate her in the Cluckle Hut with Phyllis and lock them in with layer feed but I really don't want to give up on the chick feed.

I need to check and see if Nutridrench has significant calcium in it as I could try supplementing in that fashion while I am giving the antibiotic. The vet said that she would look for alternative solutions to get calcium into her diet.

I know that their have been a lot of people on here treating for soft shelled eggs by supplementing calcium. Right now my brain cannot recall any of them. Please reply to this post with what you have done to add calcium to their diets when needed. I feel stupid but I just can't remember any and I know some of you were quite clever.

You can buy calcium tablets for humans Bob. The ones I've used you can crush to powder. Make a paste with a bit of water and honey and dip some bread in it , oor whatever and feed it to her.
Bear in mind that a high calcium layers feed is around 4.5%. To make life easy, assume a hen of 2.something kilos will eat 100 grams of feed a day. This means you need 4.5 grams of calcium powder fed during a day.

 

[Marie2020]

I thought that too, it seemed that the chickens were only mildly nervous about having the cat around. As if they already knew the cat.

Amber and my cat were caught red handed snuggled up together once. The cat kept disappearing at night I don't know if he'd actually slept there he hadn't moved in very long
I was so shocked they never did it again. I could have kicked myself for my overreaction

 

[Shadrach]

Yogurt.
And the concoctions of yogurt balls that RC did.

It's great as a carrier but Bob would need to get an awful lot of yoghurt down her to make up the 4 to 5 grams of calcium she is missing.

 

[Shadrach]

I am thinking so. She must have been close by when it happened. It seems to have affected her more than everyone else.

A silly question perhaps, but have you checked her over for injuries?

 

[Marie2020]

But I build the coop for housing chickens (and me sometimes) but not the neighborhood cats.

Some cats make all the decisions on where they want to be. Mine wanted too live out my back garden for almost two years then he decided he was moving in. Tonight he's kicked the dog out of his bed and he's there

End of the day mate, it ain't up to you or your neighbour because these darned cats make all the choices

 

[bgmathteach]

I don’t know what is going wrong with my girls. They just chose to stop laying. Only Bobo gives me eggs lately. I wish all my chooks were like Bobo (BoPeeps)

@featherhead007 Maybe the Swallow flew off with your egg(s), mistaking it for a coconut???

 

[bgmathteach]

Sansa Update

The vet and I connected today. The blood work revealed three things.

1. Her calcium is very low. It is low even for a non-laying hen or rooster.
2. Protein electrophoresis has uncovered a low grade infection of some kind that is not causing a temperature.
3. She was dehydrated.

So what to do. The vet reached out to an expert with chickens. She said when I was there that she had not seen this before. I love people who admit they don't know and consult others. They were equally curious as to how all of this is connected. They are certain that her low calcium is having an impact on the feathers. They also believe that the infection, wherever it might be, could also be involved, especially if it is somewhere in the digestive tract where it might be interfering with the absorption of minerals and nutrients.

The vet left it up to me if I wanted to treat the infection or not. At this point I want to attack the situation aggressively so I agree to treat. We are putting her on Trimethoprim Sulfa. A combination therapy that has broad antibacterial bandwidth as well as antiprotozoal capabilities.

In order to dose her we needed her weight. So I went out and tried to catch her in the big run. Frankly, the Cluckle Hut has essentially ended that possibility. It is like she knew. Only her head came out to eat the meal worms the tricky human had used to try and lure her out.

View attachment 2928428

So I waited and plucked her off the roost, and weighed her.

This is really good news. Back on11/15 she was around 3 lbs/1.389 kg. Today, just about a month later after being weighed last, she is a respectable 4.55 lbs/2.064 kg. That is basically a 50% weight gain. She has been on a diet of chick food since 11/23 and it is working. I knew it as soon as I picked her up. This video from 11/30 shows how she has been chowing down and since they have been locked in because of the hawk (silver lining?) she has no other food source. The chick food has worked at least in getting weight back on her.

That leaves us to the conundrum of getting calcium into her. If I switch her to layer that would be the easiest way to increase her calcium intake but it will be at the expense of calories and protein. Additionally, the whole tribe would then be on layer when they are not laying. I am trying not to do this with Lilly as she really doesn't lay any more. I could segregate her in the Cluckle Hut with Phyllis and lock them in with layer feed but I really don't want to give up on the chick feed.

I need to check and see if Nutridrench has significant calcium in it as I could try supplementing in that fashion while I am giving the antibiotic. The vet said that she would look for alternative solutions to get calcium into her diet.

I know that their have been a lot of people on here treating for soft shelled eggs by supplementing calcium. Right now my brain cannot recall any of them. Please reply to this post with what you have done to add calcium to their diets when needed. I feel stupid but I just can't remember any and I know some of you were quite clever.

I think all this sounds good. They (the problems discovered) can be addressed. Hopefully the low-level infection does clear up readily. Unfortunately, it will still be a while before she has good feathering even with everything addressed...but it is good to know that they are all treatable things!!!

She is lovely even with her tattered feathers!

 

[featherhead007]

@featherhead007 Maybe the Swallow flew off with your egg(s), mistaking it for a coconut???

 

[featherhead007]

I won’t let you people tease me! It’s cold, it’s raining, and I have my rooster on me right now, watching YouTube!

 

[cfonts]

Oh it is clear I do not have the emotional resilience to keep chickens.
Diana came up to the roost and was clearly disturbed at seeing Maggie in ‘her’ spot (traditionally it has been Maggie’s spot in fact).
She paced back and forth for several minutes. Kept eyeing the roost across the way where the Roadrunners have established an alternative base camp and ultimately threw Maggie off
It is a sign that Maggie is not well that she was able to do that.
So, it appears Diana with no feathers prefers to roost alone. At least Maggie isn’t injured.

@RoyalChick Kiko is watching with great interest... she likes to take over my laptop whenever I'm browsing BYC