Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

Mice?… glue traps! Somewhat noisy when they get caught, but the traps work well for me!

If you're going to kill, don't you want it to be a quick death?

 

[bgmathteach]

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!

Hmmmm...are you watching 'Eggs Run"

"A rooster and his fowl partner embark on a dangerous trip to the Congo to recover their stolen eggs from a group of Russian swallows."

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Ever had a series of rabies shots? (Not a fun experience) and the mice here do bite! Sadly, that dumb neighbor is still using poison for his mouse problem

I have good woodsman type leather gloves for handling mice that get caught in some unfortunate way. It happens once in a while and the gloves work fine, no bites. But I've hopefully upgraded our traps to stronger ones that also have more recessed bait pits.

 

[featherhead007]

If you're going to kill, don't you want it to be a quick death?

Don’t know how to answer that question!

 

[featherhead007]

Hmmmm...are you watching 'Eggs Run"

"A rooster and his fowl partner embark on a dangerous trip to the Congo to recover their stolen eggs from a group of Russian swallows."

Okay…. It’s how you wanna play, game ON!

 

[cfonts]

Some things never change

Kiko (Then)

Kiko (Now)

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I might mess with you on some things but Hattie losing her spot would not be one.

Hattie is really really jumpy when outside the run. This has really spooked them all but her more so than anyone.

My poor baby.
View attachment 2927538

Maybe, since you all were always dealing with Red-Tails, she had not encountered a danger like this in her life before. No one there had, so there was no knowledge to pass on either. This hawk is quite different - so much smaller, faster and wiley. In human terms, she was doing her best looking for danger, and could not anticipate this one. This danger came out of thin air, relative to a Red-Tail. Her mind is blown and she's freaked out. I would be, too.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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.

Well, at least she fell down only to the new nest box top, that's good!

 

[featherhead007]

Okay…. It’s how you wanna play, game ON!

I forgot that my game is way off lately, so you win!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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.

Wow that is an extended chow session!

I make mash balls of the feed they're eating, so here it is feather fixer or All flock, or sometimes Exact baby bird formula. Mix with some greek yogurt and crushed/ground combined Calcium Citrate w/ D3 and fruit-flavored generic Tums. Let it sit, maybe add more feed to thicken, and mix again to be like putty. The later mixes really smooths it. Then I form balls of various sizes, each hen likes to deal with them differently..

These days I am not putting in the calcium powder but continuing with the mash balls, because they like them, the yogurt might be good for their crops and all, I want to maintain some consistency with foods they like, and I like holding the dish and letting them take them out but I also hand them out, encouraging each one to get some, and especially now I want to make sure Peanut eats some (very concerned for her that she keep eating with this hard molt, she is quite naked. This afternoon she ate only four, and she usually goes to town with them. But this morning she ate some sardines too).

Dose of calcium powder mix: I figure two Citrate+D3 pill = 500~600mg calcium citrate and two Tums (high-strength) is ~2000mg calcium carbonate, and when I took those ratios and ground up a bunch in a small (dedicated) coffee grinder I found in two level teaspoons they were getting that 2500-2600mg total. And that would be 650+ mg per hen assuming they all ate the same amount, which isn't the case of course.