Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

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.

Also - calcium citrate is supposed to be more absorbable, at least in humans, and the D3 helps that too. I think @micstrachan , or maybe @RoyalChick, just pops a pill in. Certainly quicker. Also one of them found there is calcium powder available online. But I also suspect the hens like the fruit flavor of the Tums. At least @Kris5902 found a flavor preference, that's partly why I throw them in.

 

[BY Bob]

It's good to have some details at last. Sansa's weight gain is brilliant!

It's truly amazing. I was so afraid that I would lose her. She was so skinny. She barely weighed more than Phyllis. We still don't have feathers or all the answers but at least we have some weight to insulate her a little and give me time to help her somehow.

 

[BY Bob]

"Come on Fat Bird, just do my wattles"
View attachment 2928489

The happy couple.

 

[BY Bob]

Possible predator in the coop. I was putting the chickens away for the night, they were all acting nervous. I looked around a bit, and found a stray cat in one of the laying boxes (comfy as can be) I had to escort the kitty out of the coop and said to it “Sorry, this place is for chickens only, and you are not even close to being one” just happened, and all the chickens are okay.

Highly unlikely for a cat to take on a chicken. I think you are likely safe.

 

[BY Bob]

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.

Thanks Shad. I really appreciate it.

 

[BY Bob]

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

That's not a silly question. I truly had not considered it. She does not seen to have a feather out of place. I certainly will be checking tomorrow.

What an idiot I am.

 

[BY Bob]

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.

I know I was and am still amazed at what this hawk can do. I had no idea. How could they know?

 

[BY Bob]

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.

Thanks so much.

 

[BY Bob]

Also - calcium citrate is supposed to be more absorbable, at least in humans, and the D3 helps that too. I think @micstrachan , or maybe @RoyalChick, just pops a pill in. Certainly quicker. Also one of them found there is calcium powder available online. But I also suspect the hens like the fruit flavor of the Tums. At least @Kris5902 found a flavor preference, that's partly why I throw them in.

Thanks.

 

[RoyalChick]

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 use Citrical tablets. It is calcium citrate which is better absorbed than calcium carbonate with vitamin D.
It is for humans. Give a human dose which is two caplets.
The petites are an easy shape to pop down a chicken throat. I don’t get mine at Target but they had a link.
https://www.target.com/p/citracal-p...dietary-supplement-tablets-200ct/-/A-11201257
I researched it a lot both in BYC and veterinary journals. They need a lot of calcium and for a month or so don’t worry about overdose.
Some people use Tums which are cheaper but is calcium carbonate so less well absorbed.