Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Kris5902]

As far as med changes go they had to increase her lipitor. They completely took her off of one of her sugar pills as it was no longer working and one of her insulins that was a 70/30 mixture. They had to cut another heart med dose in half as they suspect is was causing her pulse to be too low. The only totally new medicine is a new insulin. She is on Humilin R now for her quick acting insulin on a sliding scale. I'm very familiar with that new insulin as it was one of the 2 I was put on 20 years ago when I was first diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic. It is already helping stabilize her sugar levels in just a few days. We go see the Neurologist Tuesday and will bring up the new issues with him then.

Prayers and love… it is so hard.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Here we go for Pony Sunday. Dad always walks Dirt for about a mile before he asks him to get into gait. Today Mom insisted she be the one to warm him up. She has been the only other person besides dad to ride Dirt, and only 4 other times previously to cool him down after a long ride. This was her first time being the first one on his back during a ride and he behaved perfectly. I'm super proud of them both.

 

[BY Bob]

Ezzie and the gang are loving their time outside. They have room to stretch their wings, higher places to perch or roost on and meeting all the big birds through the safety of the coop door. They have fun occasionally tormenting a very angry and broody Holly who is blocked off from them and everybody as she chose the nest box in the coop. They have spent 3 days outside so far, today will make day 4. I think this has brought on the explosion of new feather growth on the spots where they still had a touch of chick down. They truly now are fully feathered. I've looked at the next weeks forecast, the nights are supposed to be no lower then 50. The coop is still covered in tarps and insulated, and Ezzie is already 6 weeks old and the rest are 6 weeks Tuesday. I think they showed me last night when I found them on the top roosting bar before dark that they are ready to stay outside. I am not comfortable yet leaving them on the roost bar, I will move their brooder box outside and put in the corner of the coop and cover it over 2/3s of the way with a heavy towel like I did last year when I moved chicks outside. I will miss them being inside terribly but they are ready, and now I have to be ready for them. I'm going to say the box will stay out maybe a week, they are going through another growth spurt, which I also think was partially brought on by outside time and will be too big for the box anyway very soon.

They are preheating so wonderfully! Great job.

 

[BY Bob]

First foray through the rest of the coop. Adults were locked out, although Twirp wanted in for egg laying, and was allowed in for a short visit with babies allowed to roam.View attachment 3048062View attachment 3048068View attachment 3048067View attachment 3048066View attachment 3048064The scramble back inside their area where it's warmer.View attachment 3048071Twirp's visit after they all wanted back in, she wasn't quite sure what to make of them either. Aiming for another full coop run this afternoon, longer, and hoping for a visit with Silver and/or Pear soonish. Need trees to start leafing out for more cover before any major outside the coop exploration (plus warmer temps) but feather growth is coming fast. Hector being the slowest. Seems like he's growing them to at least an inch long before really starting new ones. Also need to get the junior crew used to running back into their area before major intros with the senior crew.

Meanwhile, the senior crew is ranging in directions I haven't seen them go in quite a whileView attachment 3048075

Wonderful. Both your and @RebeccaBoyd chick integrations are going so well!

 

[BY Bob]

Grandma update.
She is on hold for starting physical therapy because while she was at the hospital she picked up the rhinovirus. She is almost over it but still has a bad cough. At her family dr appointment several of her medications were stopped as they were not doing anything anymore and new ones added. They also cut the dose of one of her heart medications in half as they think it is causing her pulse to be too low. We have to do a blood pressure and pulse reading twice a day until her next appointment next Wednesday. It can take a week on the new dose to see changes but the numbers in the 40s are still very worrisome. As long as we can get her to use her walker it may take a bit of time but she is able to get around, she just hates using it and wants her cane back which she is just too unstable to use. The biggest change and the one that causes me to have to go outside and have a good 10 or 15 minute crying spell almost daily now is her mind. She has started hallucinating, and her memory is going fast. This is either from the stroke, or the stroke sped up the Alzheimer's. 1 of her brothers has visited 5 times, and after the 3rd visit he left in tears as he could see the changes in just a span of 2 days between visits. He called that night and told us he had called the rest of her brothers and sisters and told them that they needed to visit and sooner rather then later, so far, no one else has shown up. I have never personally dealt with a family member with Alzheimer's before, and the rapid progression is both heartbreaking and terrifying.

Fortunately for me we have never dealt with alzheimer's in our family to date. I have no advice to offer only hugs.

 

[BY Bob]

Although I am very anxious about Avian Influenza I couldn’t bear to keep the ladies in when it is drizzling and there are WORMS.
I really wish this disease would pass so I could worry less.
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They look so happy. How could you deny them that?

 

[BY Bob]

OK I’ll take the bait again. Your name video explanation was too many steps advanced for my brain. Were you Huckleberry, and not Daisy (as in TGHE)? The characters in it I had very little idea about, except it likely had to do with the whole Wyatt Earp shootout at the OK Corral saga. Which was which, who was the guy shot dead, etc., no clue.

Excellent! For those like who have never seen the movie, it is "Tombstone" and a masterpiece of film making. "I'm your huckleberry" was Val
Kilmer playing Doc Holiday, dying of consumption. He shoots Ringo, the best gunman in the Clanton gang. This is taking place after the gunfight at the OK Corral. Wyatt Erp shows up at the end of the scene as he was supposed to fight Ringo but had no chance of being quick enough to win. Doc has just saved him from certain death.

So why the new screen name?

I wanted to play on the greatest hen ever. So you are right. The two lines combined were, I'm your Huckleberry; You're no Daisy.

 

[BY Bob]

Round 2 of whole coop access...for at least an hour.


View attachment 3048485Nox in front, Mera in back.


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Hector, then Nox, with Mera the blur going off camera

View attachment 3048491Mera, Nox, Belladonna

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Asphodel at the top, Mera the bottom

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Primula with part of Belladonna

I'm amazed at how different their feathers are so far.
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Belladonna


View attachment 3048488Supervisor to the whole thing.

View attachment 3048486Stare downs have commenced too. Hector and Primula, with Belladonna.

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They check out everything. Heads left to right: Mera, Primula, Belladonna, and Asphodel. Hector and Nox are behind.


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Preening, stretching, eating, drinking, and jump racing in spurts are exhausting, so napping still happens at random seeming moments.
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Such darlings.

 

[BY Bob]

Well in the chicken world I am thinking Coco isn't worried about it...

And I bet Jaffar thinks she's beautiful just the way she is

I think it is pretty clear that Jaffar appreciates her looks! Maybe a bit too much!

 

[BY Bob]

Road trip...

And the reveal... Yes it is 2 legs and feathers

This is Marty, a yr old black silkie hen; her previous home has 4 other beautiful ladies but she didn't fit in. She was being picked on.

It was a long drive, but worth it, Marty is a real sweetie pie. I had planned on keeping her seperate but as there were only 4 hens I felt safe letting her integrate with my herd of Raptors.

I threw some scratch down, let her out of the crate and she marched right into the group and joined in the fun.

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So worth the trip! You must keep us posted on how she fits in!