Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[AfiafiAfi]

Thanks.I’m really frantic now

Dosent anyone except scramble here care about Lilly?

 

[Scrambles83]

Dosent anyone except scramble here care about Lilly?

Most people are in the US or UK and are asleep, it’s not that they don’t care, mate

 

[Shadrach]

A year for Maggie (and RC)
Warning: long post.

The last couple of weeks has been an important milestone for Maggie and @BY Bob said it was OK for me to mark the occasion here.

On September 18, 2020 I found this in the nest box.

Spoiler: Warning - not for the squeamish

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I had no idea what it was and no idea who laid it. Everyone was acting normal and all cameras were deployed monitoring rodents and other, scarier, visitors.

I did research and learned that it was a lash egg – a sign of serious and long standing infection in the reproductive tract. I also learned that it is invariably fatal with the maximum life expectancy of less than 6 months.

I confirmed it was Maggie who laid it. She had stopped laying real eggs and laid one more lash egg a few days later.

Off she went to the vet.

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Because of Covid I wasn’t allowed in with her but she apparently wandered around the vet’s office investigating everything while she waited for him. The vet-tech was rather taken with her and fed her the blueberries I had brought.

The vet was very kind but confirmed what everyone else had told me which was that she would not live long. He offered to euthanize her but agreed with my view that it was a bit premature as she still had quality of life. I felt reassured that he would be able to put her out of her misery when the time came.

He also educated me about production breeds who are not really expected to live past 2 years. I spent quite a while really upset and furious about that and I still am.

Everyone on this thread was very kind and supportive. @BY Bob encouraged me not to give up on Maggie and at the same time helped me be prepared for the worst.

And I resolved to spend as much time as possible with Maggie and make sure her remaining time was as wonderful as possible.

Maggie visibly declined. She started molting and wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t alive. I dug for worms, I trapped beetles, and I bought live mealy worms to tempt her to eat. I provided heaps of leaves so she could pick through them for bugs.

Slowly she started to develop new feathers
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And to share in some treats
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And then much to my surprise, on January 23rd – 4 months after the lash egg - she laid a normal egg. I think nobody was more surprised than @BY Bob who posted:
“She successfully laid an egg today!?!”
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-of-our-flock.1286630/page-3059#post-23891234

So, I am marking this week as one year since Maggie got her death sentence.

I feel she has had a good chicken year.

She dug some deep holes.
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She explored snow.
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She shouted at me.
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She spent time with chicken friends.
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She sunbathed (a lot).
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She helped with construction projects.
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She shouted at me some more.
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She got in my face.
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She posed with her left side
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She posed with her right side
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She ate ice cream

She sunbathed some more
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And she cooled off by dunking her wattles.

Today, a full year later, she is still shouting at me, she is still in my face, and she is the undisputed queen of the long grass.

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* * *
Thank you all for indulging me in this post and joining me to celebrate Maggie's gift and mine - a whole year of chicken fun together.

A lovely tribute to Maggie.
My understanding is that lash eggs can be caused by a number of problems and some of those problems are not necessarily fatal.
An infection can produce lash eggs and hens do overcome such infections.
A reproductive missfire for want of a better description can also cause a lash egg or two but ime the hen goes back to normal relatively quickly.

 

[Shadrach]

Link to article was posted above.....the albumen gets THINNER with age. And they only looked at hens @ 30 wks and 60 wks; my understanding is that the viscosity continues to decline as hen ages. ([ believe I phrased it correctly this time. ]

60 wks! Hardly old age is it.

 

[AfiafiAfi]

Most people are in the US or UK and are asleep, it’s not that they don’t care, mate

Oh thank u Scramble.it’s making me feel a whole lot better.it’s evening in our country actually

 

[Lady Red]

You've gone too far. Not funny at all and down right rude.

If I want superficial relationships, I have plenty of gold diggers to choose from. My ex wife is holding the wine glass

 

[Lady Red]

Thanks.I’m really frantic now

Keep us posted

 

[BY Bob]

I'm working my way through them slowly trying to work out what is moult, what is feather pecking and what is the result of their earlier life. They're a pretty scruffy lot.
I've given all the Ex Batts some vitamins and everyone got fish for supper.
I haven't found any with lice yet. I guess I've checked 7 now including Henry The Second.
I got soaked this afternoon weeding the nettles from inside their run and from under the tree just outside it. Pulled out bits of plastic, broken wooden fencing pales, wite netting, string, plastic pipe, nails and discovered a small apple tree in the weeds.

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I see a possible Legbar in there! Hello Iadies!

 

[AfiafiAfi]

Keep us posted

Sure.It’s terrifying.there’s not a trace of Lilly.it’s almost night

 

[AfiafiAfi]

You've gone too far. Not funny at all and down right rude

Oh no worries.I think he was just trying to see which of us could figure out micstrachan