Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RebeccaBoyd]

I would have taken asleep if I had stared at an egg for 5 minutes..........

I was just trying to locate the bullseye, and I just did not see it. Also looked a little longer as I was on my first cup of coffee and was having trouble focusing this morning.

 

[RoyalChick]

I believe it is Monday and here is Mni’s Monday mugshot. Look how tattered her feathers are. She slept in her own private roost again last night. It was her choice it seemed to me.

 

[BY Bob]

So, the point I want to make after all the stuff about crop complaints, hens off their feed due to moulting, underweight chickens in general and medical style interventions is essentially a point about keepers and not so much about the chickens themselves.

We all want to do the best we can for our chickens and of course we start off with a fairly limited toolkit in both knowledge and equipment and as our experience of the numerous problems chickens have increases so does our knowledge and hopefully skill. What seemed to be impossible tasks when we started out become easier and they go into out toolkit.

The first case of egg binding is likely to send the less experienced keeper into a complete funk and some will never have touched a hens vent before let alone shoved their finger in it covered in grease.

Many are worried about hurting the hen and it gets forgotten that a hens vent can stretch enough to pass an egg you may have trouble fitting in your mouth whole.

Then there is the worry about breaking the egg. If you are an avid follower of the ER threads there will be dire warnings about pushing bits of shell further up the oviduct, infections and cuts; the list of possible horrors seems endless. Hens breaks shelled eggs in their oviduct more often than one might think. Particularly sitting hens who are delivering their last egg before switching off their laying cycle.

They break them because they push their abdomen down on the clutch they’ve laid. Some of you will have seen a hen wiggling down on a pile of eggs trying to ensure maximum body contact.

Have a look at a good diagram of a hens reproductive tract and look in particular at the various bends and where these bends are in relation to the egg productions process. Eggs that get stuck when shelled are in the very last delivery stage, at worst they are still in the spray booth where the colour is applied.

I and my vet have broken eggs in egg bound hens and then carefully flushed out any bits of shell with no ill effects. Yes, you need to be careful but sometimes this is the only way the egg is going to come out.

The point? The first time I did this I was a bundle of nerves, shaking and worried. Now, I wouldn’t think anything of it.

BUT! Each time I see a hen who looks like she may be having trouble laying an egg, I don’t go for the full on emergency procedure just because I can do it now.

Many of us can end up feeling helpless confronted with any sick animal. If one has been unfortunate and had a succession of chickens die it can undermine ones confidence and lead to overreaction to any perceived health problems. There is often then a tendency to reach for the most powerful tools in our toolbox in an attempt to put the problem right.

Some cultures are more prone to this than others often due to the availability of the medication or the knowledge. Unfortunately along with these availabilities comes a conviction that all can or should be saved at any cost.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics is a classic example. In Spain I’ve witnessed people getting antibiotics for the common cold! In the food production antibiotics were given as a matter of course as a preventative! Antibiotics are for when there is a life threatening infection, not as a just in case treatment.

Tube feeding; It’s for emergency situations. I’ve been through all this with the sheep we kept in Catalonia. The person who owned the sheep had read about tube feeding but hadn’t really understood what it was for. When the lambs arrived and those that were having difficulty latching onto mum or just wandered around clueless, out came the tube feeding kit. Not one single lamb I dealt with ever need tube feeding; what they needed was patience and attention and an understanding that perhaps it was better for the lamb to die if it was never going to be able to feed from its mother; not just better for the lamb but better for all those who would have to prepare bottled feed and go and pour it down the poor creatures throat four times a day for the next few weeks.

Tube feeding, it’s a great tool to have in your toolbox but it should be at the bottom of the box and only used in emergencies when all other avenues of help have been exhausted. If you’ve got to the point you have to tube feed then you have failed at some earlier point in your chicken care.

I would like to add, for all the time I have had chickens up until about 6 months ago, I had no access to a veterinarian that would treat chickens. In the course of that time I have dealt with many illnesses. Fortunately not many actual injuries. My first treatment was for a prolapse of the cloaca which required me to break the egg. There was no other way. I found a way to manage it.

I have only given antibiotics twice in my time as a chicken keeper. Once to cure Daisy's, the greatest hen ever, salpingitis. The damage from the salpingitis would prove fatal in the end anyway. The second time was to try and treat Patsy's possible E Coli infection, also unsuccessful. (I think that whatever was wrong with Patsy, the E Coli was secondary to it).

Perhaps the veterinarian could have diagnosed Patsy but who knows if she could have saved her. Since I have found a veterinarian, I have had no reason to take anyone to see her. I feel truly blessed by that.

Mostly I have learned the following in my now 8 years of backyard chicken keeping.

1. Watch for any signs of changes in behavior. You must know how they normally behave. Starting with what is normal behavior based upon the weather conditions and their condition (molting). What is normal for Hattie when she is molting is different than when she is not. Hattie will also seem lethargic compared to Phyllis when it is hot out.
2. Chickens can have off days. Sometimes I think they get headaches or tummy aches just like us.
3. You don't always need to act immediately. Because they have off days, in general I don't intervene day 1. In fact, I leave them alone. If they aren't up to snuff that day they don't need me manhandling them.
4. Treat conservatively. Don't worm or use antibiotics unless you are certain that something is actually happening. Resistance to both is real and can develop quickly if you use them too much. Without a vet, antibiotics are very hard to obtain. I had to be careful using them. I might not have been able to get more. This helped me to remember to conserve those bullets I did have.
5. Every odd colored poop does not mean they need treated. @CrazyChookChookLady was down yesterday and we were watching the girls roam the yard. Miss Aurora had a nasty runny black poo right in front of us and I off handed commented to Miss Aurora that she needed to knock that off or I was going to have to do a float on her. CCCL heard me and quickly said, "that's a pretty normal poop for eating a lot of grapes". Now I wasn't going to test after just one weird poop and I certainly wasn't going to worm her. There are a lot of grapes on the ground because I have been cleaning up the grape vines. Which leads to.......
6. It's usually not a zebra. In my experience it is almost always something simple and they can take care of it themselves. Chickens do have pretty good immune systems. Somehow they know what to eat of drink. Yes sometimes they need help but most of the time they just need access to choices. Free range time or more selections from you will do more to help them than any medical intervention ever would.
7. Leave them with the others if at all possible. The tribe is their support system. Unless it would somehow be infectious, I would not remove an unwell chook from the tribe. Both Patsy and Daisy were with their friends right to the end.

I'm going to stop here as this has gotten really long. In short, be conservative, give them a chance to right themselves, and above all, know your chicken's normal.

 

[BY Bob]

I've been absent this weekend and was about 100 pages behind but all caught up now. Rosie got sick with the Rhinovirus that almost turned into walking pneumonia. She was sicker with this then she ever was the entire time she had covid. I'm glad to see the integration between Phyllis and the littles is going well. I think in a couple weeks they'll be best buddies.

I'm glad that Rosie is better. I struggled to keep up myself this weekend!

I think it will be a little longer than a couple of weeks but we are on our way.

 

[BY Bob]

I believe it is Monday and here is Mni’s Monday mugshot. Look how tattered her feathers are. She slept in her own private roost again last night. It was her choice it seemed to me.

View attachment 2862209

Tattered but still looking good!

 

[rural mouse]

3/4 inch of snow, still falling. Nellie not happy, went back in the coop. Jessie and Twirp exploring, protests voiced from in the coop

Double mug from lastnight.

 

[BY Bob]

3/4 inch of snow, still falling. Nellie not happy, went back in the coop. Jessie and Twirp exploring, protests voiced from in the coopView attachment 2862213
Double mug from lastnight.

Oh no. Poor chickens. October snow! Mine hate snow!

 

[BY Bob]

Mugs Monday

A 3fer

 

[Shadrach]

Just a onefer. This one is going to get a name soon.

 

[Marie2020]

Too young to remember war time dried egg then.

So am I but my parents told me