Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[MaryJanet]

You will doubtless be pleased to read that you have won the impossible competition of coming up with a set of officially approved Shad style chicken names.
I'm going to use the names you've suggested. All I have to do now is work out who should have which name.

I wish you all the best with telling hen from hen!

 

[MaryJanet]

Bitsa

There should be more of them

 

[Shadrach]

I’m so sad to say that Charlie is dead. I came home this evening and hubby told me he found her dead on the ground. She would have been three in November. Her voice sounded a little different for a day or so and I noticed today I could hear her breathing (through her nostrils, she wasn’t panting). Otherwise she didn’t seem any different. She laid an egg today and squatted for me. We buried her with a sliver of cheese to pay the ferryman and a blueberry for her to snack on for the journey.

I honestly don’t know if I can do this anymore. It’s been nearly a year since we lost Lucy, which it the longest we’ve gone without a death. I’m struggling to do the maintenance required and the meds are making it difficult to care about stuff. I’ll see how I feel in a few days.

As it’s still Monday, I’d like to honour Charlie with Monday Mugshots. RIP my big beautiful bully.

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Very sad Lozzy but I think Charlie had a result. I'm sure she would think so.
She had you as her friend and carer and when her time came to die it was quick and with her friends.
Chicken are hard not to love but even the longeest chicken lives are much shorter than ours. Death is something one just has to accept and for chickens in particular given how many live and die in horrible circumstances, I am certainly prepared to deal with the pain of losing them.

 

[MaryJanet]

Just checking in with a quick update on Minnie. We are back from the vet and not a lot to report except I feel like I am a terrible chicken caretaker and I am trying to tell myself it is because I am still learning.
The good news is I really like the vet I went to even though she is a fair bit away. She isn't a chicken expert but she does have her own small backyard flock.
Trouble is, to quote the vet "Minnie didn't tell me much". So no impaction that she could feel. She thinks she has lost weight and is too skinny (which is what makes me feel so terrible because I didn't notice that at all). She thinks is worried that 'something is going on' beyond either parasites or molting.
She will call me tomorrow when results are back but in the meantime she approved of the beef liver with chopped cabbage diet supplement and suggested I add some electrolyte powder to her water as she is probably losing a lot in the diarrhea.
The treatment plan for now is mainly supportive: let her run around with everyone else during the day because it is stressful to separate her but put her in the brooder box at night so she wakes up and I can be sure she has eaten a hearty breakfast before letting her out. Add electrolytes to her water and make sure she isn't in any drafts (it is getting cold at night now.
I feel quite sad and desperate to be honest - how can I have let her lose weight and not notice? I have bought scales so that won't happen again.

I'm kicking myself because I didn't think to suggest electrolytes.

What sort of scale did you buy? I've been pondering chicken scales lately.

Don't worry about her weight too much RC. She probably just needs fewer treats and more proper chicken food once she's over her health problem.

 

[Shadrach]

Now this will be a story to follow. How Henry protects the others from them will be very interesting. I believe that is good rooster behavior, right?

I think so.

 

[RoyalChick]

They've never seen a strawberry before.

Wow - I think you were lucky to keep your fingers!
Weirdly my lot have no interest in strawberries.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm kicking myself because I didn't think to suggest electrolytes.

What sort of scale did you buy? I've been pondering chicken scales lately.

Don't worry about her weight too much RC. She probably just needs fewer treats and more proper chicken food once she's over her health problem.

I ordered a digital food scale on Amazon. I wasn't sure what else to get honestly.

 

[Shadrach]

Exactly, thanks!

I had an idea about the loose poo after reading about sorrel and oxalic acid. I read it can be a diuretic in humans when consumed in enough quantity. Also I know from possibly outdated nutrition teachings that oxalic acid is thought to bind with the calcium in foods like brocolli and kale, making the calcium less available to the body. I thought it would work the other way too. In the absence of additional calcium to bind it up, could the oxalic acid in the dandelion, grass and other greens she was eating be causing the loose poo through a diuretic action? This would be why she seemed to drink so much also.

She is molting and it is Fall. She is laying less and never went to the oyster shell cups that I saw (however much she used to eat). She was not eating the pellets or mash due to the molt. The only calcium she was likely getting then was in the greens, and that's not enough to compensate for the oxalic acid in them. She had both digging-only days and days I saw her go after greens exclusively (when I watched her), and she always ate the greens I offered her.

Just a thought.

This moulting and diet business isn't well covered, not just here on BYC where many do not even seem aware that there is a problem, but in chicken studies in general.
To notice of course, you have to observe chickens. There is a clue in there somewhere.

 

[MaryJanet]

I ordered a digital food scale on Amazon. I wasn't sure what else to get honestly.

I've been thinking about this sort of scale.

And then replacing the tray with a thick branch.

Then I can sneak out after dark and move a sleeping hen from her roost onto the thick branch and hold her steady until the scale has taken her full weight. Read the dial. Put the hen back on the roost. Come back a week later to do another hen.

 

[Shadrach]

Just checking in with a quick update on Minnie. We are back from the vet and not a lot to report except I feel like I am a terrible chicken caretaker and I am trying to tell myself it is because I am still learning.
The good news is I really like the vet I went to even though she is a fair bit away. She isn't a chicken expert but she does have her own small backyard flock.
Trouble is, to quote the vet "Minnie didn't tell me much". So no impaction that she could feel. She thinks she has lost weight and is too skinny (which is what makes me feel so terrible because I didn't notice that at all). She thinks is worried that 'something is going on' beyond either parasites or molting.
She will call me tomorrow when results are back but in the meantime she approved of the beef liver with chopped cabbage diet supplement and suggested I add some electrolyte powder to her water as she is probably losing a lot in the diarrhea.
The treatment plan for now is mainly supportive: let her run around with everyone else during the day because it is stressful to separate her but put her in the brooder box at night so she wakes up and I can be sure she has eaten a hearty breakfast before letting her out. Add electrolytes to her water and make sure she isn't in any drafts (it is getting cold at night now.
I feel quite sad and desperate to be honest - how can I have let her lose weight and not notice? I have bought scales so that won't happen again.

Don't feel guilty RC. Firstly the accepted general weight for a hen of a particular breed isn't particularly helpful. All the tribes hens were underweight by USA standards. I think anyone who has seen pictures of them and knows a bit about their history knows they were about as healthy as chickens get.
I mentioned earlier. weight lose/disinterest in commercial feed is hardly covered on any chicken site. There was a rather wise women here when I first joined who spoke with me about this feeding problem with moulting hens but unfortunately she got more ot less driven off the site by the so called experts.
So, it is quite possible that Minnie is having a moult/diet problem. Lots of hens do as you can tell just from this thread. On this thread most of contributors observe their chickens to a rather greater extent than the general BYC population.
If it is a moult/diet problem she will recover and you will know next time.