Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

How fortunate you were there!
Do you think the hawk saw any of the flock?

Bob thinks he saw the hawk at the opticians a while later....

 

[Shadrach]

It should be checked daily, but continue until the leg is better/stronger. I have used a different method for splay leg with excellent results. I'll try to find the link, and edit this post shortly.

Edit:
https://104homestead.com/fixing-spraddle-leg-drinking-glass/#:~:text=The chick is nestled into,are in the proper position.

Another video with lots of information:

The trick is the appropriate sized & shaped glass. It should be about as wide at the base as the chicks shoulders, with a slight taper at the bottom, and high enough so s/he doesn't 'pop out' too easily. The idea is that the glass prevents the leg from sliding outward, while the smooth surface of the sides allows it to try to climb out without getting enough traction to achieve that, thereby giving the leg a good workout - physical therapy for splayed legs! (Make sure you put something grippy on the inside bottom of the glass, though, so at rest the legs have something to grip on and be at the proper alignment.)
If caught early, 1-2 20 min 'exercise' treatments 2 days in a row should be enough. Someone gave me a chick to 'fix' once where it was severe, and it took multiple days of 2-3 'treatments' per day, but in less than a week, it was running around like all the others!

Gone on my bookmark list.

 

[RoyalChick]

Was it the head poofs?

Well one I saw almost immediately and then when I went back it was the head poof that gave it away. They are amazingly well camouflaged in leaves.

 

[RoyalChick]

Gone on my bookmark list.

Mine too. Ingenious and well explained.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Mommy, I’m scared! That bird Butters, is staring at me, I think she wants to jump thru this screen, and bite me! (Or maybe she just wants the meally worms ?

Hazel: If anyone is jumping through the screen to visit Jaffar it'll be me! PS I don't care about tiny bags of mealy worms
Let's visit with Jaffar!

How do I do that though? I don't see how...

Well this is disappointing. Hmmm. Can you tell him hello for me then? Thank you.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

She is beautiful even in her disheveled, molting state. You are right, she has a steady, calm, 'okay, and what now" kind of stare! I believe you have told us before, but please remind me...what breed is she? She truly is beautiful.
(Though, I must say, aside from naked necks [I just can't get used to that look], I find most chickens lovely/handsome, now that I have gotten to appreciate their chickeness!)

All four are Buckeyes, hatchery stock, I couldn't get any response from local breeders.

There is a naked neck bantam rooster a few miles from here, he looked odd at first but his neck is actually really interesting with the wrinkles in it and the beautiful bold red color. He's a handsome roo.

 

[Shadrach]

I've responded...but have a question.

Most of my young'uns (1.5 yrs.) hard molt, most of my older ones, in the past, much slower. This year, however, almost everyone is hard molting - including my girls that are 4.5 years old...and off feed somewhat during the worst of it. Has anyone else experienced this (older hens hard molting)? I am wondering if it has to do with our weather. Still haven't had any frost, never mind a killing/hard frost - not even below 42 degrees at night yet! Extremely unusual. (usually have our first light frost by mid Sept.) I am thinking that no cold delayed molt some..and shorter days triggered it. (i.e. without both triggers , molt delayed, and then came on hard when their body suddenly said 'oh, s***, time to molt, lets get on with it")??

Maybe. Nobody really understands what triggers moulting.

 

[rural mouse]

Another newbie!

Actually, I suspect egg #2 from Nellie. Later I found a blue one...slightly bigger than the first blue egg. So, 3 new layers: Nellie for the white, Splash for the blue and, Cuckoo (?) For the stepped on brown one...

 

[rural mouse]

Silver took advantage of the sunshine for a moment at the spa.

Sunning

Dusting

Settled into the shade to the left for a bit of preening and Cheetah took advantage. Now he's pulling a pancake in the hole on the other side of the trees again. Roostering is tiring.

 

[Scrambles83]

An update on my little patient Minnie (sorry a bit long - I just need to offload on folk who understand how I feel).
The plan was to let her roost each night and then haul her into the hospital for the night with food and electrolyte water so she could get electrolytes and an uninterrupted breakfast. The vet suggested Gatorade but I had some sachet's of chick electrolytes so I used those (vet said that was OK too).
The first night she chose to roost on her own so I executed the plan. Of course I have a camera in the hospital so I could keep an eye on her. I learned a lot from the first night's experience. From the camera I learned that she spent a lot of the night doing this. Every 10 to 15 minutes for most of the night.

To me it looked like she was trying to rearrange stuff in her crop. So, I got up at about 4:30am and hauled her out of her hospital bed and sure enough her crop felt like it had a big hard lump still in it. I gave her a couple of pellets of frozen coconut oil and I held her and massaged her crop. I didn't really know how to do that because @Shadrach had told us it needs to be quite strongly manipulated to break anything up, but on the other hand I was terrified of causing her to aspirate.
In the end she seemed to enjoy the cuddle and fell asleep tucked under my arm while I pummeled and squished her crop around. It definitely got smaller as a result of this manhandling, but also wasn't completely empty when I put her back to bed.
When it got light she informed me that she hates electrolyte water. She wouldn't touch it and just sat there head down and all hunched up. Naturally I thought my night-time intervention had killed her, but when I gave her plain water she drank and drank and drank and then perked right up and had some breakfast.

So on to the second night (last night) and of course the best laid plans.. .. .. she roosted with her buddies. I mean look at them. Can any of you say you honestly blame me for deciding to let her stay there? From left to right that is Dotty, Minnie, Diana, Maggie.

View attachment 2872164

I had a camera on her and she did do this, but only once the whole night.

I got up at about 5am (still dark) and picked her off the roost. Her crop was not empty but way less full than the day before. She got more coconut oil and a crop pummeling and then when put in the hospital bed where she consented to having a pretty long drink of Gatorade so now at least I know she got some electrolytes and some calories.

Onwards to another day - you can do this Minnie. Get better my baby!

That’s positive