Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Can I join the showing of mugs for today? I have this one, from a good church friend:

 

[micstrachan]

That's quite mild really.
I own an absolute terrorist.

I love that you’re itty bitties can be picked up so easily with one hand!

 

[micstrachan]

Sorry to be so far behind. I can pay tax. @RoyalChick is Minnie still with us? How is she doing?

 

[Kris5902]

S/He is getting some lovely coloring - will be a gorgeous (?handsome?) adult. Is it 1/2 (or all?) from your meat birds?

Actually no meat genetics at all, he (definitely a “he”) was a random hatch out from either the main layer flock or Barney’s Girls. I’m sort of leaning towards main laying flock, as the Barnvelder Genetics are pretty strong and all his previous offspring has BV colouring and hatched out as Chipmunk chicks. So the high white and feathered feet with the Brown lead me to think Dean for the Sire and one of the Hylines or one of my home hatched for the Dam? At this point there’s really no telling other than he’s got to be either Chickie Hawk or Mr Marans grand son…

 

[micstrachan]

Quick update.
Minnie survived the night so is off to the vet this morning.
Under cover of darkness Dotty flew over from the main roost and attacked the Hooligans. They were of course trapped because they were up high and against the door of the brooder. I will post video of the attack later so you guys can tell me how savage you think it was.
I have put the Hooligans down in the relative safety of their ground floor apartment. They can access the rest of the coop but the big Princesses in theory can’t get in. I don’t think any of them is seriously injured.

Here is the video of the attack. You don’t need to watch it all to see the basic events. Not nice! A tad more persistent than what she does to my ankles. Mean Dotty!

Wow, is she ever persistent! I am glad she cannot get in there. I think there is still potential for her to harm the hooligans.

 

[micstrachan]

It's funny. Once I found a vet that would care for them I thought great, now they can live long lives without me always trying to guess what is going wrong. We will now know and treat appropriately. Well so far my experience with both Lilly and Sansa tells me that they will live no longer but will simply cost me more now. I've literally stumped her with both chickens. I have however spent a lot of money while stumping her.

So there's that.

x3

We try to do the best for our birds with avian vets, but they still don’t know. It’s a shame Covid got in the way of us having face-to-face conversations with the doctors. The Avian Vet who treated Ruby was actually honest… She told me repeatedly that we just don’t know, and we can just treat and hope it works. She also told me last time that Ruby definitely had a mass on her left side. She was successful in helping prolong Ruby’s life, which is what I wanted. Afterward, I’m not sure if I did the right thing, but the Avian Vet was helpful. If we had had face-to-face conversations, I would have asked the hard questions, and may have ended up putting Ruby down earlier.

When Ester got sick and her crop stopped moving, another Avian Vet at the same office was unable to drain fluid from her. That sounded exactly like what had happened with Ruby and I opted to have her euthanized. When I was sort of apologizing for my decision, the Avian Vet said euthanization is not something they would even consider if they thought it was the wrong thing to do. It turned out it was the right thing to do; I just had to come to that conclusion on my own.

 

[micstrachan]

Ok @featherhead007

Best i could do tonight - the blackflies were horrid

Haha! I love it!

 

[featherhead007]

Question is, how are you doing? I’m concerned.

Sorry to be so far behind. I can pay tax. @RoyalChick is Minnie still with us? How is she doing?

 

[micstrachan]

Question is, how are you doing? I’m concerned.

I’m OK, Alex. My COVID turned into a sinus infection and I started on antibiotics yesterday. My daughter is a senior in high school and is having a really tough time right now… I’m trying to be there for her. Just lots going on here. But for the most part things are OK.

 

[featherhead007]

We are having another run of Covid here in the Valley (hospitals are filled up again)