Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Saw this picture of a Polish Roo and Hen - it made me think of Martina and her topknot.

Post in thread 'Poultry Shaming Contest!'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/poultry-shaming-contest.1585135/post-26967019

Prior to her hair cut:

 

[Marie2020]

Speaking of naughty cats my friend's cat made it over to my barn this morning while I was doing chores and the cats were eating. I was trying (but failing) to give Peace some treats. He just ignored them and stared straight ahead. Then I saw the cat. Those cats. Peace and Chitta were hissing and poofing up their tails and what not, and yelling at the other cat to leave. However the other cat, Magoo is much, much, much, bigger than them, so he also hissed and arched his back and poofed up his tail as well. I finally called my friend over here to take Magoo away. I like Magoo and all but I don't like him spooking my cats and not being nice to them.

My cat can be a bit of a nuisance on occasions, he ran off last night and I've shut the door on him. He does this on occasions until breakfast time.

 

[Marie2020]

Eenie is giving an awfully good impression of a broody hen...View attachment 3557148
...for a hen who's STILL laying eggs!!! View attachment 3557155

Yep...3 eggs from 3 hens today! I swear, these hens are defective.

Sheba looks much more horizontal tonight! Her tail is still down, but she's less penguin.

I'm still going to keep a close eye on her and in the next few days we'll see.

It's supposed to be 100+ degrees in the next three days. I got electrolytes to give them, especially Eenie, and I'm freezing water bottles and jugs to put near her if it gets too hot in the nest box.

It's been ages since I've had eggs. A few thin shelled egg but they just eat those. It's due to them being older.
At least they are enjoying life and their eggs

 

[Marie2020]

My retired old ladies

 

[notabitail]

What am I, chicken liver?
View attachment 2505663

No, Phyllis. While you do have a liver in you, you also have other body parts that make you a whole and complete chicken, including the liver. However, your hair is a extra.

 

[Ponypoor]

My cat can be a bit of a nuisance on occasions, he ran off last night and I've shut the door on him. He does this on occasions until breakfast time.

Is he out tom catting around ?

He just wants an adventure!

 

[rural mouse]

PITA was drinking from the bucket....

Silver says wild water tastes better....( Here's a secret: the wild water that collects in the bucket lid gets dumped into the bucket....and the lid gets taken off so the wild water can fill the bucket....)

Edit: And it's Tuesday, not thursday....excuse me while I get more coffee

 

[BY Bob]

I've been super busy and not on BYC for various reasons, some of that is tending to Butters I've been worried about. She's not been right, she has not wanted to eat pellets and she's lost weight (by feel, I haven't weighed her), and last week was resting a lot, not standing or acting normally, standing away from the other three often, and not wanting to be in any food or treats scrum especially. She's had normal-looking but very loose poops, no blood, but the last couple of days I have not seen her poop. I trimmed her fluff in the back and damp-washed with a rag last week because it had really collected on her fluff. Her abdomen / belly feels empty, no bulging or tightness. Lots of keel bone toward the front. Crop is soft and barely there. No one has laid any eggs for over a week.

She's drinking bowl water and wild water regularly but become very picky in eating, in tiny, tiny bits - putting it down and looking at it and biting off a bit is her normal way, but this is extreme; it kind of looks like she's chewing her food before swallowing it. Often she is not actually hiking it back, just chomping on it in her beak before letting it drop. I've been separating her a little, like on one side of the wire gate with the other three on the other side, in order to give her anything I'm trying to tempt her with, because she will eat a couple small bites and then walk away, but then come back. Got her to eat some soupy baby bird formula the last two+1/2 days, which may be helping her. But she's not been eating nearly enough. She does respond to the others eating so I'm trying to keep them together while protecting food for her (Popcorn and Peanut have been big hogs, the first day I put out baby bird formula Popcorn had a baseball-sized crop by the end of the day).

She'll be interested in a novel thing to eat and eat some, then later turn her beak up at it. She'll take a collard leaf piece from me but let the next one drop from her beak. She is very keen on foraging and exploring, often far away from the others, and three days ago she went way back in the yard where she's never gone before, just strolling around. I discovered following her walk-abouts (for her safety) that, like when pecking at pellets in my hand, she was often not actually eating, even though she's pecking a lot and picking things up and mashing them around. I observed a few injured worms and an upside-down pill bug she left in her wake. But sometimes she does eat. Today she ate something white that she nabbed from a green plant today, either a moth or a piece of blossom.

Frankly she's behaving as if she is molting, but I don't see any evidence that is happening. I think of Bob's Lilly and her suspected metabolism problem, because Butters has this shredded feathers situation going on with her back half. Also she's been sporting a feather sticking out like an outboard paddle since her last molt last fall, which was not a very complete molt and left her with these shredded feathers.

Today she has had more interest in actually eating and she has been more alert and spending much less time resting and hunched. Earlier this morning she ate some soft-boiled egg. Later a half a walnut in tiny bits I broke up, eating them all in one session before she didn't want any more. Then a couple tiny wild strawberries tossed in front of her. The third one she rejected.

Then this afternoon she actually expressed some zeal for raw no-shell sunflower seeds, actually going at them with relative gusto, a little bit of sewing-machine eating which I haven't seen from her in over two weeks. She even made a sound that may have been a growl at Popcorn who was trying to shoulder in to get some too. That's been the most I've seen her eat (at once) in over two weeks, about a tablespoon and a half of seeds. I didn't want to ration anything she's willing to eat.

Sorry this picture is kind of dark, it was dusk. There's Butters front left, hunched again tonight. Hazel next to her, Peanut in the dustbath pool in back, Popcorn at the waterer.
View attachment 3557200

I can see why you are worried. It was Sansa that had the incomplete molt. The vet and I have no idea what was wrong. She did have symptoms of a low grade infection which we treated but that was likely secondary to what caused her death. When she did pass I did not have her autopsied so I have no idea or help to offer at this point as to what caused her issues. Nothing was visible on X-ray and her lab work revealed nothing other than the infection. She had been putting weight back on before she passed as I was weighing her regularly.

 

[Sally PB]

A two-fer: Pip and Sunny.

 

[BY Bob]

View attachment 3557240View attachment 3557239
My retired old ladies

They look great! I'm glad they are enjoying their retirement years.