Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

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

Oh poor girl. She does look poorly. Has she been laying eggs?

 

[RoyalChick]

Trying to get 2fers but it is hard. Best I could manage was a 2x2fer.
Then I got mobbed and my pant leg seriously pecked at.
Finally just for @RebeccaBoyd - Tassels is turning into a very large and rather splendid looking chicken!

 

[Ponypoor]

View attachment 3557240View attachment 3557239
My retired old ladies

Good morning pretty girls looks like your relaxing there

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Oh poor girl. She does look poorly. Has she been laying eggs?

No, and I've speculated on egg binding or a reproductive infection, but she just feels skinny and she's not been standing penguin like. The weird thing is no one else is laying either. They are three years old in July.
They stopped laying when it got pretty warm, started up again (maybe at most an egg every other day among the four of them) for a couple weeks when we had a cooler spell, and now again no one has laid since 6/13, though it's safer to say it's been at least a week. I'm worried about her but I'm stumped on the rest of them in that regard.

 

[RoyalChick]

No, and I've speculated on egg binding or a reproductive infection, but she just feels skinny and she's not been standing penguin like. The weird thing is no one else is laying either. They are three years old in July.
They stopped laying when it got pretty warm, started up again (maybe at most an egg every other day among the four of them) for a couple weeks when we had a cooler spell, and now again no one has laid since 6/13, though it's safer to say it's been at least a week. I'm worried about her but I'm stumped on the rest of them in that regard.

Sending positive thoughts for them all and you.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

See if she will loan you a couple like I did with my broodies. I have those three silkie chicks which are my friend’s but my broodies have been raising them

Good idea but I am SLOWLY fighting the lice, and i doubt that she would want lice in her flock.... Maybe they already do, but I know that I would get attached to them.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

My surgery went well but o can’t see to text. I will catch you all tomorrow

I'm glad that it went well!

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

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 am so sorry about Butters. I really hope that she gets better. ❤

 

[Ponypoor]

No, and I've speculated on egg binding or a reproductive infection, but she just feels skinny and she's not been standing penguin like. The weird thing is no one else is laying either. They are three years old in July.
They stopped laying when it got pretty warm, started up again (maybe at most an egg every other day among the four of them) for a couple weeks when we had a cooler spell, and now again no one has laid since 6/13, though it's safer to say it's been at least a week. I'm worried about her but I'm stumped on the rest of them in that regard.

Have you wormed them? Mr P stopped crowing last year and for about a month I never heard a peep out of him. Then one day he pooped and it contained round worms - I immediately wormed him, and the rest of the gang.

About a week later he started crowing again. I guess he was not feeling well with the parasite load he had

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Happy Tuesday everyone.

I still cannot beat this