Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

I agree. Let him be. It's working out.

I have decided to leave him be, poor wee fella.

 

[Ponypoor]

He's nine now. I know that he's had a lot of eye infections due too this condition.

As for his parents this is complicated. It a difficult situation to be honest but as you can imagine I can't disclose this on line. I only wish I could.

Thanks so much for getting back RC

Thinking good thoughts for the boy

 

[Ponypoor]

Oh, you will have @Ponypoor drooling over that lovely comb and huge wattles!!

Lovely, regal looking boy! Dominique?

He’s a looker

 

[featherhead007]

My aunt was expecting a few dozen tomorrow - I will give her some of my sisters duck eggs.

The 20 doz guy wants them every couple weeks, I will need to stockpile them and pilfer my nieces eggs at my sisters

EDIT
Hmmm at 7 / day on average that still will only be about 8 dozen. They do lay 8 or 9 a day but I am going with 7 to be safe. I need to see if someone else around here has chicken eggs to sell - ooooo hey my neighbour up the road. Will need to see him.

You are way over your head in this! Your work crew can only produce what they can, trying for the
best results, but you need even more?
I’m seeing a workers strike in your very near future!

 

[featherhead007]

What on earth is he doing with 20 dozen eggs every couple of weeks? Runs a restaurant? Sells cakes? Has a big appetite? A big family?

EXACTLY!

 

[lightm]

I am way behind, still have to read Tuesday through today. And have several things I want to post about, but this post is dedicated to Miss Z. Ironically it is “Pony Sunday”, the day we post about the other animals besides chickens that we love. This will be a long, sad post.

We don’t expect Miss Z to make it through the night. For the past three weeks we have been doing everything we can for her. Unfortunately what we originally thought was just an injured front leg turned out to be a parasitic infection that got into her central nervous system. We were unaware that there is a worm that is common in whitetail deer that uses snails as part of its lifecycle, and we are overrun with both. When llamas accidentally ingest the snails (or vegetation that they have been in and left the parasitic larva on), they make their way to the spinal cord. It causes lameness and weakness in the hind end, and progresses to cause lots of other issues.

There are treatments that are frequently successful if caught early enough and if the animal is otherwise healthy. We had taken her to a vet when she started limping, but like with chickens there are very few vets that know much about llamas and the ones that will agree to treat them are usually just large animal/livestock vets with limited experience with camelids. It wasn’t until almost two weeks after the initial symptoms that I called the person who comes to shear her every year to get advice, both because it was over the July 4th holiday and the vet was closed for four days, and also because I know she has had llamas for almost 25 years. She is the one who helped me figure out the real issue, and gave me advice on how to treat her.

We have been doing all we can, but she has been unable to stand for six days. She had started to show a little more control of her tail the past two days, and could move her legs a little with assistance. But even with appetite stimulants and trying to yemot her with mashed and treat this past week she wasn’t eating enough and also became dehydrated. With the horrible heat we have been having she needs more guide than normal, not less, and she has gotten too weak to keep fighting.

We had made the decision that as long as she still seemed alert, still acted like she wanted to fight, we would do everything we could for her. Today I could tell she was starting to give up. I still have her medication and used our jerky gun to help her eat some mash, just in case she rallied. But tonight when I went to check her one more time before bed she looked like she had been trying to roll over and had her neck twisted at an awkward angle and was barely responsive. So I helped her get rolled over into what looked like a more comfortable position, told her it was ok to go if she was ready, sat with her a little while and then left her in peace. I am hoping she passes peacefully in the night, but if she doesn’t I will make arrangements to help her pass on tomorrow.

We love her very much, and will miss her.

Here she is a few weeks ago, watching the chickens. She seemed to really enjoy them and would frequently watch them or sleep in front of their coop on guard duty.
View attachment 3572185

 

[RoyalChick]

Kerfuffle

 

[Sally PB]

My neighbor easily uses a dozen eggs a day. Seven people: 4 adults, and 3 growing boys, the oldest is 12. She has 34 hens. Her son sells the rest as his "allowance money," for taking care of the flock.

I have 2 out of 5 hens "on hiatus" right now. One for sure has started to molt, as she has a measly 2(!) tail feathers sticking up and looks silly. So we only get 1-3 eggs a day, with an occasional zilcher. I won't be getting any more eggs into the water glassing bucket this way!

The littles are only 2 months old, so it'll be a while before they start laying.

 

[Ponypoor]

Kerfuffle

I am sorry I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I have been down that road also

Was the camera ok??

 

[RoyalChick]

I am sorry I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I have been down that road also

Was the camera ok??

Yes - I have mainly gone big on the 'deep' part of deep litter. There is probably a good 6-8" of leaves and pine straw and pine shavings. It probably bounced!
What amazed me is how fast Sylvie mobilized. She was on the roost when it started and then by the time the camera sorts itself out she is all the way on the other side looking down on the chaos!