Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Two and two

 

[BY Bob]

Two for Tuesday

Two sexy red hens

View attachment 3573652

They are lookers for sure.

 

[LhickenChicken]

O-la-la! Now there is a regal looking fellow

He gives Mr P a run for the money in the wattles department! And that comb - what a lovely boy

Well, I'll have to find you a more recent picture of Sir Cuckoo. He has gigantic wattles. Probably will get bigger as he matures

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

Good Morning fluffy butts and all!
Meet my chickens!

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

97 degrees and humidity 15% here...

 

[BY Bob]

Good Morning fluffy butts and all!
Meet my chickens!

Very nicely done!

 

[Ponypoor]

No, I did it yesterday early evening after following them out and about in the afternoon and seeing Butters not improved with eating, though I think she might occasionally be eating tiny, tiny somethings she finds. She will uncover a worm and ignore it, or manipulate it multiple times as if to eat it and then leave it. I am suspecting the worst frankly, with the combination of her persistent shredded feathers and this behavior and she is standing about hunched today, not looking happy at all. I don’t see any further evidence that feathers are getting pushed out and new ones coming in.

I too have had issues when giving pills or bread balls with meds, getting the beak open, and my strategy has been just to be as quick as possible. Can’t do that here, everything needs to be steady and straight. I copied what the vet did.

She was gentle in beginning to hold the head in position with one hand, with her other hand beginning to pry open the beak. She somewhat accommodated Butters squirming her head down 2-3 times, then resumed. She used the free hand to pry open the beak and the other’s thumb and first finger sort of wrapped around her neck and lower head to get into the corners of her beak and hold in there to keep it open. She was progressively firmer about it, and especially in keeping Butters’ head /neck extended some, not greatly, but you want a straight path, by keeping the arm holding her head flexed and stiff. I think this gentle but firm persistence sort of taught Butters how to comply, and maybe did a bit of desensitizing.

She mentioned how you can feel the tube going down when it is correctly placed. I thought I felt that on my second try when the tube became disconnected from the plunger part. I didn’t feel it on the third and last try, but did feel the tube to the right of her trachea, confirming the trachea with a massage of the skin to feel the rings and the tube smaller and smooth close to it, about an eighth of an inch away. That was good confirmation because I could not see into her mouth properly with my very good light because the tube was crossing from left to right.

Lastly I did the plunger very slowly at first, listening for her breathing and any noises she made, and if she was feeling anything bad happening. I don’t know if you could know if you’re aspirating then, but I hoped for a clue. Soon I felt her crop with my right hand and felt a little stuff in there. At that point I more firmly and steadily pushed the plunger, which got stiff with the Exact being a bit too thick in places, finished and pulled the tube out and released her.

Oh well done!

What you can also do is hold your ear by the tube and and see if you can hear breathing sounds - we do that with horses, if you hear air, you’re into the track. And also with the horses we blow some air of into the tube and smell the return flow - you will know it’s stomach content. Not sure if that is possible with a chicken

Job well done, how often do you do the tube feeding??

 

[Ponypoor]

97 degrees and humidity 15% here...

Hot and dry!

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

Very nicely done!

Thank you!

 

[Desertvalleychickens]

Hot and dry!

Yep, very!
I have to spray the walls of the coops each day!