Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

Can you try giving her good size grit (manually popping into her beak) one piece a day for 3 or 4 days straight.?? The gizzard can't work properly without grit - and, as you saw, too much small grit can just get 'jammed up. Given what she pooped later - the fibrous grass - she may have instinctively know she needed grit to break it up - but a) took in too much small stuff (that got stuck as she was already backed up) and b) the fibrous grass was too far along at that point for the grit to help (was past her gizzard)

I am thinking only one decent sized piece a day...but for a couple days...in case it isn't staying in her gizzard....but also so it isn't overloaded all at once with 'indigestible'

Anyone with more anatomy knowledge, can you answer this question:

Since a huge plug of matted, fibrous 'stuff' came out of Butters through the vent - could it, if it had gotten semi stuck on the lead end and gradually been forced through the system - damaged or stretched the 'exit valve' of the gizzard? If so, could it (might it?) stay stretched - meaning some 'solids/unground' food will pass through? Or might it heal and or the gizzard muscle compensate over time to reduce what passes thought the 'exit valve' over time???

@BY Bob @RoyalChick ?any one else have some knowledge/experience/ideas on this????

Very interesting question. She is eating grit, yesterday I offered it and she beaked around, dropped a few but did eat one for sure. I’ll make sure to offer it each day though.

 

[RoyalChick]

Honey is not doing well. She has been laying soft shelled eggs for a long time and 2 days ago her bottom was really dirty. I gave her a bath. Afterwards, she pooped out yolk, egg whites, and also small but good looking poop at the same time.

I am afraid she has her soft shell broken inside her. Immediately gave her capsule citrate tablet and hoping the soft shell will pass. She has done this before in the past unfortunately.

But nope, I don't think it's passed because today she appears more lethargic. I am thinking antibiotics is in order for her. :-(

I am quoting an old post on Baytril dosage. @BY Bob However I have Baytril 10% powder on hand and it says 5 grams per gallon of drinking water. This obviously requires confining her 24/7, and not ideal.

I tried very hard but not able to find a proper dosage of powder baytril. The best I can come up with is based on their consumption of water. I think our birds drink 1 cup of water per bird daily. That means 5/16 grams of powder daily. But I don't have a scale to measure that precisely, so I think I need to go buy a scale with mg units...

Any thought is appreciated.

Sorry to hear this.
The dose is 10mg/kg - what does she weigh? And can you post a picture of the 10% powder packet so I can be sure of the math for you.
This will be very easy to give her in some bread or cheese of whatever she likes.

 

[RoyalChick]

Honey is not doing well. She has been laying soft shelled eggs for a long time and 2 days ago her bottom was really dirty. I gave her a bath. Afterwards, she pooped out yolk, egg whites, and also small but good looking poop at the same time.

I am afraid she has her soft shell broken inside her. Immediately gave her capsule citrate tablet and hoping the soft shell will pass. She has done this before in the past unfortunately.

But nope, I don't think it's passed because today she appears more lethargic. I am thinking antibiotics is in order for her. :-(

I am quoting an old post on Baytril dosage. @BY Bob However I have Baytril 10% powder on hand and it says 5 grams per gallon of drinking water. This obviously requires confining her 24/7, and not ideal.

I tried very hard but not able to find a proper dosage of powder baytril. The best I can come up with is based on their consumption of water. I think our birds drink 1 cup of water per bird daily. That means 5/16 grams of powder daily. But I don't have a scale to measure that precisely, so I think I need to go buy a scale with mg units...

Any thought is appreciated.

I found the product on line (interestingly still for sale in spite of the ban).
It is 10g Baytril / 100g of powder
So, if she weighs say 2kg (which would be 4.4lb so maybe she weighs more), then you need to give her 20mg which is 0.2g of powder. Your calculation of 5/16 is 0.3g and maybe she is heavier than 2kg so your 5/16 may be pretty close to correct.
Measuring out a fraction of a gram is indeed hard. I think you can go two ways with this:
1) Make up a gallon using their teaspoon per gallon measurement, confine her from the others and give that as her only source of water. This is easy to do but I see a couple of downsides. I believe Baytril tastes disgusting (can't remember where I read that) so she may resist drinking it. I am also not sure how soluble it really is so you will have to keep shaking it up. If you go this route keep your mixture in the fridge.

2) Get a small scale. I have this one. It cost $20 and will weigh down to 0.003g which is way more tiny than you will need. It is very easy to use.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TBJBFRK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Incidentally I also have this which makes weighing the chicken reasonably easy too.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S6F6LHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Hope that is helpful. If you go the mini-scale route and see how little powder is in 0.2-0.3g I think you will find it much easier to give sprinkled on cucumber or pasted in to cottage cheese or something like that, rather than fuss with the water approach.

 

[lightm]

Sorry to hear this.
The dose is 10mg/kg - what does she weigh? And can you post a picture of the 10% powder packet so I can be sure of the math for you.
This will be very easy to give her in some bread or cheese of whatever she likes.

Thank you. She weights 4.4lbs=2kg.

Baytril

Here she is after a bath. Not sure if its helpful but she likes it.

But I noticed that you already made a second post before I am to answer your questions.

She is indeed 2kg. Thanks again!!!

 

[BY Bob]

Can you try giving her good size grit (manually popping into her beak) one piece a day for 3 or 4 days straight.?? The gizzard can't work properly without grit - and, as you saw, too much small grit can just get 'jammed up. Given what she pooped later - the fibrous grass - she may have instinctively know she needed grit to break it up - but a) took in too much small stuff (that got stuck as she was already backed up) and b) the fibrous grass was too far along at that point for the grit to help (was past her gizzard)

I am thinking only one decent sized piece a day...but for a couple days...in case it isn't staying in her gizzard....but also so it isn't overloaded all at once with 'indigestible'

Anyone with more anatomy knowledge, can you answer this question:

Since a huge plug of matted, fibrous 'stuff' came out of Butters through the vent - could it, if it had gotten semi stuck on the lead end and gradually been forced through the system - damaged or stretched the 'exit valve' of the gizzard? If so, could it (might it?) stay stretched - meaning some 'solids/unground' food will pass through? Or might it heal and or the gizzard muscle compensate over time to reduce what passes thought the 'exit valve' over time???

@BY Bob @RoyalChick ?any one else have some knowledge/experience/ideas on this????

I'm sorry. I have missed to much to feel competent to weigh in here. I will try and read back to figure out what has happened.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Hmmm. Maybe. I am not so sure about stretched, but I suppose it could have some damage and be working less well - maybe even infection.
I wonder if there is any chance she ingested some hardware - like a screw or metal shard - that would be sharp enough to pierce the gizzard and could have had an abscess form around it maybe.
Either way I think a few pieces of good sized grit as you suggest is a good idea.

Foreign object idea - possible, but she did have an Xray when Peanut got Xrayed, nothing stood out then.

 

[BY Bob]

I found the product on line (interestingly still for sale in spite of the ban).
It is 10g Baytril / 100g of powder
So, if she weighs say 2kg (which would be 4.4lb so maybe she weighs more), then you need to give her 20mg which is 0.2g of powder. Your calculation of 5/16 is 0.3g and maybe she is heavier than 2kg so your 5/16 may be pretty close to correct.
Measuring out a fraction of a gram is indeed hard. I think you can go two ways with this:
1) Make up a gallon using their teaspoon per gallon measurement, confine her from the others and give that as her only source of water. This is easy to do but I see a couple of downsides. I believe Baytril tastes disgusting (can't remember where I read that) so she may resist drinking it. I am also not sure how soluble it really is so you will have to keep shaking it up. If you go this route keep your mixture in the fridge.

2) Get a small scale. I have this one. It cost $20 and will weigh down to 0.003g which is way more tiny than you will need. It is very easy to use.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TBJBFRK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Incidentally I also have this which makes weighing the chicken reasonably easy too.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S6F6LHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Hope that is helpful. If you go the mini-scale route and see how little powder is in 0.2-0.3g I think you will find it much easier to give sprinkled on cucumber or pasted in to cottage cheese or something like that, rather than fuss with the water approach.

I have no time to figure this out right now but maybe @RoyalChick could calculate the amounts for you.

I would rather dissolve the right Baytril dose in as little water as possible and using a syringe, direct dose her. Sick chickens do not always drink the right amount of water to allow for good dosing and underdosing antibiotics can have consequences.

 

[GregnLety]

I found the product on line (interestingly still for sale in spite of the ban).
It is 10g Baytril / 100g of powder
So, if she weighs say 2kg (which would be 4.4lb so maybe she weighs more), then you need to give her 20mg which is 0.2g of powder. Your calculation of 5/16 is 0.3g and maybe she is heavier than 2kg so your 5/16 may be pretty close to correct.
Measuring out a fraction of a gram is indeed hard. I think you can go two ways with this:
1) Make up a gallon using their teaspoon per gallon measurement, confine her from the others and give that as her only source of water. This is easy to do but I see a couple of downsides. I believe Baytril tastes disgusting (can't remember where I read that) so she may resist drinking it. I am also not sure how soluble it really is so you will have to keep shaking it up. If you go this route keep your mixture in the fridge.

2) Get a small scale. I have this one. It cost $20 and will weigh down to 0.003g which is way more tiny than you will need. It is very easy to use.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TBJBFRK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Incidentally I also have this which makes weighing the chicken reasonably easy too.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S6F6LHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Hope that is helpful. If you go the mini-scale route and see how little powder is in 0.2-0.3g I think you will find it much easier to give sprinkled on cucumber or pasted in to cottage cheese or something like that, rather than fuss with the water approach.

You could tubefeed the water mixture or go with a syringe. We have the liquid Baytril and syringe it into the sick chicken. This way we know they get a correct dose.

 

[GregnLety]

I have no time to figure this out right now but maybe @RoyalChick could calculate the amounts for you.

I would rather dissolve the right Baytril dose in as little water as possible and using a syringe, direct dose her. Sick chickens do not always drink the right amount of water to allow for good dosing and underdosing antibiotics can have consequences.

SHRA tax, the rascals

 

[RoyalChick]

Foreign object idea - possible, but she did have an Xray when Peanut got Xrayed, nothing stood out then.

Oh I missed she had an X-ray. Scrap the foreign object thought.