Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BeastBaby]

Speaking of beak trimming, I noticed today that Albert’s nails seem quite long. The middle ones in particular are nearly twice as long as her sister Whiskey’s (and prior to her illness, they had similar energy levels). I don’t intend to hop right in and trim them because I’m hoping that as her lethargy lifts, that they’ll file back down on their own.

No change on the appetite front. Albert happily picks through the morning mash for whole grains, but doesn’t seem to eat much until her late afternoon kitchen scrap bonanza (three cheers for having a wasteful baby around!). Today she had tiny bits of hard boiled egg, pasta, pork chop, tomato, and plum.
Perry flew over to my shoulder and trilled at me “Hello?! Do you remember when I was your favorite and got the choice scraps?”

 

[notabitail]

It's like a chicken. Tries to eat your food at every opportunity.

 

[Ponypoor]

I actually DON'T want her swimming and getting wound wet. I put her and a 'friend' in the tub with a 1 gal. rubber dish of water, and some food. She did drink, but not eat. Since they were just going to sleep when I took them out, I put both in the tote - after cleaning and re-dressing the patient's wound. It looked decent, as farI could tell.

*Note to self - next time, line the tub bottom with opened up paper feed bags....what a mess - food everywhere from the one eating, and poop from both!*

Better the tub than the floor! At least you can wash and rinse easily.

Glad the wound seems ok. And glad she is drinking.

 

[Ponypoor]

View attachment 3769806
It's like a chicken. Tries to eat your food at every opportunity.

And poops everywhere!

 

[Ponypoor]

You shouldn't have to trim beaks except for special needs chickens (Bolt is a special needs girl with her cross beak - that should be FILED, not trimmed, as they have clusters of sensory nerves in their beaks along the edges) Chickens naturally file their beaks = when it appears they are 'wiping' their beaks - they are actually filing it.

@Ponypoor do you have any of the pavers left from 'paving' the barn's center aisle? If so, putting one out on the side of the aisle will make it easier for them to file their own beak - it can be difficult for them to use the flat floor pavers.

Oh yes, they often us the cinder block or the concrete step-up into the stalls which is roughened to prevent the horses slipping.

But unfortunately Mr P has an overbite (overshot) beak, and couple times a year I trim it up so he cn peck and pick up things. Also preen easier - I have noticed when his beak is long his preening is poor.

I need to to do some work on the Azurs their edges of their beaks are not aligned well, I think it’s from the beak trim as babies - they are almost cros-beaked - a trim of the edges to realign better helps them also with preening and pecking at th ground for stuff.

Red is the worst her beak is terribly long on the edges, she was beak trimmed as a baby also. Cruel practice.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Hey everyone

Things have settled down for the evening so I have a break to myself. I should be taking a nap but I find myself too tired and my mind racing so forget that for the moment. I am making half a pot of coffee. I know it sounds silly, but 2 good cups of coffee in peace and solitude will settle me down quicker then anything. My grandma is still with us but if it was bad before now it is just heartbreaking. Either due to the dementia or the advancing of the cardiac shock taking hold she does not know us 95% of the time. Sometimes after sitting and talking to her for a brief moment she will remember us but it is gone almost immediately. She does not know where she is at and each time she rouses up she thinks she is either in the hospital or at someone else's house. She has never been in a car wreck but the other morning she woke up thinking she was in a car wreck the night before and had a broken leg. This also leads to the same questions multiple times a day now. Who are we? Where is she? Why is she in a hospital bed? And the hardest one to answer is can she walk? We answer honestly and truthfully each time and the walking one always ends in tears. If we lie to that one there is fear from the hospice nurses that she might try to get out of bed and fall. Not sure she has the strength to but we do not want to take that chance. She is strong somewhat still in her upper body and can roll over if she really wants something. Then there are the questions that I do not have the heart to tell the truth to. She has asked about her mother and some of her deceased siblings asking when they were coming home or if they were out shopping. She has yet to ask if they are gone so I will not tell her they have passed. Last Monday was a terrible day. The worst she has had and she kept insisting that she was going home to Jesus that evening and her vitals were dropping. She had the nurses concerned enough they encouraged us to make the phone calls to her siblings which we did. She snapped out of it in the middle of the night and had a good day Tuesday. Wednesday was when she started not knowing who we are and has slowly and steadily declined since. Me and mom are hanging in there and everyone is fine. The horses and the chickens are doing well. Everyone but Poppet is now laying and the boys are shedding their winter coats so Spring is on its way.

 

[Ponypoor]

Gah, I hadn’t thought of this. It had not occurred to me that they would add salt to an already salty fish.
Just looked it up- sure enough they double the salt content. Well, if I do sardines once a week, hopefully the sodium won’t have too much of an impact. What do you think, reasonable?

I would say it’s ok, it’s not like they are getting a huge amt.

And in the meantime you can look for salt free or low sodium brands.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hey everyone

Things have settled down for the evening so I have a break to myself. I should be taking a nap but I find myself too tired and my mind racing so forget that for the moment. I am making half a pot of coffee. I know it sounds silly, but 2 good cups of coffee in peace and solitude will settle me down quicker then anything. My grandma is still with us but if it was bad before now it is just heartbreaking. Either due to the dementia or the advancing of the cardiac shock taking hold she does not know us 95% of the time. Sometimes after sitting and talking to her for a brief moment she will remember us but it is gone almost immediately. She does not know where she is at and each time she rouses up she thinks she is either in the hospital or at someone else's house. She has never been in a car wreck but the other morning she woke up thinking she was in a car wreck the night before and had a broken leg. This also leads to the same questions multiple times a day now. Who are we? Where is she? Why is she in a hospital bed? And the hardest one to answer is can she walk? We answer honestly and truthfully each time and the walking one always ends in tears. If we lie to that one there is fear from the hospice nurses that she might try to get out of bed and fall. Not sure she has the strength to but we do not want to take that chance. She is strong somewhat still in her upper body and can roll over if she really wants something. Then there are the questions that I do not have the heart to tell the truth to. She has asked about her mother and some of her deceased siblings asking when they were coming home or if they were out shopping. She has yet to ask if they are gone so I will not tell her they have passed. Last Monday was a terrible day. The worst she has had and she kept insisting that she was going home to Jesus that evening and her vitals were dropping. She had the nurses concerned enough they encouraged us to make the phone calls to her siblings which we did. She snapped out of it in the middle of the night and had a good day Tuesday. Wednesday was when she started not knowing who we are and has slowly and steadily declined since. Me and mom are hanging in there and everyone is fine. The horses and the chickens are doing well. Everyone but Poppet is now laying and the boys are shedding their winter coats so Spring is on its way.

Sending hugs and keeping you and your family in my thoughts. Thanks for the update, you and your mum are amazing and sounds like you’re doing a wonderful job of supporting your Gran.

I am glad you have your pets to gather peace and support from. Hopefully you get some needed sleep

 

[Ponypoor]

Speaking of beak trimming, I noticed today that Albert’s nails seem quite long. The middle ones in particular are nearly twice as long as her sister Whiskey’s (and prior to her illness, they had similar energy levels). I don’t intend to hop right in and trim them because I’m hoping that as her lethargy lifts, that they’ll file back down on their own. View attachment 3769805

No change on the appetite front. Albert happily picks through the morning mash for whole grains, but doesn’t seem to eat much until her late afternoon kitchen scrap bonanza (three cheers for having a wasteful baby around!). Today she had tiny bits of hard boiled egg, pasta, pork chop, tomato, and plum.
Perry flew over to my shoulder and trilled at me “Hello?! Do you remember when I was your favorite and got the choice scraps?”

Mr P also has a couple misshapen toes that don’t wear down so I trim those as needed so he doesn’t catch them anythin and tear them out. I do this at night when he is half asleep!

 

[BeastBaby]

Hey everyone

Things have settled down for the evening so I have a break to myself. I should be taking a nap but I find myself too tired and my mind racing so forget that for the moment. I am making half a pot of coffee. I know it sounds silly, but 2 good cups of coffee in peace and solitude will settle me down quicker then anything. My grandma is still with us but if it was bad before now it is just heartbreaking. Either due to the dementia or the advancing of the cardiac shock taking hold she does not know us 95% of the time. Sometimes after sitting and talking to her for a brief moment she will remember us but it is gone almost immediately. She does not know where she is at and each time she rouses up she thinks she is either in the hospital or at someone else's house. She has never been in a car wreck but the other morning she woke up thinking she was in a car wreck the night before and had a broken leg. This also leads to the same questions multiple times a day now. Who are we? Where is she? Why is she in a hospital bed? And the hardest one to answer is can she walk? We answer honestly and truthfully each time and the walking one always ends in tears. If we lie to that one there is fear from the hospice nurses that she might try to get out of bed and fall. Not sure she has the strength to but we do not want to take that chance. She is strong somewhat still in her upper body and can roll over if she really wants something. Then there are the questions that I do not have the heart to tell the truth to. She has asked about her mother and some of her deceased siblings asking when they were coming home or if they were out shopping. She has yet to ask if they are gone so I will not tell her they have passed. Last Monday was a terrible day. The worst she has had and she kept insisting that she was going home to Jesus that evening and her vitals were dropping. She had the nurses concerned enough they encouraged us to make the phone calls to her siblings which we did. She snapped out of it in the middle of the night and had a good day Tuesday. Wednesday was when she started not knowing who we are and has slowly and steadily declined since. Me and mom are hanging in there and everyone is fine. The horses and the chickens are doing well. Everyone but Poppet is now laying and the boys are shedding their winter coats so Spring is on its way.