aileenpnz
In the Brooder
- Sep 26, 2016
- 12
- 0
- 12
Hi There folks, I am mama to a human 3 year old, almost have a chicken hospital running atm. The hen house holds some happily free ranging girls. 2 Suffolks- Gerti & Dottie, 1 RH -Henny Penny, 2 randoms -Black Buk who I've no idea what breed she is, but she looks like the chicken beside the purina chicken food on the ad down the side of the page and I love how she holds herself. 1 retired layer called Lady Grey who looks the same in body shape but is stone gray. Lady Grey is recently out of the hospital, wormed, de-mited, still rather oddly squishy and bloaty but set for enjoying her retirement. There's also couple of Shavers, Lacey and Beauty. Lacey has been pecking herself and so is wearing a cone of shame. Beauty thinks she is a human. We've newly acquired a breeding pair of Welsh Harlequins and was given a mixture of Khaki and WH eggs with them. I sat Gertie as my most bombproof chicken on them while the pair settled in - then shock of shocks, mummy duck goes broody and I managed to pull off a successful transfer with 6 ducklings safely caged with mama, guarded by papa; Harley who slept beside the pen and is faithfully within cooee and calls out if anyone's approaching. 2 look lik WH and 4 like KK's one being much lighter. There are maybe a few more yet to hatch under their faithful surrogate though one egg was a rotter and another duckie bub sadly looked thoroughly stepped on. I am not sure about the other 2- I may need to get rid of them in the next day or 2. The other 3 that I filched from ma duck, faithful Gertie is now on (I bring her food and water while brooding and she takes breaks) Oh, and there's 1 Cat.
Now comes the fun part - I've a bit of a poultry hospital going on with my girls and have never raised anything beyond a wild mallard before when growing up... with no success on that one- usually saved them from drains and weed tangles and then helped them find their mothers... that was when we thought bread was ok to feed ducks and had no idea how important water was with food!
So I am an utter novice to duck and duckling care, but I do have them in with their mummy.
Duck starter mash is not an option here and I do not want to feed the ducklings on too many grains and pellets- I'd like to have it as close to a natural diet as possible as human composed and imposed food often causes health problems to all sorts of critters down the line. This (FIRST duckling feed ) morning after trying to work out their sex -either they are all girls or I have no idea how to do it despite watching and reading up- more likely! Tried to find clues to sexing day old WH or KK by bill colour or anything else online, no definitive luck.
I fed whizzed up broccoli stalk with the molasses seed corn pellet mix that I've been giving the hens and then by default, the ducks... not sure if it's ok though?
Also we have a creek down the end of the property and am wondering how long to blocakade the ducklings from
Then I tended to Girtie's foot - Epsome footbath etc. 3 weeks since bumblefoot was operated on by the vet, massive hole through has halved over the course of the month, no pussy infection this check- better than last time- still had to pare back the skin that wanted to grow over and leave an abscess like hole inside, erk! Discovering human bandaids shaped like an 'H' coupled with my hubbies electrical tape work best of anything I've tried so far. Fast to put on and tape over will leave it another week or two so as not to disturb her nesting. Settled her back on the eggs, by placing her there and pursuading her to relax on them again by making little chickie noises- I'd left it 2 weeks so as not to unsettle her.
a fe weeks out from bandage removal for her Bumblefoot, Dottie seems to have recovered well.
Then on to Lacey's healing and granulated wound. These girls have cost me serious vet $ in the past few weeks! The wound seriously looked like it had scrambled egg on it. She's done her course of antibiotics, I've been spraying TetraVet topical antibiotic on it for almost a month. The vet hardly touched it and it's still nasty- when the scab cracks and falls off or is given a little extra help, it is a damp oozing wound. Today I tried a different tack as aniB's, spraying TetraVet and leaving it to 'air' as the vet said hasn't fixed the puss or ooze (I'm guessing the scrambled egg effect is poultry style puss anyways...). A ginger clean and dry down of the wound and then turmeric... It's an experiment... has anyone else had any success or experience with either self pecking or turmeric wound healing - also wondering about combifix/ cellulose type bandages. Lacey's my biggest issue atm, she's separate from the others.
Both the ducks arrived with grade 3 bumblefoot... I've spent over a month trying to get their trust and do not want to loose what ground I've gained in treating them! Hoping to find out more about non-surgery bumblefoot treatment. So yes, my hands are quite full
Now comes the fun part - I've a bit of a poultry hospital going on with my girls and have never raised anything beyond a wild mallard before when growing up... with no success on that one- usually saved them from drains and weed tangles and then helped them find their mothers... that was when we thought bread was ok to feed ducks and had no idea how important water was with food!
So I am an utter novice to duck and duckling care, but I do have them in with their mummy.
Duck starter mash is not an option here and I do not want to feed the ducklings on too many grains and pellets- I'd like to have it as close to a natural diet as possible as human composed and imposed food often causes health problems to all sorts of critters down the line. This (FIRST duckling feed ) morning after trying to work out their sex -either they are all girls or I have no idea how to do it despite watching and reading up- more likely! Tried to find clues to sexing day old WH or KK by bill colour or anything else online, no definitive luck.
I fed whizzed up broccoli stalk with the molasses seed corn pellet mix that I've been giving the hens and then by default, the ducks... not sure if it's ok though?
Also we have a creek down the end of the property and am wondering how long to blocakade the ducklings from
Then I tended to Girtie's foot - Epsome footbath etc. 3 weeks since bumblefoot was operated on by the vet, massive hole through has halved over the course of the month, no pussy infection this check- better than last time- still had to pare back the skin that wanted to grow over and leave an abscess like hole inside, erk! Discovering human bandaids shaped like an 'H' coupled with my hubbies electrical tape work best of anything I've tried so far. Fast to put on and tape over will leave it another week or two so as not to disturb her nesting. Settled her back on the eggs, by placing her there and pursuading her to relax on them again by making little chickie noises- I'd left it 2 weeks so as not to unsettle her.
a fe weeks out from bandage removal for her Bumblefoot, Dottie seems to have recovered well.
Then on to Lacey's healing and granulated wound. These girls have cost me serious vet $ in the past few weeks! The wound seriously looked like it had scrambled egg on it. She's done her course of antibiotics, I've been spraying TetraVet topical antibiotic on it for almost a month. The vet hardly touched it and it's still nasty- when the scab cracks and falls off or is given a little extra help, it is a damp oozing wound. Today I tried a different tack as aniB's, spraying TetraVet and leaving it to 'air' as the vet said hasn't fixed the puss or ooze (I'm guessing the scrambled egg effect is poultry style puss anyways...). A ginger clean and dry down of the wound and then turmeric... It's an experiment... has anyone else had any success or experience with either self pecking or turmeric wound healing - also wondering about combifix/ cellulose type bandages. Lacey's my biggest issue atm, she's separate from the others.
Both the ducks arrived with grade 3 bumblefoot... I've spent over a month trying to get their trust and do not want to loose what ground I've gained in treating them! Hoping to find out more about non-surgery bumblefoot treatment. So yes, my hands are quite full
