INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Crafty chick]

Sounds great kristyG! It there a way to test it? Like leave something desirable in there over night without a risk to the chickens?

 

[kristyG]

Sucks to go out there right now because all the chicks that survived are paranoid and its taking a lot of mealworms and time to re-socialize them only 4 of the 10 will come near me

 

[bradselig]

Brad~ those lavenders are so pretty! I would be interested in some, sometime.

Thanks! I'm trying to get more eggs from the breeder I got these from. I'm hoping they got their pens separated by now so I can get just lavenders. Ill let you know when I have more or if anymore hatch from this batch.

 

[bradselig]

Brad:  Awesome chicks!!  I cant wait till i start working again so I can start incubating again.

Thanks! I'm officially addicted to hatching lol.

 

[kristyG]

My dogs have already found the fence line and won't go near it. It's set to max since we are one a country rd people drive 60mph on so I'd rather they take a brutal shock over a truck tire

 

[Leahs Mom]

Top of foot you can see swelling.


Bottom foot her feet are kinda dirty today. but that is her black toes as well. You can see swelling as well.

Well...just from the photo (and I may think something totally different if I had the chicken in person) it does look like frost-bite on the toes to me.

The way the upper toes and foot look, I would think scaly leg mites on them but judging from what I'm seeing of the legs in this photo, they don't look like they have the scaly leg mites so the swelling could just be inflammation from the damaged toes.

If she were mine, this is what I'd do:
-I'd soak her feet for 1/2 hour in a bucket with about a cup of epsom salt dissolved in the warmest water that wouldn't burn her. (About 3-4" deep water in the bucket) (Putting her in a 3 or 5 gal bucket with a towel partly over the top will help keep her in!) It will be comical at first but she'll likely calm down and enjoy it after a little bit

-I'd put some ointment on the feet - either NuStock or Icthammel - just to help bring down the swelling/inflammation.

If you don't want to bandage the feet, I'd do that at night after dark then return her to the roost. That way she'd at least have it on the feet overnight before she goes running around.

If you do want to bandage it, use the cotton pad then LIGHTLY wrap w/the vet wrap cut into thinner strips (be sure to wrap between each toe - don't stretch it tight...the vet wrap will stick and say on and you don't want to reduce or cut off circulation!) The bandage will keep the med on, pad her foot, and allow it to stay clean for a bit longer and maybe get a chance to do some healing. If you do the bandage thing, I'd just repeat as often as you have time for but at least every 3 days over a week or 2...when you take off the bandage you can see if any of the swelling is going down.

Another thing I didn't mention is that some folks use Preparation H (YES THAT Preparation H

) as it is designed to shrink swelling tissues. I decided to use the icthammel instead but I've heard people swear by the PH! It just had a couple ingredients in it I didn't personally particularly like)


Or...you could do nothing at all! If it looks like she's doing okay and you don't see signs of infection going up the legs (red streak) she may be handling it well. But I'm thinking that having the rotting toes there ...it may be a good preventative action to at least clean them and put a little ointment on them to help prevent infection.

 

[Leahs Mom]

can i feed my baby chicken (6 weeks old) oyster grit?

AL - Grit and oyster shell are different items.

Chick Grit is fine to give them free-choice in a little dish separate from their feed. They'll eat what they need.

Oyster Shell is to add calcium to the diet. If chicks take in too much calcium it can cause kidney damage. It is more appropriate as they come to egg laying age and beyond. You can also put that out when they are older as a free-feed in a dish and they'll eat it if the need it.

 

[CluckAcres]

Well...just from the photo (and I may think something totally different if I had the chicken in person) it does look like frost-bite on the toes to me.

The way the upper toes and foot look, I would think scaly leg mites on them but judging from what I'm seeing of the legs in this photo, they don't look like they have the scaly leg mites so the swelling could just be inflammation from the damaged toes.

If she were mine, this is what I'd do:
-I'd soak her feet for 1/2 hour in a bucket with about a cup of epsom salt dissolved in the warmest water that wouldn't burn her. (About 3-4" deep water in the bucket) (Putting her in a 3 or 5 gal bucket with a towel partly over the top will help keep her in!) It will be comical at first but she'll likely calm down and enjoy it after a little bit

-I'd put some ointment on the feet - either NuStock or Icthammel - just to help bring down the swelling/inflammation.

If you don't want to bandage the feet, I'd do that at night after dark then return her to the roost. That way she'd at least have it on the feet overnight before she goes running around.

If you do want to bandage it, use the cotton pad then LIGHTLY wrap w/the vet wrap cut into thinner strips (be sure to wrap between each toe - don't stretch it tight...the vet wrap will stick and say on and you don't want to reduce or cut off circulation!) The bandage will keep the med on, pad her foot, and allow it to stay clean for a bit longer and maybe get a chance to do some healing. If you do the bandage thing, I'd just repeat as often as you have time for but at least every 3 days over a week or 2...when you take off the bandage you can see if any of the swelling is going down.

Another thing I didn't mention is that some folks use Preparation H (YES THAT Preparation H

) as it is designed to shrink swelling tissues. I decided to use the icthammel instead but I've heard people swear by the PH! It just had a couple ingredients in it I didn't personally particularly like)


Or...you could do nothing at all! If it looks like she's doing okay and you don't see signs of infection going up the legs (red streak) she may be handling it well. But I'm thinking that having the rotting toes there ...it may be a good preventative action to at least clean them and put a little ointment on them to help prevent infection.

Ok thanks I do have PH but not the other stuff. I will go get her and soak her feet for a little while and I do have vet wrap so i will just go ahead and put that on her. Thanks for the tips.

 

[freeflyin]

Cluck Acres: I wish you luck with having the baby! I am a nursing student and we are learning all about preeclampsia! Get as much sleep as you can before the big day!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
Along the lines of the oyster shell, is there a reason one of my roos is eating it like it was a treat? He started eating more and more of it about a week a go. I had been leaving about 2 cups of the shell crumbles in a small container in the coop. It would last for a month or so, but last week I was filling it up every two - 3 days and it was the roo running to get it each time I refilled the container.