INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Cuddles update:
It was obvious after the 1st night that Cuddles had something that prevented her crop from emptying. Yesterday we tried to feed her HB bread with oil, egg with oil, yogurt & HB, & late last night tube fed 1 tb water w/ stool softener . She's so quiet & only pecks at food - not the usual gobble ASAP that we're used to. She's probably the only hen that dislikes moist/soft food - like applesauce & yogurt - but will still try to eat floor crud. Her crop was slowly emptying throughout the day & felt like chicken scratch or sand. Not one hard mass. I GENTLY massaged her crop but not sure how hard to do it. When getting ready to tube feed, she put her head down & liquid came out. After the tube feeding , she did some head shaking. (Stopped by morning.)

Her crop is much smaller & softer today. My biggest concern is that her abdomen is very big & hard. I wormed her (Valbazen) a few days ago, so perhaps there's a worm blockage. She's pooping some. The 3 parts are watery, dark greenish slimey, white slimey. Very smelly! I cleaned up her vent area with a warm bath. The vent looks small, dry, & tight like a non-layer. (Her last egg was Sept 1, 2015, followed by sickness, then molt.) Could it be egg bound? I'm afraid to check since the vent looks small.

Any suggestions to soften up the __?__ blockage? Her back end from just behind the legs to the vent is swollen & firm. She walks very slowly.

 

[Crafty chick]

Hey everyone. I haven't been on here in about 2 years. Had a baby. Moved. Busy busy. It will be nice to get to know everyone again. My avatar has me in Columbus Indiana, but I am now in Pierceton. We still have our 4 normal sized hens and our black bantam cochin Susie. Getting chick's this next week as our girls aren't all laying anymore. They are getting up there in age.

 

[kittydoc]

Cuddles update:
It was obvious after the 1st night that Cuddles had something that prevented her crop from emptying. Yesterday we tried to feed her HB bread with oil, egg with oil, yogurt & HB, & late last night tube fed 1 tb water w/ stool softener . She's so quiet & only pecks at food - not the usual gobble ASAP that we're used to. She's probably the only hen that dislikes moist/soft food - like applesauce & yogurt - but will still try to eat floor crud. Her crop was slowly emptying throughout the day & felt like chicken scratch or sand. Not one hard mass. I GENTLY massaged her crop but not sure how hard to do it. When getting ready to tube feed, she put her head down & liquid came out. After the tube feeding , she did some head shaking. (Stopped by morning.)

Her crop is much smaller & softer today. My biggest concern is that her abdomen is very big & hard. I wormed her (Valbazen) a few days ago, so perhaps there's a worm blockage. She's pooping some. The 3 parts are watery, dark greenish slimey, white slimey. Very smelly! I cleaned up her vent area with a warm bath. The vent looks small, dry, & tight like a non-layer. (Her last egg was Sept 1, 2015, followed by sickness, then molt.) Could it be egg bound? I'm afraid to check since the vent looks small.

Any suggestions to soften up the __?__ blockage? Her back end from just behind the legs to the vent is swollen & firm. She walks very slowly.

Is she waddling like a penguin? That's a potential sign of internal laying, and you can feel a mass of stuff in their lower abdomen (gravity just takes them to the lowest point of the bird). I don't think it's related to the crop issue.

You can put on a new latex or nitrile glove with some lube on your index finger and feel around inside the vent. Occasionally if the egg sticks close to the vent, you can feel it (not to be confused with the bones there).

For future reference, you can drain excess crop fluid VERY CAREFULLY by sitting down and placing the bird at a 45% angle across your knees. Tip the head no further down than 45%. Let them take frequent breaks so they don't aspirate. I only let them drain for about 1-2 seconds at a time, let them shake their heads and settle down, and make sure they are breathing OK before tipping them down again. The WORST thing to do is hang them straight down. Sure, it will all drain out, but they will die a few days later from aspiration pneumonia.

If you have not given her some antibiotics (I've been off the list and am not at all caught up), I would. Penicillin or Tylan perhaps.

I hope she recovers!

 

[Mishlerfarm24]

So sorry for your BIG loss.  He was beautiful!  We owned a blue Dane & we have more stories from her short 5-year life than our Whippet in all his 16 yrs.  They are a terrific, intelligent, loyal, & stubborn breed.

Because of his size, could Diesel have gotten bloat or have eaten something strange? - as many big dogs can do.  I just don't know what else would kill a healthy young dog so quickly.

So I worked up enough courage you could say to research Great Dane health. There were two things I read that really stood out to me, heart defect and bloat. I am leaning more towards bloat because as I reflect back to the night before Diesel was whinnier than normal. His whines were all the same, if he had to go outside, if he wanted to play, hungry, didn't matter, he whined he wanted something. Well that night he whined more than normal but we thought he just wanted out of the dogs room to play which we did for a little bit until my fiancé and son needed to go to bed. When my 2 boys go to bed, my 3 fur baby boys go to bed so this momma can get some peace and quiet and my homework done! That's how our night routines go. We thought that him whining he wanted to play cause he was trying to play with our boxer which he was exhausted and didn't want to play, so we let him out to play with him which helped with the whining for a bit. Then off to bed he went. 2:30 am I heard him whine, which means he needs to go out to go potty. So I got up and let him out. I watched all 3 cause the further they go out into the yard the harder it is to get them back inside, (we live on a farm, 7 acres to mow and 2000 acres of crops) so Diesel looked normal to me early that morning. So something happened between 2:30 am to 8am when I woke up to let the boys out.

Past couple days have been extremely rough, more so when my 4 year old son ask me when Diesels coming home. I try explaining to him that Diesel went to heaven. And once the snow melts I will take him back to where we buried him so he knows where he's at, so that when he asks about him we could walk back to see him. I want to plant a tree where we buried him and make a memorial plot for him.

Do you have any more Danes?

 

[kittydoc]

Well, today is ROOM REASSIGNMENT day! I have to draw some charts and figure out how best to move everyone to get the colors I want. Our refurbished small coop is ready to go once we move it again a few feet. Either the Jubilees or the chocolate cuckoo roo Hershey and some girls will go in there. Haven't decided yet!

Janet's lavender boy is about to be very, very busy. He already has 5 young hens with him (3 lav, 2 black or black split), and will inherit Cogburn's girls which are hinkjc, so he'll have 8 hens to service. I am doing some hatch testing to figure out whether the two blacks are "regular black" or black split to lav starting tomorrow. I honestly will be happy if they are both "regular" because I already have Cogburn and his two black split sisters.

Cogburn will get to be the mixed flock roo after I put Placido (my Jubilee roo) and Hershey (my chocolate cuckoo roo) into their own breeding pens. I think he'll enjoy that with 20 or so hens at his disposal.

AND my I'm firing up the incubator today and hope to set my first 40 or so eggs tomorrow. It includes BBS and lavender Orps as well as Bielefelders. The next batch will include Jubilees, chocolates/chocolate cuckoos, and mauves hopefully.

We had an interesting week. We went to Brown County State Park for a couple of days while they still had their 2 nights for 1 deal. We found a very nice and inexpensive place to board Beavis while we were there (I wish they had some pet friendly rooms and cabins there, but they don't). Then the day after we got back, we had dual colonoscopies. Thursday and yesterday were just miserable, and the older among you know what a blast it is both before and after.

 

[kittydoc]

Hey everyone. I haven't been on here in about 2 years. Had a baby. Moved. Busy busy. It will be nice to get to know everyone again. My avatar has me in Columbus Indiana, but I am now in Pierceton. We still have our 4 normal sized hens and our black bantam cochin Susie. Getting chick's this next week as our girls aren't all laying anymore. They are getting up there in age.

Welcome back! What are you getting for your new flock?

 

[Crafty chick]

Kittydoc- I was planning on going to tsc Monday. I have had a variety over the years. My 9 year old wants a silkie or a Mille fleur again (hoping to get there when the chicks arise to check out the variety bin), my 6 year old wants a green egg layer (hoping to find something prettier than the normal green egg we get a day), and I have a love for Buff orpingtons. Have to take my husband with me so I don't get too many! I'm just hoping they have them sexed right! Not sure I want a roo right now.

 

[Crafty chick]

Also, im using an old chicken coop right now, but planning on building a chicken tractor from a small movable coop we used to use. It wasn't very sturdy, so will need to make a frame of lightweight material to attach the panels to. Once it's warmer, I'll get all the panels out and take pics to organize my thoughts on how to arrange them.

 

[tmarsh83]

Kittydoc- I was planning on going to tsc Monday. I have had a variety over the years. My 9 year old wants a silkie or a Mille fleur again (hoping to get there when the chicks arise to check out the variety bin), my 6 year old wants a green egg layer (hoping to find something prettier than the normal green egg we get a day), and I have a love for Buff orpingtons. Have to take my husband with me so I don't get too many! I'm just hoping they have them sexed right! Not sure I want a roo right now.

Hello. I'm north of Columbia city, so not too far. TSC in CC gets their first chicks tomorrow. Rural King has some currently, more coming tomorrow.

RK has RIR, Amber and black sex links. They have boxes for BR and EE as well.

When I asked TSC what they had coming they didn't know.

 

[Crafty chick]

Yay! Tomorrow! I asked when and they said this next week, I just assumed Monday b/c of the post office. Do you happen to know what time?