Isaac, My 5 Year Old Delaware Rooster....Old Age is Closing In On The Big Guy (Long Story)

[speckledhen]

He still breathes very hard, but that may just be him and the stress of his recent problems. He's had bad lung capacity for years now. As soon as we can, he'll go outside, but it's all snow, ice, mud and muck today.

ETA, January 31:

Ike is back out in the broody cage where he can be in the midst of activity again. Weather is looking up, temp-wise, and I think he'll be as fine as he's going to get. We are going to Lowes to get the supplies for the new pen set up tonight.


ETA, Feb 3:

Might want to check out the latest endeavor of big Ike here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-the-video-of-a-skyping-rooster#post_12756899

 

[speckledhen]

Yesterday, the main flock was in the pen all day, except for Deacon, who flew out and did his own free range time when brother Rex chased him. It's par for the course with Deke.

Isaac was let out of the broody cage to wander around since he and Deacon don't fight. Deacon is scared of his daddy. DH was gone and I was going out to check every 5-10 minutes to be sure that Ike wasn't fighting at the fence with Rex. And he seemed to be staying under the deck in his big dust hole, away from the main pens entirely. Then, later in the day, I grabbed a peanut butter cookie and walked outside and saw Isaac standing with his wings hanging down and panting heavily. It was a very cool day, so that seemed very odd, odd enough that I whipped on my shoes and ran down to him. He was covered in blood and breathing so hard, I was afraid he'd keel over dead unless I managed to slow his breathing. Rex was nowhere in sight in the pen and Deacon was about 15 ft away, calm and clean of any blood, so wasn't Deacon who caused it. Ran Ike to the house and it took 15 minutes before his breathing slowed enough that I thought he wouldn't drop dead on me. Turns out Rex was pretty beat up, especially his feet where he was jumping at the fence and scraping the skin off the backs of them, trying to get at his dad. Apparently, Isaac realized that he must stop or he would run out of air so that is why there was no fight going on when I found him. At least he was that smart. They're going to be the death of me yet.

Today, Isaac stayed in the broody cage all day. No way he needed to be out and running around after all that mess yesterday. We worked on the coop prep to get it permanently divided up. Still need to put up the divider fence, but now, Rex's side has a pop door and ramp into the pen.

 

[crazyhen]

Bless you, Our concern for our chickens will be the death of us. Be careful. I see snow in the weather report coming your way again.
I wish I could be there. My Mom has been referred to an oncologist. We still have not been told that the mass on her ovary is ca but I am afraid for her. It is the size of a grapefruit. She is 87 yrs old. I will be here (on the coast) until further notice. I lost my Dad to intestinal ca about 7 yrs ago. It is a hard way to go. Be careful out there running around the leaves really get slick. Sorry about your boys getting into it.

 

[speckledhen]

Sorry about your mom. My FIL is in the hospital with lung cancer. He didn't believe it was cancer because he said no one else in the family had it, but he's smoked for over 70 years and already had COPD. Will know monday if it's Stage 4. Just staying busy with making quilted and crocheted stuff for the stores. Have 4 broodies in the bantam coop and two or three working up to it in the main coop, two or three hens dying in the old ladies coops. Just a bunch of stuff going on.

So tired today after working all day. Have to get more firewood tomorrow. It's taken triple the usual amount this year!

 

[1muttsfan]

Hope it will be a double fence - or even better a solid barrier! What a pair of goofs.

 

[speckledhen]

Hope it will be a double fence - or even better a solid barrier! What a pair of goofs.

Well, it will have that plastic garden fencing hung on both sides so they can't hurt themselves. Yup, agreed, a couple of goofs they are!

And correction on the number of broodies: there are now 5 in the bantam coop and 2 in the layer flock. The two in the layer flock will NOT be getting eggs right now because they cannot raise chicks in there. The D'Anvers are fine with raising babies within the flock so they can have eggs, but only LF eggs. They can only cover 2-3 of those huge eggs each so between the 5 broodies, there are 12 eggs, the first 5 eggs are due to hatch on Feb. 18, but knowing these, they'll start hatching on the 16th.

 

[speckledhen]

We decided to forgo a gate in the middle for now so we could take advantage of two days of sun and warmer weather to get the middle fence up and get Isaac back with his hens. Will just have to go in by the far pen gate to let Rex's group outside for the time being.
Deacon is still flying out, but it's because he wants to and out of habit. Isaac and Rex have been sparring at the fence, but the plastic garden stuff on both sides makes for a softer barrier and neither can hurt himself seriously. It continues underneath the coop all the way to the front where it's only a couple of inches off the ground.



The original side needs a new ramp, the next project to do. The bottom is water rotted from run-off from the roof.














Scout looking at me from the other side of the fence, wondering what's up with the barrier between us.




And, as usual, Deacon roams at will. Isaac and Deacon have 6 hens. Rex, Scout and Gabriel (until the last two are rehomed) have 9 hens.

 

[Suzierd]

It's pretty cool seeing Deacon running around where ever he wants I do hope he stays safe tho. I bet he would be hard for predators to catch. Your runs look so nice, no mud or snow! I wish I could get away with a nice big fence with no top, we have so many hawks here all the time and some really big red tails. I won't let them out unless I stand out there with them. Which I don't like to do in the cold and rain.

 

[speckledhen]

There was a pair of redtails circling overhead today. Everyone was inside the fence except for Gabriel, who refused to come back from free ranging with everyone else. All the roosters knew they were there and they were all alarming. Nothing much gets by the guys around here, thankfully. Once when I saw Deacon duck under the Orp coop, overhead was a turkey buzzard. There are numerous places to hide even in winter. So far, so good. I hope Deacon avoids predators, too. He's the quintessential pet rooster. I'd sure be heartbroken if we lost him that way. He's been a pleasant surprise.

 

[speckledhen]

Looks like Isaac will be losing the end of his inner toe on the left foot. The other day, it was cracked across the top at the joint above the nail and bleeding, probably from flexing at the juncture of crusty black skin and good skin, maybe while mating a hen. Looked to be almost to the bone, so we bandaged and re-bandaged. It turned just crusty but seemed to be holding. Today, the nail was completely turned inward to the side, almost like at the joint, it had disconnected and swiveled to the inside. I guess he'll lose it at that joint. He has gauze and vet wrap and antibiotic ointment. They'll be staying inside tomorrow anyway since we're getting some snow, they say. There is one other toe that is a bit crusty on the other foot, but not anywhere like this one. We bandaged that one again, too, just in case.