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

[Beekissed]

That makes it extremely difficult! I've had many a patient in just that stage in their lives and it usually takes something major to happen before they can be placed somewhere safer...like a stay in the hospital related to illness or injury. Not very often do they have the presence of mind left to realize the danger in which they are living when they can no longer remember if they took their meds or not, if they left something on the stove or left the water running in the sink or tub.

I'm fortunate in that I moved to live with my mother in her home, so she doesn't have to go anywhere or be persuaded to move. Even yet, she resists too much interference with her diet or daily routines that may lead to trouble....I have to be very subtle and know when to step back and try again another day. Each day gets easier as she grows a little more dependent upon my help but I still have to stand back a lot and let her learn this part of her life on her own to some degree.

I don't envy your position...that must be agony!

 

[b.hromada]

We are sending our love and our prayers for a speedy recovery.

Exactly. He is so beautiful.

Pull through dear Issac, we're all rooting for you!

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks for all the well wishes for Isaac. He's in the bathroom in the dog kennel sitting quietly. Hopefully, this Arctic Express will run its course and he'll be able to go back to the coop by Friday or Saturday. At least there, he can hear the usual goings-on in the various coops.

Gloria Jean and Beekissed, you have my empathy with your aging parents. My DH's dad is 82 with COPD (well, even his younger brother has it so it's anyone's guess who'll go first, son or father) and mine is 92, but both seem to still have presence of mind. I hope my mind is as sharp when I'm that age.

 

[1muttsfan]

I hope the old lad heals up enough after a stay at the basement spa to go back outside. This time of year it can be hard to deal with old animals, knowing they are failing and wondering if they will make it until spring comes and eases their pains.

she resists too much interference with her diet or daily routines that may lead to trouble....I have to be very subtle and know when to step back and try again another day. - sounds a lot like my BF

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks. We're going to soak his feet today. Good thing I didn't believe the weather forecasters. Some said 10*, some said 11*, but knowing I'm higher than the town limits, I thought it would be lower. It is 7* this morning. On Thursday, they predict 7*, so we may be down to 0-1* again. I hope everyone else survives this. I can't deal with any more frostbite. My older hens will be so stressed by the end of this week and I could lose a couple that are in compromised condition already, like Caroline with her bad crop, Amanda with her severe arthritis or Hope, who has been in some type of reproductive nosedive for well over a year. And there are two others who appear to have serious reproductive issues as well. Good grief. Spring can't come soon enough for me.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Gloria Jean and Beekissed, you have my empathy with your aging parents. My DH's dad is 82 with COPD (well, even his younger brother has it so it's anyone's guess who'll go first, son or father) and mine is 92, but both seem to still have presence of mind. I hope my mind is as sharp when I'm that age.

It is a huge blessing to still be sharp. I'm watching my grandmother deteriorate from Parkinson's Disease and Dementia. She knows she is losing her mind and it really bothers her. She tells me why can't I just die? The doctor changed her meds because paranoia was taking over her mind, but she changed it too much and my grandmother was hallucinating. Calling in a panic because she couldn't find my grandfather, who has been dead 9 years now. At least with Alzheimer's, you don't know you've lost it.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: True. My mother had Alzheimer's. She forgot she smoked for the last year of her life.




Isaac seems to have developed pneumonia. It sounds like the beginning stages. He'd been on penicillin to combat infection in his feet, stopped that a couple days ago and now, he's on Tylan, but I just hope it works and that what I think is pneumonia is not congestive heart failure with his body building fluid.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
That is a blessing, though many wouldn't call it that. My dad has ALZ and it's a blessing that he doesn't know he's in a nursing home and how far he has declined physically, as he was always a proud and vain man about his appearance. Now all that pride and vanity is gone...shows you how much that stuff really means in this life, because he is living just fine without it.

It's 8* here with a windchill of 1* and my oldest hens, 6 and 7 yrs old, were out first thing this morning in the snow, scavenging for food. I gave them a heat lamp on their roosts last night but I doubt they really needed it...but it made me feel better.

Speckled, I sure hope your boy gets some relief soon from his misery. You wouldn't believe what my granny did when her birds sounded like they had a cold...she'd dose them with turpentine! Mom said all that wheezing was gone by the next day when she did that. Wow! Now that's some strong stuff to put down a bird's throat...I guess it was kill or cure, huh?

 

[speckledhen]

I've read about those old farmers' remedies, Bee. Dare say I won't be going to that extreme!

I only have Tylan here (albeit an older bottle) because I've had to treat an older bird with pneumonia before-I would cull for anything contagious, but I know that this is from the extreme cold and his age and his already compromised lungs. He needs to get back to his girls. Tiny will be lost without him if I lose him. She depends on him to protect her from everyone else.

 

[Beekissed]

I put the castor oil to the test about arthritis today...on my own knee. I have a knee that really works up on cold, damp days like today and was particularly bad today. I figured I'd try the CO and then a heating pad to see the results. Well, I applied the CO but got busy and didn't remember to put on a heating pad. I never really thought about it again until several hours later and then I realized my knee wasn't hurting any longer! Even though I'd read it works and I saw it on my own chickens, I just never expected it to work on that knee...nothing else seems to work on it, so I was pretty surprised.

I'm definitely getting more of this stuff and keeping it handy for days like today. Going to try it on my neck next time as that's the really worst place I have arthritis.