Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[lazy gardener]

I went out and readied the hoop coop for my chicks. They're due to hatch at end of next week. This coop is a great starter coop for chicks. 8x4 loft, where MHP goes. I flipped the old bedding out of the loft, onto the floor of the 8 x 12 section. Tossed a couple of bags of leaves on top of the old bedding, and it'll be ready to go. Just add shavings when the babies are ready to go out. As Bruce says, deep litter is awesome stuff. i've used that coop for 3 years, and the compost on the floor just keeps getting more and more awesome. When I let my flock out to free range. They all race for that old coop, and spend hours dust bathing and searching for goodies in the DL.

 

[COChix]

hygrometers measure humidity, not So those baby chicks are smart, they put themselves to bed with no issues tonight. They are all snuggled in and brooder temp says 95. Last night I had to put them under

Oh sorry for that! I have a combo hygrometer/thermometer in the brooder so I was checking temp and type hygrometer.

 

[dyorto]

I think that one of by barred rocks might be a roo. The comb is getting a bit red

 

[Blooie]

Well, it's my thread and I can hijack it if I want to! Kendra had a huge day today. This was her first time in the gait trainer besides just practicing in the house with it. In the house she usually sits in it, not cooperating and getting fussy. But today we gave her a little of those wide open spaces and she took full advantage!! I know it's a little long, but think about how long it was for HER! Before this clip, she had already walked from the house, down the sidewalk to the corner, and across and quite a ways down the street. Then she had to walk all the way back! I'm so proud of her I could just bust!! We now return you to chickens, but expect to see this video plastered all over BYC today!!

 

[aart]

Pretty amazing! Congrats!
What are the 'cables'(?) going from hip to calf?
They don't appear to be weight bearing?

 

[GardenNut]

That's amazing! Bless her heart! Thanks for sharing!

 

[beautifulpirate]

Aww Blooie! Was Kendra happy about it too?! It was a good hijacking. Made me smile.

 

[Blooie]

Pretty amazing! Congrats!
What are the 'cables'(?) going from hip to calf?
They don't appear to be weight bearing?

They aren't. They are to keep her legs straight. Her hips are getting so much better, but the bones in her lower legs have been twisted since birth. In the beginning, she wore double casts on both legs. They went from hip to toes. The first layer was plaster, the second fiberglass. That's why we can look back at her pictures now and know exactly where she was in the casting process - each time she got new casts in the series, we chose different colors for the fiberglass. So we know how old she was when the striped ones went on, the purple ones, etc.

She has AFOs (ankle/foot orthotics) going from mid-calf to her toes, inside her shoes. Riveted to them are the torsion cables, the KFOs (knee/foot orthotics) jointed at the knee and the hip,and attached to a leather belt around her waist. They won't "cure" anything. They just keep her feet under her in the correct line to allow her to walk. Without them her feet - especially the left one - turn inwards terribly. When she tries to walk without the braces, she trips over her own feet. The left foot can literally face totally backwards when she's just standing relaxed. Since she has no nerves or feeling in her feet, she's totally unaware that they're turned in. She can't feel the floor so she doesn't know where her feet are.

The steel torsion cables are more twisted steel wire inside the cables. She is so much more active than most kids wearing these that she has snapped the steel cables twice, and that tells you how much stress she puts on those cables. Most kids are just walking in them. She climbs into her carseat, onto the furniture, and even climbs into her kitchen chair, then climbs up on the table for her catheterizations. She is tough on them, I'll tell ya! She also likes to turn sommersaults - not an activity those are designed for. <sigh> So although the cables do their jobs well and keep her feet pointed correctly, they have become dangerous. She's now in the strongest ones they make, and these are really starting to bow outward and behind her instead of following the natural line of her legs. Last appointment in Denver they told us we need to have the cables removed from her AFOs totally, so she'll just be walking in AFOS and her shoes. We're more than a little worried about what that's going to do to her confidence, and we already know from past experience before she got her first set of cables that her feet still turn inward with the just the ankle/foot orthotics alone. But besides the danger of high tension wire snapping against her leg (the bruise from the last time was horrific) there is so much torsion that she's ruining her knees completely. So we are at a Catch 22 with her feet and legs at this point.

This walk today was a big deal. A real big deal! And it breaks my heart to know that it could well be the last time she's this fluid walking, unless they can find something else to do the job. But as I've said a million times before, if Kendra never walks another step in her life and stays in her chair, she's still the most special little girl I've ever known, and I love her dearly!

Edited to add: Thanks, guys! I'm so proud of her, and she was loving it....her face says it all!

 

[beautifulpirate]

I'm watching on my very old phone so the quality of picture is poor. I couldn't define a smile haha but I assumed it was there! Go Kendra!

 

[Redwolf141]

Well, it's my thread and I can hijack it if I want to! Kendra had a huge day today. This was her first time in the gait trainer besides just practicing in the house with it. In the house she usually sits in it, not cooperating and getting fussy. But today we gave her a little of those wide open spaces and she took full advantage!! I know it's a little long, but think about how long it was for HER! Before this clip, she had already walked from the house, down the sidewalk to the corner, and across and quite a ways down the street. Then she had to walk all the way back! I'm so proud of her I could just bust!! We now return you to chickens, but expect to see this video plastered all over BYC today!!

what a,fantastic video.....Congrats. That is,a great sight to see. Onward and upward from here.