Mouse bite/Frost bite/ broken ankles???

[JacinLarkwell]

I can get better ones tomorrow, but here's a general idea

Ignore the cat

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Wyorp Rock, another consideration besides temps is humidity. OP, can we get pictures of the setup these chicks are in, including any windows, doors, etc.? Thank you.

I can tomorrow. It's almost 10 at night and my barn is almost a half mile away so I really can't walk there right now.

 

[azygous]

Although gout is rare in such young birds, it could happen if they have a steady diet high in minerals such as calcium and electrolytes. Do you regularly put electrolytes in their drinking water?

We humans often look for just one cause of a health issue when there can be more than one working in tandem. Mice and barn rats are omnivores and will zero in on compromised tissue. At night, chickens are helpless to evade these vermin, and it's not at all uncommon to see feet nibbled on. And much worse. I've seen photos of Silkies with rodent wounds so bad they couldn't be saved.

Lots of chicken keepers feed layer feed to chicks, and many of those people do not keep these chickens as long term pets. They are usually slaughtered before gout sets in, and even then, it could take several years of a high mineral diet to see it.

My suggestion is Epsom salt soaks to try to improve circulation to the injured extremities. And work on the rodent problem. I have huge success with bucket roller traps.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Although gout is rare in such young birds, it could happen if they have a steady diet high in minerals such as calcium and electrolytes. Do you regularly put electrolytes in their drinking water?

We humans often look for just one cause of a health issue when there can be more than one working in tandem. Mice and barn rats are omnivores and will zero in on compromised tissue. At night, chickens are helpless to evade these vermin, and it's not at all uncommon to see feet nibbled on. And much worse. I've seen photos of Silkies with rodent wounds so bad they couldn't be saved.

Lots of chicken keepers feed layer feed to chicks, and many of those people do not keep these chickens as long term pets. They are usually slaughtered before gout sets in, and even then, it could take several years of a high mineral diet to see it.

My suggestion is Epsom salt soaks to try to improve circulation to the injured extremities. And work on the rodent problem. I have huge success with bucket roller traps.

Problem is water freezes within a few hours now here, so bucket traps could very well just give me a bucket of live mice

I don't do electrolytes. Did it once for a wrynecked quail, but I just culled it after a few weeks.

 

[azygous]

I dump salt into the water in my bucket traps and it keeps the water from freezing unless you get down in the hideous range. Engine coolant will work even better, but that can be dangerous for free roaming animals. A quick taste of briny water won't kill a dog.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I dump salt into the water in my bucket traps and it keeps the water from freezing unless you get down in the hideous range. Engine coolant will work even better, but that can be dangerous for free roaming animals. A quick taste of briny water won't kill a dog.

Will salt water work below -10?

 

[azygous]

Probably not unless you dump the cold water and add fresh warm water each night with salt, of course. Waging war on rodents isn't easy or particularly fun. Being half a mile from your barn isn't going to be a walk in the park doing it.

 

[Chicalina]

You need a good mouser cat or a Jack Russell!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You need a good mouser cat or a Jack Russell!

My cat can only catch so many, and we don't let feral cats stay since we lost a hen to one. And I don't like little dogs, and don't trust little dogs around chicks

 

[Chicalina]

I've got a few little field mice around but they are not a problem. Now, rats I have had problems with! They have burrowed under the coop a couple of times. I put down blue poison bait in their holes at night and cover them over with a flat paving stone, and check in the morning diligently that no blue bait has been dragged out into the open that rhe chickens could get, before I let the chickens out. It takes a couple of weeks to kill the nest, but it eventually works. I don't know if this would work with mice. Perhaps burying pipes with bait in along their running channels? And closing them up during the day.

I know what you mean about little dogs! They have their uses though The working kind are far nicer than the lap kind!