My Four Buff Babies...and one is sick.

[ButtermilkMama]

I bought four Buff Orpington pullets at Wilco on the 28th. I got all my brooder supplies at the same time and felt like such a beginner because, well I am! So they're on the spare bathroom counter in a 30 gallon plastic bin. I hated to buy something plastic, but it was several times less expensive than the metal tub. The floor is about four sq ft. I went out to the shed and, using the tub lid as a pattern, cut a top out of hardware cloth. My husband made holes in the edge of the bin so we could twist tie the lid down and keep the cats out, who haven't been too interested in it anyway. The red lamp is suspended by a plant hanger. I got the galvanized feeders and Purina medicated feed, the only kind they had. On the floor I have pine pellets, or ABM. That stuff is working out well as I only have to remove the poop with a spoon instead of replacing shavings or something.

I forgot to ask how old they were when I bought them, but by Googling pictures, they were about a week when I got them. They had wing feathers and fuzz. Only now are they getting the beginnings of tail feathers. Does that sound right to you? At about ten days old? I have named Buffy (the Bully) and Dot. My five-year-old daughter named Lana and Flower.

Dot is sick. When I got her home, she had poop stuck to her belly and there was a big pink sore underneath. The sore has since dried up and shrunk, but it's still there. I was wiping her down twice a day and applying Bag Balm. Now I am wiping her once a day only, hoping to be able to get the balm residue off so she'll fluff up and not get pecked. She is in isolation with a stuffed Big Bird, as suggested to me in the emergency section. Unfortunately, the healing sore isn't her only issue. Even though she is chipper in isolation, she has two soft lumps under her belly skin. She doesn't seem to be in pain and is eating and pooping well, but I don't know what's in store for her future...

From what I've been reading the last half hour here, my luck is rather typical.

 

[KKatknap]

Hard to tell what it might be...but, at this point, if she is eating and pooping those are good things. Is she active? Or does she just kind of lie around and act sickly? As long as she's eating/drinking/pooping she has a good chance to bounce back.

 

[ButtermilkMama]

She was undeniably not feeling well two days ago, when I first put her in iso. She was sleeping far more than the others, or trying to. All of her energy was going to self defense from Buffy and Lana pecking her experimentally, not cruelly. Once she was able to get some good rest, she became lively again. I'm thinking hernias, but can't know for sure.