My Quarantine Oasis

[Mama2BoysandBirds]

I'll easily admit my sincere curiosity as well and also refrain from asking.

I will admit that from several weeks to months from now my curiosity will very likely be well satiated in fully grasping the process.

Take care. Stay hydrated and as sane as possible too.

Hahaha, feel free to ask because I don't mind. Questions don't bother me. I totally understand the curiosity

 

[Mama2BoysandBirds]

Quarantine morning retreat. My ladies ( and two suspected Roos) were happy to see me. I have such plans for this coop and this virus is sucking all my energy. So for now all I can do is sit and enjoy the sweet baby chirps. I thought since I have nothing else to do I would share some of my story to starting my own herd

. I grew up on a working horse farm. We always had a few head of cow, pigs and chickens for meat. Horses, goats and hay were our staples. We usually had about 15 to 20 horses and more goats than I could count usually. I was in sole charge of maintenance of my goat herd. I paired who I wanted to mate, was always there for the births ( middle of the night in snow seemed to be their fav time to kid). All vet care and anything to do with goats was my responsibility, and I loved it. I raised Nubian goats and had a few show goats for 4H. I also was used by my dad to help break yearling horses to get ready for auction or sale. And by this I mean he would usually just throw me up on a horse in the round pen and my job was to hang on until the stopped bucking LOL ( I started doing this at 9ish until I left for college). I had a pretty good knack for staying on a horse but I did have 5 broken arms due to fall over the years, so it wasn't all glory LOL. I loved it though and always begged to do it. I remember we had one mate that was just unbreakable but we kept trying because she had amazing bloodlines and if we could get her broke we could make good profit. 2 of my broken arms came from her. If you could hang on for the first 10 yards, she would calm down and be perfect. But boy was that a rough 10 yards!! We finally stopped trying and used her as a brood mare and she lived to be 35yrs old. She would only let me touch her and even then if you turned your back on her she would bite you. We got her as a yearling and we fully believe she was abused by the guy and just never trusted men again.
Both my parents were teachers so that left afternoons and weekends for farming. The only time of year I hated was when the hay came in. I live in Alabama and throwing hundreds of bails of hay on flatbed truck is HOT and hard work.

My dad and I used to do all the horse shows. I barrel raced for a few years but I didn't like how it made the horse's temperament very jumpy.

So back to the chickens! I said all that to say, chickens were for eggs, meat, and eating ticks and bugs for the livestock. I never really saw them as pets and they were never very friendly. I got chased by the resident rooster every morning collecting eggs. They actually annoyed me and soured my view of chickens until a few years ago.

I found a Buff Orpingtons that had been hit by a car. She was flapping about and I just couldn't let her suffer. I had planned on putting her down when I stopped. I saw that her injury was very fixable and I just could kill her when she could recover. I went to all the local farms and houses trying to find her owner, but no one stepped up. Probably because she was going to require vet costs. So I became an owner of a broken winged Buff Orpington I named Buffy. My husband looked at me like I had three heads when I brought this half run over chicken in the house ( I married a city boy). He built Buffy a small coop to recover in. And then we let her free range. And by free range, I mean every morning she pecked at the patio door and walked herself in the house like she owned it. We even put a box on the couch that she would sit in and watch TV with us. Then when roosting time came she wanted to be outside to roost. She was the boss of the dog and even cat and of course us. She totally changed my view on chickens forever. When she passed at 10 ( best vet guess). We all mourned her. It took me a year or two to be ready to begin a herd not my own. That brings us to these seven babies. I haven't had the heart to purchase another Buff Orpington yet, but I will.

I leave you with this mornings tea time with chicks

 

[aart]

Haha, feel free to ask. I don't mind

Great feel free not to answer
Where are you located?
Do you know where/when you 'picked it up'?
What were your initial symptoms....and how have they progressed time wise?
Have you had any medical attention/treatment, how and what?
TIA.

 

[Mama2BoysandBirds]

Great feel free not to answer
Where are you located?
Do you know where/when you 'picked it up'?
What were your initial symptoms....and how have they progressed time wise?
Have you had any medical attention/treatment, how and what?
TIA.

We live in Huntsville Alabama. We have a medically fragile child so I had not been taking the kids out early on. I thought I was being super careful by making my husband take his clothes off in the foyer before coming in the house and then a shower.
Well my husband is changing jobs so he had to go for a exit interview at his work. As he was leaving he said everyone kept patting him on the back, hugging him, shaking hands, all that . He said he didn't even think twice at the time. He had been with this company for 10 years. Then he went to a Dr appt and to Walmart ( of all places) to pick up somethings we needed.

That was two weeks ago. It was about 12 hours after he got home that he said it felt like he had a hair stuck in his throat. The next day his throat was sore and he had a cough and nasal congestion. It is AL and the pollen is in full swing here so we thought it was going to be allergy related. But we did stay home. About 2 days later I had the same hair in the throat feeling and it had the same progression. Hubby began to run a low grade fever and his cough was getting worse and he and I had horrible body aches and extremely tired. We started to think it was something more at this point. We called the Dr and were told that if another family member started to cough or run a fever, call them back and they would have us come in.

Around 3am our 5yr old crawled into bed with us and had a 105 fever It came down some after a bath. By the morning he started to cough and kept spiking a high fever. The Dr had us come in. They examined us all in their Covid-19 rooms. They met us at our car and put masks on us. They said that there is such a shortage of testing kits that they are testing the sickest person in the family. That was my 5 yr old. We were all running low fevers by this time but his was the highest. They said that since we have all had the same symptoms and progression, if his is positive then we can assume we all had it. They did test the whole family for strep, flu, rsv and all the other known viruses. They were all neg for all of us. They gave us quarantine Instructions and said in about 10 they will test him again. We can't come off total quarantine until there is a neg test. So I know the number of cases here has to be higher than reported because lack of tests.

We have kept my oldest so. Who is medically fragile in his room as much as we can. He doesn't seem to have the stronger symptoms. We also wear a mask when changing him or his other needs.

The 5 yr old has stopped running a fever. He is played but get tired quickly. He tellse his legs hurt and we all have horrible headache. TMI here but I have had the extra intestinal symptom That has not been fun. Today has been a tough day. My husband and I have zero energy. It took everything for me to go out and feed my chickens and get their coop ready for the severe storms we have coming. We have been told to expect 10-14 days of symptoms. Nothing we have is severe and needing a hospital not anything. We just feel like crap.

 

[aart]

We just feel like crap.

I'm sorry hope y'all recover as quickly as possible.
Thanks you for sharing that info...so little is known, yet, and you are the first who actually has it that I've come across.
Haven't heard of the headache thing, might go with a fever?

Never forget my sons bout with a 105 temp, I made him get in the tub and was refusing to take an aspirin(middle school say no to drugs overreaction) until I threatened to take him to the hospital if he didn't.

Hang in there, feel free to vent here.