people with house chickens

[Sylvester017]

Here's a video of Pepper getting pet!

She had a trip to the vet recently when I was worried she might have sour crop, but I was just worrying too much. She was just drinking lots of water! She was given a clean bill of health, along with lots of compliments. The vet said she's one of the best behaved chickens he's gotten to see. No complaints about her health or care routine! It was worth the trip, it's better that she's not sick and I worry about doing right by her a lot. It's nice to have a poultry health professional tell me my chicken isn't about to explode at any moment.

We love our vet too. It is worth the research to find one that takes chickens so when the time comes for an emergency (we had 4 this past year) the vet choice has already been made. Chickens may be utility for some owners but they are still a domestic animal and deserve the same health care as any dog or cat. Plus like you say it's peace of mind having a correct diagnosis instead of guessing and trying to self-treat for the wrong thing.

 

[Skink]

We love our vet too. It is worth the research to find one that takes chickens so when the time comes for an emergency (we had 4 this past year) the vet choice has already been made. Chickens may be utility for some owners but they are still a domestic animal and deserve the same health care as any dog or cat. Plus like you say it's peace of mind having a correct diagnosis instead of guessing and trying to self-treat for the wrong thing.

TRUTH. He did tell me that a lot of the chickens he sees are pure utility and already on death's door. He doesn't get to save nearly as many as he would like because their owners end up wasting a lot of valuable time doing home treatments, many of which are snake oil (ACV and DE being miraculous cure alls, anyone?) Problems are just as often not what the owner was treating them for as they are. I'm sure chicken vets have an extra load of clean up to do after many overzealous home "vets" considering the amount of misinformation out there combined with how often it gets tossed at newbies and things like anatomy greenhorns performing home surgery. I understand people treating chickens at home, and I know avian vets can be hard to find, but home treatment on the whole among chicken keepers isn't nearly as well developed or preferable as I've seen toted..

I was really glad to find a good vet first whack at it. I can't remember how many snake vets I've tried only to hate them after one visit and move right on to the next. Exotics have me vet wary, so it was refreshing.

 

[ThisishowIroll]

Here's a video of Pepper getting pet!

She 'a adorable! It's so dang trusting when they stretch their neck out like that. My ruby did the full body stretch for the first time last night. I think it's a tactical move on her part in case she turns out to be a roo!

 

[Sylvester017]

TRUTH. He did tell me that a lot of the chickens he sees are pure utility and already on death's door. He doesn't get to save nearly as many as he would like because their owners end up wasting a lot of valuable time doing home treatments, many of which are snake oil (ACV and DE being miraculous cure alls, anyone?) Problems are just as often not what the owner was treating them for as they are. I'm sure chicken vets have an extra load of clean up to do after many overzealous home "vets" considering the amount of misinformation out there combined with how often it gets tossed at newbies and things like anatomy greenhorns performing home surgery. I understand people treating chickens at home, and I know avian vets can be hard to find, but home treatment on the whole among chicken keepers isn't nearly as well developed or preferable as I've seen toted..

I was really glad to find a good vet first whack at it. I can't remember how many snake vets I've tried only to hate them after one visit and move right on to the next. Exotics have me vet wary, so it was refreshing.

Wasting valuable time trying to self-diagnose and treat an ill chicken at home before giving up treatment and taking it to the vet as a last resort is IMO cruel. So-o-o-o many bird illnesses/diseases/maladies have very similar symptoms that only a good vet can diagnose it accurately and administer a proper remedy. Chickens don't weigh much and will deteriorate from illness more quickly than a larger animal plus there's a period of time that a chicken hides the illness before you notice symptoms. If I see a less than normal chicken at roost time I will isolate in our indoor hospital pen and take her to the vet immediately next morning. We know our hens pretty well and can recognize if something isn't "right".

In defense of many chicken owners who live out in remote areas they almost are forced to become their own vet. Personally if I was that remote I wouldn't keep a small animal like a chicken if I couldn't reach a vet within a 24 hour drive - but that's me. To each his own. There is an online website that calls himself "Doc" for chickens but is not a licensed avian vet yet charges for giving advice about your ill chicken. How can you diagnose an ill chicken without physically examining it - talk about taking chances or snake oil cures. I guess remote areas have space for a lot of animals that losing one to self-remedy is not a big loss. If I lost just one chicken I've lost 25% of my backyard flock which I had to carefully plan because we are zoned for only a very few so breed selection for a peaceful mixed flock was a careful process. I am also fortunate that I have a DH who is more insistent on vet visits than even me!

It's refreshing for me to find someone on a BYC chicken thread that feels like me about finding a vet for their chickens, and a GOOD vet as I've read some bad reports about vets that refuse to treat chickens. My vet treats dogs, cats, exotics, and birds. He's been in our neighborhood for about 10 years but until we had chickens had never used him but kept his info with a couple avian-only vets further away in case I had an emergency. He was the first vet I called and I never needed to contact anyone else. His staff said he loves chickens and would have them in the office backyard if he could! He always wants follow-up calls from owners to make sure his treatments were successful. When you bring a well-behaved tame chicken to a vet office they are always amazed and entertained. My vet wanted to show me how to shove a syringe of medicine down my Silkie's throat and I showed him how my chicken didn't need shoving or her beak pried open. She drank the medicine directly from the syringe and when a drop fell on the table she lapped that up too. He was amazed. I've often put liquid medicine in the cupped palm of my hand and she will drink it all up with her little tongue - so trusting. Perhaps if I had to dosage more than 0.2 cc of liquid medicine I would do the syringe shove down the throat if I had an unwilling hen but so far drops on the side of the beak has worked at having the chickens lap up their vitamin or med doses.

It's a trust issue with me not to pry open beaks. It takes patience to build a medicine trust but so worth it for us to have chickens that don't fear our fingers/hands to pry their beaks. Even in a broody box our hens allow petting, removal of eggs, and even take their vitamin from a dropper when we offer it to them in the box. One Silkie trembles when we open the nestbox because she is so excited to see what treat we will offer her and stretches up to see what's in our hand. Do we spoil our hens? Yes. Do we care what others think about it? No.

 

[brekke69]

HOUSECHICKENS? I have 4! Shim (RIR 4yrs) came to live with me when she was just a yellow fluff; a prize from an easter egg hunt at a church (my nephew won her). (I wish people would stop giving animals as "gifts" and "prizes". Kitiara (RIR 3yrs) came to us at age 8 months from a failed backyard farm experience. Poppy (RIR 2 yrs) and Ruby (RIR 1 yr) came to live with us just a few weeks ago; again from a failed backyard farm experience. (I really wish people would research more and quit teaching their children FAILURE. Because that is what the children learned from these 2 sets of parents.)
Shim is my biggest spoiled rotten bird. I call her my $700 chicken (emergency vet bill). She sleeps with me every night since she lost her other foster mother (a male guinea pig named Pickles. he really was a comfort to her.)
HEY PATYRDZ: Kitiara loves pink too. she insists on laying her eggs on my pillows when I use the pink princess sheet set (bought for my niece) and she also lays eggs under the princess blanket on the pink beanbag chair.
Poppy and Shim had the hardest time figuring who is the dominate - Shim wins. Poppy and Kitiara are doing ok. I'm not sure which is the dominate on that pecking order.
Ruby (RubyBooBoo) is getting better. She was mauled by a neighbor dog. The woman that owned Poppy and Ruby did nothing to help Ruby. She sat for days in pain and infection. I took her to my vet and he fixed her up.
I do have diapers for my girls but due to injury Shim cannot wear hers. So I don't make Kitiara wears hers to be fair.
Shim, Kitiara and Poppy know their names and simple commands: "want some," "outside time" and "let's go in" will get them moving.

 

[mtbrenon]

I am so going to show these pictures to my husband. How cool is that! He thinks I've lost my mind because I bring my chickens into the kitchen. I'm working hard to convince hime to let me get a silkie to be a house pet

 

[Sylvester017]

Shim, Kitiara and Poppy know their names and simple commands: "want some," "outside time" and "let's go in" will get them moving.

I love that chickens can be trained to understand simple voice and hand commands or learn to come when they hear their name. To reinforce their name we use their name just prior to giving them their individual treat while the other chickens stand around waiting to hear their name called. It was push and shove at the beginning but they caught on pretty quickly - creatures of routine and habit they are.

 

[gonzochick]

Buddha and Little Mo Keepin' Up With The Kluckdasians! Love these two!

 

[Sylvester017]

I am so going to show these pictures to my husband. How cool is that! He thinks I've lost my mind because I bring my chickens into the kitchen. I'm working hard to convince hime to let me get a silkie to be a house pet

Because chickens are flock birds it's so much better to have 2 Silkies if just one alone will never be exposed to any other chicken ever. Just look at Post #2608 where Buddha and Mo are mutually enjoying a TV show! Even when we had house birds we always got them in sets for species socialization. They cuddle with each other, squabble, socialize, and have good companionship with their own kind. That way there'll be two to cuddle on your lap. And 2 Silkies don't even equal the weight of one LF hen! We had one Silkie that was way too young to join the outdoor flock and we had to keep her indoors for 3 months and in diapers because chickens poop about every 15 minutes. Have to be careful though because diapers can wear out their butt fluff if you don't keep after changing the really drippy liquidy diaper messes. Sometimes we kept the diaper off for a week to allow healing of the vent area. Introduce new feed/food/treats in small tiny introductions to avoid runny diapers. Every night we washed our Silkie's butt feathers in the shallow bathroom sink and hairdryered her before putting her to roost on her favourite chair (my husband's kitchen chair). Once he forgot to look at the chair and sat on one of her little eggs.

We loved having her in the house - it was like having a toddler underfoot all day. She was fun, funny, learned a lot of voice and hand signals, and got very good at telling us what she wanted. But frankly I was glad to finally have her old enough to integrate into the outdoor flock. She still comes into the house to visit but her first love is being outdoors with the other hens - flock birds you know!

 

[mtbrenon]

I am learning so much from BYC. Has anyone out there ever been able to potty train a chicken? I see in some of the pictures that the chickens are wearing diapers. I understand chickens follow simple commands. Is it possible to potty train them? I definitely would get two silkies so they would have their much needed chicken socialization.