Pipd's Peeps!

[Crazy Maizie]

Boo on the cochin.

Yeah, the RK I got them from is only ordering from Hoovers at least for now. The manager that runs the dept told me and when you go look at the breeds available it's a Hoovers poster. That's funny that the website shows a spangled bantam, but the description does not mention them. I hope I got more than one female in the bunch. The 2 you said were cockerels from coloring are showing their combs already as well. I didn't see any noticeable comb on the others yet.

I've seen intestinal lining from my hens before, so I'm sure that's what it was. I went to check and it was hanging off her butt with poo. I wiped it and it was fleshy.

How is Jack and his foot?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

for plenty of pullets! OEGBs and Cochins are both pretty early to sprout their combs, so you should have a pretty good idea which are boys in a couple more weeks.

I'm wondering then if Hoover's does have Spangleds and just haven't listed them because the description does say including those colors, not conclusively those colors... Or their Black Breasted Reds are just paler than I'm used to them being and I'm just wrong. Equally likely!

Jack's doing great! He does have a tiny bit of a limp still, but looks pretty much back to normal at this point. Phew! I really thought he was going to lose toes from that, thank goodness I was wrong! This morning, I went to pick him up and check on his feet again, and he ran a circle around my feet and splashed into his water dish in the freezing weather we had--I about had a heart attack! But he didn't end up getting his feet too wet from that and it warmed up pretty fast today, so all's good there.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

They definitely can be fast! What a silly guy. That's good to hear about his foot it obviously isn't bothering him.

As far as Hoovers, I couldn't even look at the different breeds of chicks to tell one from another. So, it doesn't matter if you are wrong - you're better at this than me! It really doesn't matter as far as what color they are, I'm just trying to imagine what they will look like grown. I appreciate the help and input.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

As of this morning, Myrtle is showing the same symptoms I noticed in Dandelion a few weeks before she passed away. Still as sassy as ever, still making sure the others know who's boss, but sort of hunched, a little pale, and not really eating, plus just like Dandy she's got a bunch of pin feathers on her head. It's scarily similar. Since she is not having issues with the other birds and not lost a ton of weight like Dandy had, I've left her out there for the time being, but will be tube feeding her at least a couple times a day to make sure she doesn't lose too much weight and has some energy to hopefully fight off whatever this is.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

That's strange. What do you think it is? Molting? Is she the same breed?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Same breed, same age, out of the same clutch of eggs so potentially even siblings or half-siblings. I'm worried it's something genetic and my efforts won't change anything. Dandy had issues her entire life, but this is the first problem Myrtle has really had... though she did have a prolapse one time that corrected itself with minimal intervention from me and that was not long after Dandy first started having her prolapse issues if I remember correctly. Or, possibly it's something related to the hormone changes that cause molt, but both Myrtle and Dandelion molted months ago and were / are finishing out, the pins on the head being the last of their feather regrowth. No other birds have shown similar symptoms, including in the same pens as them, and neither have been in the same pen with one another in over a year, so it's not environmental or terribly contageous unless both of them happen to be more susceptible to something, maybe coccidia? It's so hard to say beyond speculation. We'll see how tubing her goes, though, and maybe try some other things if that doesn't help.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I hope the extra nutrition works.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

One of the crele boys is the sweetest. He jumps into my hand and lays there. The other ones haven't decided I'm friendly enough yet. My 2 sapphire gems are interested in me, but don't want to be held. The cochin is huge in comparison. I'm wondering of he was left over from a batch of standard birds and got placed with the bantams?
I'm still having poop issues with the barred rocks and the barred oegb. The rocks have pasty butt, that I've been treating. One pooped out a weird drier type of poop with intestinal lining. I've given her some coconut oil to help. The barred oegb has more of a runny poop that sticks to the skin. I switched from olive oil to vaseline because it's so dry when I look at it and I feel like I'm "cooking" them with the heat lamp and oil.
It's just weird that my barred birds are the ones having issues.

How's Myrtle? Have you tube fed her yet? Taking advantage of the nice weather today?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, poor babies. Have you tested the temperature at the far end of the brooder from the lamp? Sometimes heat lamps are warm enough that the whole brooder stays too warm so there's nowhere for the chicks to go to cool off. That's the only thing I can think of that can cause pasty butts like that, especially considering the darkest babies seem to be the only ones with the issue. Ideally, you'd want it to be around room temperature at the cool end while under the lamp stays around 95°F.

Myrtle's looking okay still beyond being a bit hunched, and still sassing everyone like usual, so I'll take it as a good sign. I just checked on them maybe an hour ago, and apparently scared the daylights out of them when I peeked around the coop into their yard, oops. I tubed her this morning and was just thinking about giving her a midday tubing when you posted.

No big plans today despite the nice weather! I've just been sitting inside all day so far, putting off cleaning the coop because I know today's scooping day and I can't delay another day.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I just gave Myrtle another feeding, a little less this time than this morning as she appears to be drinking on her own and eating at least a little bit. She's perky enough, just doesn't have much of an appetite. Some of the tube feeding formula dripped on a board in the pen she's in and she gathered around it with her flock to peck at it, though, so that seems like a good sign!