Ribh's D'Coopage

[MaryJanet]

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
I love my birds. I do everything in my power to give them the best environment, the best food, enough space & not too many flock mates & still too much stuff is going wrong! It is making me feel terrible. I should be doing better than this! Yet last night I noticed my sweet Alpia had a watery eye. This morning she had full blown bubbles.

I swabbed her eye with warm water with a little betadine diluted in it & immediately separated her from the rest of the flock ~ which did not make her happy @ all! She has been telling me about it all morning.

View attachment 2158367

And boy! Did I get an earful!

She has food & water & some sun in the little coop & the 2nd swab I did, I did with a saline solution while giving her the once over in the Big Coop. Her eye is looking better but I am worried about MG. I have scheduled a vet appointment. She may be going to the mainland with us tomorrow or seeing the vet here on Thursday. I am hoping whatever it was I pulled of the lid was what has caused the problems but this is just the sweetest little hen ever. She is friendly, approachable, easily handled ~ not even a lot of squawking while I dabbed @ her eye! She deserves a long & healthy life ~ the best of everything. Instead I am watching her like a hawk for signs of respiratory illness. Any spare prayers for her health would be appreciated.

And yes, I posted in emergencies & diseases ~ only to have the MG suspicion confirmed. I've caught it early so hopefully that will make the difference.​

Oh no! Poor Alpia I'm so sorry Ribh. It's not you, it's the flippin wildbirds.

Good luck with the vet. I think an appointment is a good call. At least you'll know what it is with greater certainty and if there's a medication, the vet can provide it.

Oh man, fingers and toes crossed

 

[Ribh]

Oh no! Poor Alpia I'm so sorry Ribh. It's not you, it's the flippin wildbirds.

Good luck with the vet. I think an appointment is a good call. At least you'll know what it is with greater certainty and if there's a medication, the vet can provide it.

Oh man, fingers and toes crossed

There's not much I can do about the wild birds ~ & we have lots of them. I love them. I do not love the diseases they carry.

 

[MaryJanet]

There's not much I can do about the wild birds ~ & we have lots of them. I love them. I do not love the diseases they carry.

I'm in the same boat although my affection for them is waning. I need to get on with the big henhouse so the hens can be segregated from the disease carriers. Hopefully I can accelerate that project with this year's tax return.

 

[BY Bob]

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
I love my birds. I do everything in my power to give them the best environment, the best food, enough space & not too many flock mates & still too much stuff is going wrong! It is making me feel terrible. I should be doing better than this! Yet last night I noticed my sweet Alpia had a watery eye. This morning she had full blown bubbles.

I swabbed her eye with warm water with a little betadine diluted in it & immediately separated her from the rest of the flock ~ which did not make her happy @ all! She has been telling me about it all morning.

View attachment 2158367

And boy! Did I get an earful!

She has food & water & some sun in the little coop & the 2nd swab I did, I did with a saline solution while giving her the once over in the Big Coop. Her eye is looking better but I am worried about MG. I have scheduled a vet appointment. She may be going to the mainland with us tomorrow or seeing the vet here on Thursday. I am hoping whatever it was I pulled of the lid was what has caused the problems but this is just the sweetest little hen ever. She is friendly, approachable, easily handled ~ not even a lot of squawking while I dabbed @ her eye! She deserves a long & healthy life ~ the best of everything. Instead I am watching her like a hawk for signs of respiratory illness. Any spare prayers for her health would be appreciated.

And yes, I posted in emergencies & diseases ~ only to have the MG suspicion confirmed. I've caught it early so hopefully that will make the difference.​

Oh no. My brother's hens suffer from that. We will pray for her.

This is the hardest thing. You are doing everything right. Get her to the doctor and get the prescription. As soon as you reasonably can. That's all you can do.

This may not be comforting but this is nature at work. We can do everything possible to prevent it and it will still happen. Take good care of her, get her the treatment she needs. We will all pray for you and her.

Please let me know if I can help in any way. You definitely seem stressed. I can at least do this.

 

[Ribh]

@MaryJanet I hope you have better luck than I am likely to as we are leaving the trees in the run ~ which will make covering it awkward, though still possible. Unfortunately that will not stop the wild birds. I blame the parrot family mostly ~ & them I could happily do without. Noisy, rambunctious things!

 

[MaryJanet]

@MaryJanet I hope you have better luck than I am likely to as we are leaving the trees in the run ~ which will make covering it awkward, though still possible. Unfortunately that will not stop the wild birds. I blame the parrot family mostly ~ & them I could happily do without. Noisy, rambunctious things!

If I had trees, I'd keep them too. But dad took them all out years ago and the new ones I planted are still tiny.

 

[Ribh]

Oh no. My brother's hens suffer from that. We will pray for her.

This is the hardest thing. You are doing everything right. Get her to the doctor and get the prescription. As soon as you reasonably can. That's all you can do.

This may not be comforting but this is nature at work. We can do everything possible to prevent it and it will still happen. Take good care of her, get her the treatment she needs. We will all pray for you and her.

Please let me know if I can help in any way. You definitely seem stressed. I can at least do this.

Thanks, Bob. It's appreciated. I am stressed. I hate losing birds ~ & I feel like I've lost too many in the years I've been keeping them. It is disheartening & worrisome.

 

[BY Bob]

Thanks, Bob. It's appreciated. I am stressed. I hate losing birds ~ & I feel like I've lost too many in the years I've been keeping them. It is disheartening & worrisome.

You know I understand. I lost 3 in about 2 years (I'm not counting Jabberwocky) from a flock that maxed out at 4 hens during that time.

Sometimes it feels like you can't do anything right and the world is against you and your girls, but that is not so. You do lots right. You can't control wild birds no matter how hard you try. Unless you want your girls to live in a sterile environment and that would be no life for them.

Mitigate where you can and accept a certain level of risk. It is all any of us can do.

I know all of what I am saying does not relieve the stress you feel. Only Alpia getting better will do that. I just hope that at some point this will help.

 

[LozzyR]

Thanks, Bob. It's appreciated. I am stressed. I hate losing birds ~ & I feel like I've lost too many in the years I've been keeping them. It is disheartening & worrisome.

I’m so sorry Ribh, I hope the vet can give you something to fix it. What is MG? I have trouble keeping wild birds out of the run too.

 

[Ribh]

MG= Mycoplasma gallisepticum . Here is a link:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext... Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf