Ruby is unwell :(

[Kiki]

Ya the issue is it has to be weatherproof in the winter down to 20 degrees and handle lot of rain (like atmospheric river!) during the winter and spring!!!

This makes me wonder if you have enough ventilation in your coop to begin with.
Can you post pictures of it?

Chicken coops still need to have good ventilation in the winter.

 

[Kathy Golla]

I definitely could use the input...I probably shouldn’t post it on the emergency board, I will create a sep post and tag everyone here when I have a minute. Kids are out of school on Friday, busy week this week.

 

[micstrachan]

We interrupt this program to say, “Gooo, Ruby!” The last girl just turned in, and I was happy to find Ruby has NOT been booted off the roost. Not only that, but she is on the TOP roost with the highest ranked girls! She has NEVER roosted up there, as far as ai know. Maybe she’s decided, “If I’m going to live this life, I’m going to live BIG!” Or maybe she just decided she was tired of getting pummeled. Either way, it’s good!
I did not dose her with calcium tonight, but I might in the morning. Got one tiny beak dip in straight nutridrench. She is eating and drinking well on her own. She seems to be recovering, but I’m keeping close watch, have amoxicillin on the way (just in case... lookalike I may not need it right now), and am considering a switch in feed.
The calcium I gave her over the weekend is in the photo. It turns out the other calcium I have on hand is calcium carbonate, so I won’t bother. Is there any harm in dosing her again with the calcium in the photo? She seemed to respond well, but it has other vitamins in it.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Super good news!
Calcium citrate 400 mg with d3 1x/day is recommended...
That’s some fancy calcium!
Will be interested in if other vitamins hurt...I suspect not...those aren’t a lot of extra mgs of the other vitamins.

 

[micstrachan]

Ok, thanks. This is only 125mg, so I’ll get some calcium citrate.

 

[Kathy Golla]

You have calcium citrate right there, silly, you just have to get to 400/day in dosage.

 

[micstrachan]

Oh right, duh. I was thinking there are pill or capsules that come in a higher dosage so I would only have to use one. These are actually capsules with powder, so I can just open a few, I guess!

 

[Kiki]

Feeding higher protein amounts than needed is know to cause higher fat deposits.

Just a few paragraphs of this book:
https://www.nap.edu/read/2114/chapter/3#15

 

[micstrachan]

Oh, no! That is not good. Where is that in the text? I have already mentioned in other posts that Ruby has a bulge below her vent that looks like a fatty deposit, even though I figured it couldn’t be that based on their diet. I seriously need to spend more time understanding more about poultry metabolism and nutritional requirements.
I did see in this text you provided that high levels of magnesium should not be used in poultry. The calcium I’ve been giving Ruby has magnesium. I hope I haven’t done anything detrimental to her. I will stop that immediately.
Ok... so if she actually DOES have fatty deposits, is there any way to get them back down? I have asked this question before, too, but don’t remember getting a straight answer. Here I was all proud that my flock has been doing great on this high protein feed and I may be killing them! Ack!

 

[micstrachan]

Hmmmm... I just downloaded the book to pdf and put it through a search. Can’t find anything on high protein and fatty deposits. Can you please cite the source? Thanks!