Sdwd

[joletabey]

Just checking in quick - we are "on vacation" taking little mini day trips to places around here we have not see - Linville Caverns, Grandfather Mountain - my dear DH dug all the posts holes for a new run for my English Orps, and we are still going to take in Blowing Rock and do some flea markets and see Secretariat - I keep looking for chickens while we drive

Kathy, do I need to look for NHR hens in Ohio? If we want the best New Indian Rivers, we need to start with the best BR roos and NHR hens! We mowed down the front pasture, and I have the area all set in my mind for the coop and run for the Great Experiment!

Cyn, you can win Tom back, I know you can! Make some of those awesome lemon bars.

Cetawin, do we have dates for Joleta yet? Amy, NO MORE HARD WINTERS! Hey to Tim and Scott and Nella and everyone else!

I miss everyone -

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
OMG Yes!

You should see some of the "someday" piles we have laying around out here!!! Of course, being the neatness freaks that DH and I both are, they're pretty much nice tidy piles for the most part. Or at least they would be if they weren't constantly getting crapped up with pine needles!

I swear these dang pines drop their needles all year round! And as soon as they get done with the pine needles, then here comes the pine CONES!

Would anyone like a nice big box of pine cones for crafting purposes? Just pay the shipping and I'll send ya as big of a box as ya want!

They're nice big pine cones, with lots of color and very clean! Come on! Ya know you want a box!!!

Anyhow, we have finally managed to put a bit of a dent in my favorite pile. It's a whole bunch of panels from Chevron gas stations. You've probably seen them and didn't even realize what they're made of. The next time you pull into an older Chevron station, look at the big lighted banner thingies over each pump island. It's covered in the station logo with a kind of vinyl tape. That's so when it's lit up from within the box, you can see that sucker at night from miles away.

Anyway, if you remove that vinyl tape stuff, guess what you have left? Give up? I'll tell ya! Clear Poly-carbon panels, just like the kind used in greenhouses!! Actually, this stuff is a bit heavier than what I've seen in most little home greenhouse/garden shed structures like you can purchase at Home Depot and such. We have more than enough right now to do what I want to do yet for the chickens covered runs and the like. I'm not sure how much will be left over after that. There's a million and one uses for that stuff at our place!

But, if I run out of this pile, I know exactly where to get more. Our neighbor next door [Peter] works for a company who is currently upgrading all of the Chevron stations in the Spokane/Eastern Washington and North Idaho area. The owner of the business is a bit of a pack rat who refuses to pay the high fees for disposal at the landfill, so most of these panels have ended up at his place. Lucky us! We get it FOR FREE!!! As much as we want!

I'm more than happy to put the sweat equity into stripping off all of that vinyl tape to clean them up and get at those beautiful clear panels!

With a good heat gun, it takes me about two hours to completely strip both sides of a panel roughly 3 foot wide by 12 feet long. If the panel is being really good and cooperative, I can strip both sides in an hour. But they aren't usually that cooperative.

But still, it's well worth it! Just go out and price that stuff! One word: EXPENSIVE!!!

That's just one of the "Someday" piles. Tons more of that kind of stuff out here. Denny always makes the joke of what a great auction is going to happen at our place when he passes on. [most of the piles we have came from auction at ridiculously cheap prices!

] I told him not to worry about it. He can't die until we've exhausted all of the piles, and by that time, I'll have new piles for him to work with!

OH! Almost forgot. I managed to get out of the house today and pick up pretty much everything I need to do Evie's bumblefoot!!

Cetawin, you might be getting a call from me in a day or two sweetie. I may need you to hold my hand through the removal process! Unless of course, I can get Robin from next door to come over and give me a hand with her.

And I really hope she can. Her daughter Megan completed her internship and passed all of her exams to be a full fledged veterinarian about a year ago!

If they're both willing, I'd like to have Robin come over to help me hold Evie through the whole process and at the same time, have Megan on the phone to help talk me through it all. I just need someone to sort of hold my hand. I've never done anything like this and I'm so afraid of hurting poor Evie!

Which brings me to a question that is nagging at the back of my mind. Of those of you who have performed this procedure on your own birds, [Nella, you pop into my mind first as you've just done this!] what, if anything, did you use to sedate your bird? I'm at a total loss here. Just the mere thought of digging into her foot with nothing to dull the pain or anxiety for her makes me shudder!

What about afterward. Is there anything I can give her to help ease the pain? I thought about giving her half of a baby aspirin, but then thought better of it, due to the blood thinning properties of aspirin. Can a chicken metabolize Ibuprofen?

I have NO idea what would be safe to give her, either before or after the surgery, to help her be more comfortable. I just don't want to cause her any pain!!!!!!

She's such a sweetheart and has always trusted me. I don't want to betray that trust. Aw crumble cups! Maybe I'm just over thinking this whole thing?!

 

[kathyinmo]

Beth,
I am so glad you are vacationing. Hope you are having a great time. When we lived in Iowa, we did that too ... just went around to all the Iowa points of interest that we hadn't seen. It was really fun.

Yes, we do need some really nice New Hampshires. I left a phone message for that guy in Rome, Georgia, but have not heard back. Scott might be able to check that out for us. This guy is suppose to have great New Hampshires. If no luck there, maybe you will see some in Ohio. Hope we can move on with our project by spring.

Amy,
WOW, you got lucky with those panels for sure! Those sound wonderful, and a nice large size. Isn't it amazing what some people will just throw away? Lucky for you that the guy didn'y want to pay the landfill price to dispose of them.

I love your BYC page, Amy. I look forward to the next segment! I know .... I am sure you do, too!

Tim,
Did you look online for some instructions for that old bator? I was thinking that if you google it, maybe you could find them.

 

[NellaBean]

Quote:
I used nothing to sedate my bird. I laid her on her side and covered everything except for her feet with a sweatshirt (I forgot to bring a towel). I did feel sorry for her as she obviously felt pain. But if left untreated she would die a painful death, so I figured no pain no gain. And then gave her a bunch of scratch afterwards to make amends

I did go ahead last night and unwrap her foot. the bottom is looking a lot better than expected. The one top side looks okay. The other top side looks just as bad as the other day. It is leaking and bleeding and gross. I put more antibotic ointment on all three areas, rewrapped it and then gave her a big fat shot of LA200 (effective against staph infections). I won't have time to cut back into it until Sunday since I'm going out of town this weekend and don't want to do it and then leave for 2 days.

She looked as happy as normal this morning (ha). And she has laid a giant white egg every day she has been locked up in the garage, as always. Still a wild crazy hen but I'll have to get this foot issue under control before letting her back out of the garage.

My dad "helped" me rewrap last night by holding her. He got all prepared, got his gloves on.....I showed him how to hold her....as he was holding her he said "this is the first time I have ever held a chicken on the OUTSIDE of my stomach".

LOL. Crazy dad. It was his first time ever holding a chicken. Every time he visits he asks me if I have any mean roosters to watch out for.....if so, I have to escort him outside. My big jersey giant rooster attacked him a couple times last year and he started carrying a rake or 2x4 around the yard with him after that. Hilarious. He is traumatized for life, apparently.

 

[kathyinmo]

Nella, Your dad sounds like a hoot. I'm betting you are having a great time with him. Is he getting alot of work done for you? A helpful dad? I envy those with parents still around. My mother died at 46, and I still miss her over 30 years later.

Tim, Are you going to the Yankee Classic in Syracuse? I have read about it on a couple other threads, and they say it is usually a pretty good one to go to. If you do, will you get pictures for us?

 

[speckledhen]

If you cut around the edges right at the scab, Amy, it isn't as painful as digging in new fresh skin will be. Carefully lift out the scab so that any cheesy gunk has a chance to stay with the scab. If you're lucky, like we were with Riley yesterday, the stuff will lift out with the scab and pull to the surface some more with it. We didn't have to actually dig in her foot, just used tweezers to pull the stuff out. Then we gave it a squeeze to see if more popped out. Only fat squeezed out (fat is clearish-white, not solid cheesy looking) so we squirted our "solution" into the hole, put a piece of cotton tshirt over that and wrapped it with some other tshirt material, going between the toes, in and out then wrapping around her ankle area and put tape around the top of the bandage.

Our solution consists of silver sulfadiazene cream like they use to prevent infection in burn victims, antibiotic ointment and a tiny sprinkle of sea salt (not much salt, though). That seems to work as well as anything. We never use oral or injectible antibiotics.

 

[rancher hicks]

Kath: I did look on line and am still searching. Imagine getting a site for chickens brooders and getting sent to porn sites or costume sites or some other darn thing. I sent someone to "backyardchicken.com and because i left off the "s" they got directed to porn sites. Lord have mercy! Was I embarassed.

Iv'e posted to CL in a few places in the state and one person responeded to tell me the same thing. "Google it". Well duh! "Contact the company", well duh! It's not likely the company that made these things is stilll in business or would have parts. Much less an instruction manual. If you think instructions are bad now. The ones to assemble the incubator are alot worse. What I'm missing is the "lamp" which heats up the "boiler". Plus there is a "trip wire in the burner" but I don't know what this is cuz I've never seen one. According to the information I have the temp is supposed to be 101. This is not something I want to attempt in the house lest I burn the place down. It uses the "wafer" many of the simplistic incubators we have. The brooders are the same. I'm just not sure how much any of these are worth the trouble.

This incubator would be cool for someone who lives without electricity or semi so. Course if the economy keeps going the way it is that might be alot of us.

I can find ads for the incubator but none for the brooders.

If I can get the brooders working they can brood probably 50-100 chicks at a shot. They might even be more energy efficient.

I haven't even heard anything on the tele about the "yankee classic" . I'lll google it and see if there is something there.

 

[Serrin]

OK, now I have a bunch more questions! But first things first! GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!!

There! That's better!

Cyn, you say you never give oral or injectable antibiotics after treating for bumblefoot. I'm curious as to why not. Will it interfere with the antibiotic ointment that you've applied to the wound?

I bought the smallest bottle of injectable penicillin yesterday, along with a bunch of other stuff [i.e. sterile gauze, no hurt wound wash, triple antibiotic ointment...etc, etc, etc] and now I'm wondering if I should just take back the penicillin. It's really fresh stuff with a pull date of December, 2012. Would it hurt at all to keep it around and refrigerated?

I'd also like to know if I should soak her foot real well in some Epsom's salts before I attempt this. Of course, that would be after I clean the foot thoroughly. And such a dirty little foot it is too!!

My thinking is that if I can soften it up considerably, that might help with the pain issue as well. Your thoughts folks?

If I do decide to, or it turns out that I need to administer the penicillin, how much should I give her and how often. I did pick up the 20 gauge needles and some 6 cc syringes at the same time as I bought the pen. I know it goes in the breast, but beyond that, no clue!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of other questions before I finally pull on my big girl pants and just do this! But right now, I've got to get out there and take care of the boys and the rest of the gang. Any thoughts y'all care to jot down in the mean time will, as always, be greatly appreciated!

You guys are the greatest!!

Have a great day everyone!

 

[speckledhen]

Cyn, you say you never give oral or injectable antibiotics after treating for bumblefoot. I'm curious as to why not. Will it interfere with the antibiotic ointment that you've applied to the wound?

No. When my Violet, rest her sweet soul, had one bumblefoot infection after another in her first couple years of life, we used many injectible antibiotics to try and fix it, including penicillin, lincomycin, cephalexin, etc, while we did surgery upon surgery. Nothing seemed to work any better than just getting the crud out and staying on top of the rebandaging. Poor Vi should have glowed in the dark after all that! You can use your penicillin (warm it up to room temp before injecting or they will really squirm!) or just keep it in case of injuries. I always keep some in the fridge. It can get thick but can be diluted with sterile saline if need be.​

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I think it is 1/2 cc. I will go look it up.