Sdwd

[Lacy Blues]

Very nice Kathy!

Hey, does anybody know what can be done for a pendulous crop? I have one Delaware pullet who is hangin' pretty low. Is there a cure that doesn't involve a lot of time and expense. They're just meat birds after all and I was going to sell a rooster with maybe 5 hens to help pay for a bag or two of feed. If it has to be 4 hens, so be it. But if anyone has a simple, inexpensive cure, I'd appreciate some input. Thanks.

 

[speckledhen]

Lots of experience with that here with the Orps. There is no cure for pendulous crop, no matter what anyone tells you. I also have a vet to back me up on this one. It's a genetic predisposition in the BBS Orps, never had it with Delawares, but it tends to become worse with age until the crop no longer functions at all. A vet can do a "crop tuck", but eventually, the muscles will stretch back out again. You can try to keep it under control with limited feedings, but again, it gets worse with age. My own Smoky died from that eventually and her daughter, Athena, owned by Cetawin, also suffers from it.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ok, thank you. I guess that answers that.

 

[Serrin]

Quote: Robert! You fixed it!!! My problem with the tool bar that is. Only it was actually the opposite of that in my case. Hitting the compatability tab straightened it right out! Thank you! I simply didn't think of that. Just goes to show, you never know where the next piece of insight is going to come from. I HAS SMILIES AGAIN!!!

Tim, is the problem with your roo in the hock joint or the hip? I'm having a very similar problem with Evie. I've been keeping her quiet and isolated in the pump house for now. Some days she seems like she's improving and other days seems like she's in a good deal of pain. At least, I think that is the reason for the full body trembling when she stands up.

She's been in the pump house for the better part of a week now. I have so much on my plate at the moment that I can't really do anything more with her than to make her as comfortable as I can. Confinement is the best I can do to that end. Things will quiet down here in about two weeks and at that time, if she hasn't improved significantly, I plan on taking her to the vet. She's not quite three years old yet. Far too young for me to even consider putting her down.

Given a choice between injury and illness, I think I'd rather deal with an injury. Those, at least, I figure I have a fighting chance at helping them. You'd be amazed at just how bad of an injury a chicken can recover from. Just ask my two little hawk attack survivors, Cleo and Charlotte! Dayum! A comparable injury to a human would have likely been fatal!

 

[speckledhen]

You can always try to fix it, but he could end up with permanent damage, like Zane, and be crippled. Leg injuries are a bear to fix, if they can be fixed at all. Takes ages.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Robert! You fixed it!!! My problem with the tool bar that is. Only it was actually the opposite of that in my case. Hitting the compatability tab straightened it right out! Thank you! I simply didn't think of that. Just goes to show, you never know where the next piece of insight is going to come from. I HAS SMILIES AGAIN!!!

Tim, is the problem with your roo in the hock joint or the hip? I'm having a very similar problem with Evie. I've been keeping her quiet and isolated in the pump house for now. Some days she seems like she's improving and other days seems like she's in a good deal of pain. At least, I think that is the reason for the full body trembling when she stands up.

She's been in the pump house for the better part of a week now. I have so much on my plate at the moment that I can't really do anything more with her than to make her as comfortable as I can. Confinement is the best I can do to that end. Things will quiet down here in about two weeks and at that time, if she hasn't improved significantly, I plan on taking her to the vet. She's not quite three years old yet. Far too young for me to even consider putting her down.

Given a choice between injury and illness, I think I'd rather deal with an injury. Those, at least, I figure I have a fighting chance at helping them. You'd be amazed at just how bad of an injury a chicken can recover from. Just ask my two little hawk attack survivors, Cleo and Charlotte! Dayum! A comparable injury to a human would have likely been fatal!

If you want to help her with pain, you can give her some chopped up frozen blueberries. I give about a tablespoon at a time to birds who appear to be in pain. Blueberries have natural aspirin in them and if you can get her to eat them, they will help her.

I'd like to know what you did to save your two victims of hawks. Any time I've had hawk victims, I couldn't stop the infection and ended up having to put them down, so I'd be VERY interested in learning how you did it.

 

[Serrin]

Lacy Blue, I've had to go through this twice and only twice, thank heaven, so I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. But, I'm more than happy to pass along the steps I took, as infection was my biggest fear with both girls.

First, I cleaned the wounds thoroughly with a sterile wash. To that end, I used the "No Hurt" stuff made by Johnson & Johnson. I flush the wound out with that and a syringe without a needle on it. Several times with about 10cc syringe seems to be enough, but you'll have to be the judge on that. If the wound has gotten a lot of dirt in it, you might want to start with just plain distilled water first to get the solid matter out of it, and then follow up with a few rounds of the sterile solution.

Next, I trim away any skin that has been too badly torn up to be of any use. I was lucky in that Cleo's wound was a pretty straight forward laceration. Charlotte took a great deal more effort as the hawk not only ripped her from hock to beyond the hip joint, but had also plowed Charlotte into the ground, thereby forcing all kinds of dirt and debris into the wound. So, a lot of skin needed to be removed from Charlotte.

After trimming away the skin that was too badly damaged to save, I packed the wound site with tribiotic ointment. Neosporin does nicely for this, but it's more expensive than a store brand of tribiotic.

I then stitch the wound with the smallest suture I can find. I've been blessed in having a human doctor who loves my girls almost as much as I do and has kept me supplied with some very nice pre-threaded suture kits. You can also find them online at various veterinary supply places. Look for the smallest ones you can find.

I use sort of a running stitch to bring the two sides of the wound together, leaving a small opening at both the top and bottom ends of the closure. This allows for drainage of the wound as it heals. After I have everything closed up, I use another syringe to pump more tribiotic into the wound at the site of the drain holes. I pump that in, usually from the top opening, until it runs out at the bottom. I DO NOT wrap the wound. It needs to breathe, IMHO. I check the wound several times per day for the first 4 or 5 days, adding more tribiotic as needed as well as applying some to the surface of the skin. This helps to keep the wound site supple, which will help the chicken to heal more comfortably as well as discourages infection.

Hope that all helps you out the next time [and you know there will always be a next time] you have to deal with it.

Thanks for the tip on the blueberries. I just happen to have some in the freezer. I'll definitely give that a try ASAP!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Lacy Blue, I've had to go through this twice and only twice, thank heaven, so I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. But, I'm more than happy to pass along the steps I took, as infection was my biggest fear with both girls.

First, I cleaned the wounds thoroughly with a sterile wash. To that end, I used the "No Hurt" stuff made by Johnson & Johnson. I flush the wound out with that and a syringe without a needle on it. Several times with about 10cc syringe seems to be enough, but you'll have to be the judge on that. If the wound has gotten a lot of dirt in it, you might want to start with just plain distilled water first to get the solid matter out of it, and then follow up with a few rounds of the sterile solution.

Next, I trim away any skin that has been too badly torn up to be of any use. I was lucky in that Cleo's wound was a pretty straight forward laceration. Charlotte took a great deal more effort as the hawk not only ripped her from hock to beyond the hip joint, but had also plowed Charlotte into the ground, thereby forcing all kinds of dirt and debris into the wound. So, a lot of skin needed to be removed from Charlotte.

After trimming away the skin that was too badly damaged to save, I packed the wound site with tribiotic ointment. Neosporin does nicely for this, but it's more expensive than a store brand of tribiotic.

I then stitch the wound with the smallest suture I can find. I've been blessed in having a human doctor who loves my girls almost as much as I do and has kept me supplied with some very nice pre-threaded suture kits. You can also find them online at various veterinary supply places. Look for the smallest ones you can find.

I use sort of a running stitch to bring the two sides of the wound together, leaving a small opening at both the top and bottom ends of the closure. This allows for drainage of the wound as it heals. After I have everything closed up, I use another syringe to pump more tribiotic into the wound at the site of the drain holes. I pump that in, usually from the top opening, until it runs out at the bottom. I DO NOT wrap the wound. It needs to breathe, IMHO. I check the wound several times per day for the first 4 or 5 days, adding more tribiotic as needed as well as applying some to the surface of the skin. This helps to keep the wound site supple, which will help the chicken to heal more comfortably as well as discourages infection.

Hope that all helps you out the next time [and you know there will always be a next time] you have to deal with it.

Thanks for the tip on the blueberries. I just happen to have some in the freezer. I'll definitely give that a try ASAP!!

Thank you very much for that. I have copied it and put it in my Chicken Emergency file.

 

[Serrin]

I think the very best piece of advice I can give you overall, is to have a comprehensive chicken first aid kit on hand. I keep all sorts of things in mine. Everything from pre-packaged sutures to the sterile wash, tweezers, tribiotic ointment, syringes, self adhesive sport tape [for wrapping feet following the removal of a bumble] gauze pads, disposable sterilized scalpels, a large terry towel to wrap the bird up in to keep them immobilized, splints for leg injuries, [think clean Popsicle sticks] injectable antibiotics [but be sure you know what you have and what its intended use is for. Not all antibiotics are appropriate for all illnesses/injuries].......and that's about all my poor old tired brain can think of at the moment.

But, in a nutshell, a well appointed first aid kit is worth its weight in gold! You just never know when you're going to need it, and having all of those things and more, on hand before you need them, can save the life of one of your little feathered friends. I've seen/heard of people putting down birds for an injury that by all rights, the bird should have been able to survive, IF the owner had simply had a well stocked first aid kit and a little bit of knowledge. A good dose of courage helps too!

When it comes to chickens, very few of us are blessed with having a vet available that will treat a chicken. [more is the pity

] So, one has to improvise and teach oneself to the best of our abilities. Oh what I wouldn't give for a couple years of vet tech training under my belt. I could probably build a respectable practice completely around the treating of sick and injured chickens in my area!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Here's one for your emergency kit. If you don't have Blood Stop powder, you can use cayenne pepper. It works great!

My daughter has a bird that we have decided is a hemophiliac! He had the smallest little nick on his comb and he just about bled out before we got it stopped. Luckily my brother and his wife were here and told me about cayenne. I happened to have some and didn't spare its application. It finally got it stopped! Just be careful not to get it in the eyes or nasal passages.

Along those lines... hemophilia... alfalfa is high in Vit K to strengthen clotting and alfalfa also builds blood. Fresh is best but alfalfa pellets work fine too. I don't have fresh but have been putting the pellets in my fermented feed mix and it has been working for him.

Recently, he was fighting through a fence with another rooster and pulled off one of his spurs. It bled but then stopped on its own. We were holding our breathe, I can tell you, to see how he did with that little incident.