Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

Good for Fret. She has been through a lot , certainly.

I searched through my emails but seems I threw away the relevant one from the ASPAS federation calling for adoption. I did find the update from the shelter that collected the hens and kept eight of those remaining. They explained that the actual rescue operation was led by another association that operates in a more classical manner, rescuing thousand of hens, and they took out of those 20. Then they took care of organizing vet visits and care when necessary, implants, and adoptions. So there was indeed an intermediate, which would as you mentioned pose a biosecurity problem, hens being moved twice.

They also said that even with the implant and vet care, one of the hens they kept died about a month after, of infection.
It's not only paying initially, but also about being able to maintain the hen on the implant if she's doing well with it both financially and taking her to the vet every four to six months.

As for having an idea of the life span gained by suprelorin/ deslorin implants.... not sure there is enough data yet to know. @RoyalChick did some research and could maybe say. I have been following rescues who use them, with the impression that most of the time they are used once a hen already has reproductive issues, so they will extend life for a year, maybe two, but not "save" it. The person I asked about it said although there could be secondary effects in some cases, it was worth giving them a try, and sometimes it could help a hen through a difficult pass and then the reproductive system seems to get back on track and she can get off it.
For those associations that are operated by "anti-specists" (sorry, I lack the vocabulary to express exactly my meaning) I believe using implants is done systematically, almost as an animal right gesture, to allow the hens to lead a life without having to lay.

I did look into it and the data was mixed. Some very good results. Some less so.
However in the course of doing so I found a fair bit of data on using progesterone-only oral contraceptives in chickens and that having very good results and very safe.
They are also available over the counter in many countries now.
So I decided if I ever wanted to suppress ovulation in one of my chickens I would go the oral contraceptive route rather than the implant.

 

[fuzzi]

It used to be the same in Vermont, at least in farm country, when I was growing up, but a lot of the big city escapees from Mass and NY have kind of ruined it up there. The Carolinas are still very strongly community minded. It is very nice here, except the heat..lol

A childhood friend from Connecticut now lives in Vermont. She has told me that the New Yorkers (city types) have ruined it. I read about a man who owns 30 acres in Vermont, who was told by a nearby town council that he couldn't have a firing range on his own property. He's out in the country. Now they're going to arrest him, then bulldoze his buildings. Who died and made them God?

 

[fuzzi]

This is all so lovely. Exactly what I would picture an English countryside garden to look like. I've actually never been to the English countryside, but did spend a year traipsing around Ireland in the mid 1990s (well before it became a theme park for rich people). But I have read "Watership Down" oh about two thousand times. Whenever I see your allotment pictures, I'm expecting to see the ears of Hazel or Bigwig or Dandelion or the dreaded General Woundwort sticking up through one of those vegetable patches.

That was also one of my favorite parts of @Perris article on feed: the list of the forage plants on his property read like a character list from that wonderful book.

Finally! Someone who can identify the rabbit on the right. The one on the left is Dandelion.

 

[Iluveggers]

has told me that the New Yorkers (city types) have ruined it.

Thank you for specifying city. Rural upstate is much like the south, friendly and reasonable.

 

[bruceha2000]

I read about a man who owns 30 acres in Vermont, who was told by a nearby town council that he couldn't have a firing range on his own property. He's out in the country. Now they're going to arrest him, then bulldoze his buildings. Who died and made them God?

No one, you don't have enough information. He put up all the buildings and started a gun training business without getting any permits. Flagrant violation of the laws in place. 30 acres might seem like a lot but I have 25 and I sure wouldn't think my neighbors would be happy with having such a business next door. Get permits or don't build.

 

[TropicalChickies]

View attachment 3569369
Finally! Someone who can identify the rabbit on the right. The one on the left is Dandelion.

That would be Blackberry. The clever one.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I did look into it and the data was mixed. Some very good results. Some less so.
However in the course of doing so I found a fair bit of data on using progesterone-only oral contraceptives in chickens and that having very good results and very safe.
They are also available over the counter in many countries now.
So I decided if I ever wanted to suppress ovulation in one of my chickens I would go the oral contraceptive route rather than the implant.

Very interesting. If you have any links on oral contraceptives for chickens, please share.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'm so pleased to read this, for her and for you. If it's gone on for 10 months, I think your (both your) perseverance deserves a medal! Most people would have given up and culled long since I suspect.

She's had her ups and downs. If she was in a permanent state of illness and misery, I'm not sure what I would have done, but she always had enough good days for me to think she was still getting something out of life. But for the past month, she's been steadily and markedly improving more than the past nine months combined.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Tax. Two birds in the hole.

 

[RoyalChick]

Very interesting. If you have any links on oral contraceptives for chickens, please share.

Here is one article - I notice they actually injected the progesterone - I don't recall whether I found a study using oral administration.
Anyway, the study is designed to look at ovarian cancer in humans, but what they do is use the chicken as a model for human disease (as noted earlier in the thread, hens and women are both prone to spontaneous ovarian cancer).
What they find is that progesterone reduces the rate of cancer and reduces the rate of egg laying in the hens.
I discussed it with my vet and we both thought it would be worth a try in the appropriate circumstances
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273612/