Silkie thread!

[bantambury]

would you guys recommend trimming by soon to be mom broody hen's head fluff? she is on 2 eggs, day 19, with one internally pipped. I was worried if she couldn't see the chicks or not to clearly tend to them.

I don't want to cut it relly.....it may be the safest bet. what do you all think?


(I thought this was the cutest!)

 

[Cynthia12]

Can anyone help me out on this color? Hatched in the middle of the night. Would this still be considered a Splash? Both parents are Splash.

Gary, I don't think these are splash. The splash is usually a blue, with darker blue in it, or white, with darker colors, usually a grey or blue or brown. Not sure about the color..anyone else?

 

[bantambury]

Gary, I don't think these are splash. The splash is usually a blue, with darker blue in it, or white, with darker colors, usually a grey or blue or brown. Not sure about the color..anyone else?

that actually looks like a partridge baby @themadchicken

does it have chipmunk stripes down its back?


here is my partridge chick I hatched on new years. if it looks like this, its most likely a partridge.

 

[Cynthia12]

bantam..that's exactly what I was thinking...and,,, you..you are the one that had that cute face on the NYD hatch a long...soooo cute!! It should be on a calender. Did they by chance say anything about putting it on next years calender??

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

ok thank you so much didn't understand why I couldn't breed the pair so wanted to ask didn't make any sense to me at all. You helped me greatly.

You're welcome That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day!

 

[LittleRedCoop53]

I made the mistake of cutting my silkies feathers around the eyes thinking it would help...i made it worst...because it buffed up more and almost totally covered her eyes... i kept cutting and cutting... i finally used some jell ... poor thing . It never did come back as nice but then i'm not sure if she's had a full molt yet...she's still real cute though.
So don't do it....if you can see her eyes she can see just fine...

 

[bantambury]

bantam..that's exactly what I was thinking...and,,, you..you are the one that had that cute face on the NYD hatch a long...soooo cute!! It should be on a calender. Did they by chance say anything about putting it on next years calender??

yep! thanks! I just love it!


nope, but im entering it for the contest this year....im taking off my username though.

 

[roostercantrell]

These are some of Seven I snapped this morning. About a week old, if it's not a true Silkie, bc of no foot feathers, any idea what breed? Thanks.

i have 2 silkie chicks that didnt have feathers on their feet wheni first got them they are 5-6 weeks now and feathers are coming in now

 

[Sylvester017]

What is wrong with your silkie? Has he given you a diagnosis? About the eye worm, The vet looked in his eye and saw nothing then he put a drop of that dye that lets them see in the eye better and he still saw nothing. It hasn't gotten infected again since the first couple of times it just waters then it clumps up his feathers and they get stuck and sometimes to his eye so I check him everyday to see if it needs cleaned up. Today he had matted featers under his eye so tomorrow I'll bring him in and clean it up. He's such a good boy. I set him on the bathroom sink and run warm water and use a wet wash cloth to rub the feathers that are gunked up and if any is on his eye I hold the wash cloth soaking wet on it a few minutes and I can pull it right off. He lets me do it. He knows I"m helping him. I get it cleared up so it don't come back I plan to show him. He is beautiful. He is a red frizzled silkie. I would love to find some red girls to go in his pen.

First time we took our Silkie in she had ripped toe skin and 3 missing toenails and caught her picking at her own blood. I disinfected and bandaged her and put on infant socks the first day and kept her inhouse - we had no idea if she was in a fight, got stuck in something, or what? Next day I took her to the vet and he said I had done a good job to clean her and not to worry about the nails that they would grow back. He said the outside toenails were not as critical on a chicken as the other toes. She had no swelling or infection and was walking normal so no medication needed to be prescribed. We kept her in the house for a week to make sure the toes completely healed and eventually 2 of her 3 torn nails re-grew. One never grew back and the vet said the root of the nail had been pulled out.

About 3 months later she developed a horrific wheeze and my DH and I took turns holding her through the early morning hours because we thought we were losing her. This time the vet assessed her trachea and ruled out worms as I told him the frequency we worm our hens. I guess there's some devastating worm that strangles a chicken's trachea but the Ivermectin I use covers treatment against that worm so he was relieved and glad I was using Ivermectin. His diagnosis was bacterial and he gave her a shot and Tylan for continued home treatment. She was instantly better by the end of that day and the wheezing stopped miraculously. We continued the Tylan treatment and kept her indoors until she was off the Tylan.

3 months later we caught her being OCD in the nestbox to lay her egg and scratching the bottom of the nestbox so hard she had ripped toenails again and bleeding. That's when we cleaned her and wrapped the bleeding toe so she wouldn't chew at it. We lined all the nestboxes with plexiglass to keep her and the other hens from splintering their toes when scratching in the boxes. She is such an OCD Silkie that she scratches hard when dust-bathing, looking for seeds, scratching the straw in the nestboxes, etc. so that's how we figured she hurt and ripped her nails the first time we had to take her to the vet.

About a month ago our sweet but klutzy Ameraucana knocked the Silkie off the nestbox ledge and the Silkie tried to take a couple steps then sat down. We couldn't get her to behave normally and were afraid something got fractured. It was a Sunday and we had to wait overnight for the vet office to open and we took her in immediately. The vet checked her thoroughly for more than broken limbs, he checked her eyes/etc, checked for Mareck's paralysis, etc. His ultimate diagnosis was some tenderness from bruising but nothing requiring more than Metacam to reduce swelling. The medications cost more than the initial vet visit but it was reassuring having a professional render the diagnosis instead of us worrying and wondering and watching a distressed little bird. It is so rewarding to watch an animal's pain or suffering alleviated.

Your little guy sounds like a sweetie. It's heartbreaking not being able to show him til he's well as you don't want that eye problem going on during a show. There's something ongoing to keep it crusting up all the time. It's a shame not to find out what is causing it since antibiotics are only treating the symptom and not the eliminating the cause, darn it. We had to give our sweet Silkie roo back to the breeder who said he was a "pullet" - I had my doubts when she first gave him to us. The Silkie boys are just the cutest little buggers.

 

[Sylvester017]

would you guys recommend trimming by soon to be mom broody hen's head fluff? she is on 2 eggs, day 19, with one internally pipped. I was worried if she couldn't see the chicks or not to clearly tend to them.

I don't want to cut it relly.....it may be the safest bet. what do you all think?


(I thought this was the cutest!)

No - no cutting. She'll do just fine! And she is adorable.