Silkie thread!

[Sylvester017]

I'm concerned with one of my young silkies. She breathes with her mouth open and closes it with each breath. Her mouth is barely you open when she does this. She has no other signs of illness and none of the other chickens she's with have this problem. It's been going on for quite a while. I tried some VetRX but that didn't do anything. Could it be genetic?

I have a Silkie with CRD issues and last Spring I had to take her to the vet to have minor nasal surgery to clear up the serious clog in the nostrils. Made no difference even with medicine because they look clogged to me again. She's my problem CRD child! Chickens will open their beaks during heatwaves too. Check your bird's nostrils against the nostrils of others to see if you can tell if there's clogging.

 

[chickchick56]

I may have posted this before but I didn't see it. .so here goes. .is it ok to add an aussie with the silkies? They seem very sweet

 

[Zgm12]

it may be because she is hot. sometimes they breath through their mouths when the heat can become unbearable.

It's not the heat. This is an ongoing occurrence, but thank you for the response.

Check she has clogged her nostrils with feed. Occasionally if they are eating mash I will need to use a toothpick to clear them.

I will definitely try that, thank you.

I have a Silkie with CRD issues and last Spring I had to take her to the vet to have minor nasal surgery to clear up the serious clog in the nostrils.  Made no difference even with medicine because they look clogged to me again.  She's my problem CRD child!  Chickens will open their beaks during heatwaves too.  Check your bird's nostrils against the nostrils of others to see if you can tell if there's clogging.

I'll check her. Hopefully it won't be a long term problem. Thank you and hope your Silkie feels better soon!

 

[Sylvester017]

It's not the heat. This is an ongoing occurrence, but thank you for the response.
I will definitely try that, thank you.
I'll check her. Hopefully it won't be a long term problem. Thank you and hope your Silkie feels better soon!

TY ~ My 41/2 yr old Black Silkie has CRD issues and I have to monitor her. She'll show symptoms the rest of her life. One year she wheezed so badly, DH & I sat up with her all night, we didn't think she'd make it til morning. The vet and I deal with it because there's no real cure. Some chickens are more susceptible to symptoms while others can slough them off. She's a plucky little thing, funny, feisty, our smallest chicken, and the yard wouldn't be the same without this comedienne:

SHE LEARNED TO TAKE "SHOWERS" UNDER THE NIPPLE VALVE WATERERS AND WORKS THE WATER INTO HER HEAD, BACK, AND CHEST FEATHERS


SHE'S A VERY BUSY FORAGER AND COBWEBS & DEBRIS ARE ALWAYS IN HER "HAIR"

 

[MuscovyMadness]

TY ~ My 4[SUP]1/2[/SUP] yr old Black Silkie has CRD issues and I have to monitor her. She'll show symptoms the rest of her life. One year she wheezed so badly, DH & I sat up with her all night, we didn't think she'd make it til morning. The vet and I deal with it because there's no real cure. Some chickens are more susceptible to symptoms while others can slough them off. She's a plucky little thing, funny, feisty, our smallest chicken, and the yard wouldn't be the same without this comedienne: SHE LEARNED TO TAKE "SHOWERS" UNDER THE NIPPLE VALVE WATERERS AND WORKS THE WATER INTO HER HEAD, BACK, AND CHEST FEATHERS SHE'S A VERY BUSY FORAGER AND COBWEBS & DEBRIS ARE ALWAYS IN HER "HAIR"

LOVE the pics of her Debris Dreadlocks. LoL. Just adorable!

 

[Sylvester017]

I may have posted this before but I didn't see it. .so here goes. .is it ok to add an aussie with the silkies? They seem very sweet

Without very dedicated training I personally wouldn't mix any dog with chickens. Even with good socialization, family pets seemingly get along fine with a flock for years only for owners to come home one day to find the pet broken into the pen killing all the chickens. Who knows? You have to use discretion with any dog around birds. We had lovely Rotts that we trained exhaustively and out of 3 only 1 was excellent at obedience training and still I could not break him of getting excited around the flapping Mourning Doves in the yard if I was not there to command. Dogs need to be socialized to ignore the temptation to chase flapping or running birds.

Some owners get lucky naturally with an individual pet around birds while others don't. People who have Aussies love them but as for using a herding Aussie as a guardian dog, I have no experience. Herding breeds instinctively like to keep moving a herd or flock to exhaustion and will leave the herd to chase off after a predator ~ while guardian breeds will relax in the midst of the flock to "guard" them. Guardian breeds usually won't get baited to leave the flock to chase off after a predator to leave the flock unguarded ~ they give off warning barks and growls but wait for a predator to attack before leaving the flock. Most predators don't challenge large and intelligent guardian breeds once they see they can't bait the guardian away from the flock.

Unfortunately for me guardian breeds are all thick-coated at 100-lb or more and that wouldn't work in our small hot SoCalif backyard

so I exercised on the side of prudence in our situation and decided not to get any dog. My farm Mom used to say "never trust puppies or kids" ~ which made me work twice as hard to train a farm puppy when I was allowed to finally have one. Owners say Aussies are sweet dogs so if you decide on training one as a flock guardian, let us know how it goes.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

I may have posted this before but I didn't see it. .so here goes. .is it ok to add an aussie with the silkies? They seem very sweet

I had an Australian shepherd for 12 years. Best dog I ever owned. I loved that dog so much. They are crazy smart and very dedicated to their owners. They would make a great guard dog but here is the thing. They are extremely high energy. They need a job. I don't think one could just sit and guard the chickens all day. If you have property to roam it could probably be taught to protect your property from predators and keep out strangers. They are very high alert dogs. Without a job they can become destructive. Chase cars, chicken anything that moves lol. Ours used to heard kittens lmao. So cute. Their are special dog trainers you can hire to teach this to. I believe an aussie could be trained but I recommend a dog that's bred for setting/guarding. One with lower energy but high alert. My best friend actually uses pit bulls and has had great success. None kill her chickens or livestock. She didn't even have to train them. Just being raised with them was enough. Last year her pit bull snatched a hawk right out of the air that had caught a chicken. It was amazing. My aussie just had such a strong drive to chase and heard that she aye my chickens. Not on pupose but their instinct and energy is high..

 

[Suzierd]

Are you hatching under a broody or using an incubator ?
It's more likely to be a humidity issue. I also had a hatch of full term 'quitters ', turned out my incubator was running 6 degrees lower than the digital display was reading. It might pay to recalibrate your incubator if you are using one.

Thanks Fancy, I am hatching under a broody. I'm wondering if it's because I feed layer crumbles.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Though I'd tell everyone that my test run for my Sex Linked Silkie project was a success. Despite coccidiosis issues this year that took out a lot of my chicks over just a few days time, I managed to save five of the chicks I hatched from my breeding pair (Cuckoo sizzle hen, carrier of the Silkie gene, and a Red Partridge Silkie cock). I made determinations of sex based on beak and skin color at one day of age and as they've matured I've found accuracy to be 100%. I was unable to sex by the color of the down on the head, like I had expected to; it was all rather muddled gray and the crest tended to distort the spot to the point where it was hard to distinguish. However, their beaks were my saving grace; thank the Barring gene for its tendency to lighten skin. All of the females showed a pure black beak; males had a light gray and white one. Males also had lighter skin. Here they are now, at approximately 12 weeks of age. (Or thereabouts. My hatching records have disappeared into my desk drawers... somewhere).

Cockerels:

Pullets:

Awesome!!

:/


Without very dedicated training I personally wouldn't mix any dog with chickens.  Even with good socialization, family pets seemingly get along fine with a flock for years only for owners to come home one day to find the pet broken into the pen killing all the chickens.  Who knows?  You have to use discretion with any dog around birds.  We had lovely Rotts that we trained exhaustively and out of 3 only 1 was excellent at obedience training and still I could not break him of getting excited around the flapping Mourning Doves in the yard if I was not there to command.  Dogs need to be socialized to ignore the temptation to chase flapping or running birds.  

Some owners get lucky naturally with an individual pet around birds while others don't.  People who have Aussies love them but as for using a herding Aussie as a guardian dog, I have no experience.  Herding breeds instinctively like to keep moving a herd or flock to exhaustion and will leave the herd to chase off after a predator ~ while guardian breeds will relax in the midst of the flock to "guard" them.  Guardian breeds usually won't get baited to leave the flock to chase off after a predator to leave the flock unguarded ~ they give off warning barks and growls but wait for a predator to attack before leaving the flock.  Most predators don't challenge large and intelligent guardian breeds once they see they can't bait the guardian away from the flock. 

Unfortunately for me guardian breeds are all thick-coated at 100-lb or more and that wouldn't work in our small hot SoCalif backyard :/ so I exercised on the side of prudence in our situation and decided not to get any dog.  My farm Mom used to say "never trust puppies or kids" ~ which made me work twice as hard to train a farm puppy when I was allowed to finally have one.  Owners say Aussies are sweet dogs so if you decide on training one as a flock guardian, let us know how it goes.

Not all of them are thick coated, there are a few with shorter coats like the Anatolian and ones bred in the middle east, turkey, hotter areas. But you're right that they're all over 100 pounds.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I had an Australian shepherd for 12 years. Best dog I ever owned. I loved that dog so much. They are crazy smart and very dedicated to their owners. They would make a great guard dog but here is the thing. They are extremely high energy. They need a job. I don't think one could just sit and guard the chickens all day. If you have property to roam it could probably be taught to protect your property from predators and keep out strangers. They are very high alert dogs. Without a job they can become destructive. Chase cars, chicken anything that moves lol. Ours used to heard kittens lmao. So cute. Their are special dog trainers you can hire to teach this to. I believe an aussie could be trained but I recommend a dog that's bred for setting/guarding. One with lower energy but high alert. My best friend actually uses pit bulls and has had great success. None kill her chickens or livestock. She didn't even have to train them. Just being raised with them was enough. Last year her pit bull snatched a hawk right out of the air that had caught a chicken. It was amazing. My aussie just had such a strong drive to chase and heard that she aye my chickens. Not on pupose but their instinct and energy is high..

Wow that's incredible!