Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
Roberta, don't stop taking the prednisone all at once! You have to wean off of it. It can mess with your body if you don't. Yes, it does lower your immune system but the benefits outweigh the risks. Please, ask your doctor first before getting off the steroid.

Jack is back home now. He looks Farley chipper. He drank water and kept it down. That's important. We are going to try a small amount of food later on.

I went to the infectious disease doctor today and he is not going to treat the latent TB just yet. If the rheumatologist steps up the meds to biologics, then I have to go on the antibiotics. The type they put you on interacts with the methotrexate I am taking for the PsA, so it's a waiting game. He will consult with the rheumatologist, though.

The eye is pretty good. Might go back to work on Thursday. Have an MRI on Wednesday, so I want that to be over with.

Hope you feel better. Hang in there.

 

[smkchick]

Wow, Al. You surely have a lot on your plate right now. It sounds like Jack might do better at home. It's good that he's drinking.

Don't rush back to work. Take the time to make sure you're okay.

And Roberta, Al's right. Don't go cold turkey (cold chicken) with prednisone.

7 hours of parent conferences tomorrow. oooohhh.

(sarcastic smiley)

 

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
suzanne, we're so happy Jack is home. He drank more water and kept it down. Then we gave him a teaspoon of canned dog food and he's kept that down as well. He's upstairs in bed with mommy right now. He's looking better in the past couple of hours and we remain cautiously optimistic. He goes back to the vet tomorrow to go back on IV. We hope to do this for a couple of days, and if he can keep food and water down we can do subcutaneous injections of fluid for him and keep him home. The vet said it is rare for dogs to recover from kidney failure but he did have a Rottweiler live six months at home like this. If we can give Jack some happy time, then it will be worth whatever we need to do on our part. darn, it was so sad picking him up tonight. His eyes just told you he missed us and that he did not want to be in the doggie hospital.

Part of me wants to run back to work and the other part sees it as secondary to my own health. I would go to work in the worst shape when I was younger. Worked once with a 103 temp, and had to stay home for the next 10 days with tracheaitis. Still, it took me years to learn that lesson. Now I'm older and more respectful of giving myself a chance to heal properly.

Good luck tomorrow. 7 hours with parents, especially when you've only had their kids a couple weeks, yikes! Try to get a good night's rest. I'm sure you'll do fine. Exedrin works wonders!

 

[smkchick]

Quote:
Nothing like some good Mommying to make everything all better!

I figure since I've only had the kids a total of 7 days, I'm just going to tell the parents that there isn't much I can say to them, but that I want to hear what they want me to know about their children. I already have a handle on who are the usual malcontents and who are the angels. It really doesn't vary too much from year to year...

 

[gfletch]

Difficult day with the chickens ... Thought I was doing everything right, but, boy did it go badly! I had picked up a pair of month-old Barred Rocks at the Sussex County show last month. For the past few weeks, they've been separate from my flock of 4 six-month-old Japanese Bantamns. They've been getting larger (really, they're nearly 2/3 the size of the JB's already), are fully feathered out, and seem perfectly healthy.

So, I figured, since I had a nice four-day stretch at home with Monday and Tuesday off of work, that it would be a good time to introduce them and put them all together. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I had the BR's in their crate adjacent to the yard and coop with the JB's. They were able to see each other, but were separate. Then, last night, as everyone was getting settled down, I introduced the two newcomers to the coop. There was some squawking and minor pecking before they all settled down for the night, but nothing serious (the new ones spent the night sleeping in the nest box, while the original four were in their normal spot on the roosting bar).

This morning though, it turned really ugly. One of my JB hens became a complete bullying savage, tearing and pecking at the young ones -- to the point where she tore out a big patch of feathers and drew blood. I had to separate them again, and cleaned up the injured BR and put on some bacitracin with a q-tip to help heal her up.

Now, I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks or a month until the BR is completely healed and they've gotten bigger, then try it again, this time separating out the bully for a week. Then she'll be the newcomer and maybe won't torment the others. (Plus, by then, the BR's will probably be bigger than the JB's and will stand up for themselves.)

I know there's a pecking order, and they ultimately have to work these things out for themselves, but, geez, I think this whole ordeal was nearly as stressful for me as it was for them!

George

 

[stoopid]

Isn't it strange how those cute little babies can turn around and beat up someone twice their size?
It's so stressful sometimes! Good luck with them...

 

[smkchick]

Wow, George. Pretty scary. They move so fast too!

I think sometimes the smaller creatures (like dogs) are more aggressive to make up for their size (or lack thereof).

When I introduced my three little ones to the two big ones it was touch and go at first. I didn't put them in an enclosed space together until they had spent some time in the yard, where the babies could run away if need be. Some people recommended having a space that the little ones could get to but the big ones couldn't. I set up a sort of fence inside the coop with slats spaced so the chicks could go through but the big girls couldn't. When they went in the coop, if the big girls got too mean, the little ones would just go to their side to be safe. Eventually it all worked out (only a couple of days, thank God). Now all 5 are sleeping side by side on the top roost.

At the rate the BRs are growing, you may want to try something like that soon. Otherwise, the bullies will be smaller that the victims and then what????

It's always something, isn't it?

 

[smkchick]

I put a wireless thermometer inside the coop. Right now, it's 52 degrees outside, and 53 degrees inside the coop. I'm interested to see how much chicken heat is really generated in there.

8 conferences down. 13 to go. Tomorrow I have a full day of school, then conferences from 4-8 pm. On Thursday, it's a half day of school and then conferences until 3. After that, though, the husband and daughter of the teacher I replaced are coming to pack up some of her stuff. I'm going to stick around to help them. I packed about 4-5 boxes of her personal things today. And barely made a dent. It was very sad.

Day off Friday, though!

Al, how's Jack doing today?

 

[gfletch]

Thanks for the responses, gang. Hopefully in another month or so, it'll all work out. Meanwhile, things have calmed down in the coop. With all the yard work I did today, the JB's had a nice batch of weeds/greens to munch on, so they were happy. The young BR's, back in their own space, also seem to have survived the ordeal okay and are back to their normal selves, being super friendly and climbing up my arm to sit on my shoulder and peep in my ear every time I reach into their crate to change out food or water. The one who was hurt seems to be healing okay. I applied bacitracin a couple more times today just to ward off infection. Haven't seen any warnings against using it, so I guess it's okay?

 

[smkchick]

I had a day old chick with an umbilical hernia thing that I was advised to put bacitracin on. No problems. It healed up nicely within a week or so.

My girls like to dig around in dried leaves. I sprinkle some mealworms on the leaves to encourage foraging. More fun than a barrel of - chickens (?)