Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Dahlisgrams]

Just wanted to give you info, unless they changed their practice they had told me they had started vaccinating ALL chicks. You might want to ask...

Eta- getting a necropsy done this young would be pointless IMHO. I had problems last year and sent in 2 birds at once, an older one that was sick for a long time and one that had only been sick for a short while. The older bird had visible signs of mareks and they told me they had to have it long enough for it to show up on necropsy, so other than the secondary signs it wasn't easily diagnosed...

Thanks for the information about necropsy in this situation. I am going to continue encouring food and water and hope for the best.

 

[Kimbroe1981]

my little runt that i've got in here is tiny too. about 1/2 the size of the others his age. I didn't think he was gonna make it, but I just kept offering vitamin water and chick starter and he got up and ate when he was ready. I hope your little one makes it!!

 

[Kimbroe1981]

Does anyone have an SFH eggs they can sell me? I have a hen that went broody yesterday and our eggs aren't fertilized. Non of my roosters are old enough. I just need 4 or 5, maybe 6. PM me please if you have some.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

my little runt that i've got in here is tiny too. about 1/2 the size of the others his age. I didn't think he was gonna make it, but I just kept offering vitamin water and chick starter and he got up and ate when he was ready. I hope your little one makes it!!

The will to survive is strong. I really hope that your little one continues to improve as well. Thanks for the support!

My little guy is chirping now and seems to be standing better. He is also starting to eat on his own, and drink too going by how the hospital box is looking now. Maybe he'll recover too. I'm really pulling for him.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

Thanksfully, the little guy is continuing to improve and seems to be sturdier and a bit less out of it. Not quite "normal" however. Maybe this was the equivalent of a concussion? The aggressive girls have been removed to a separate coop. I've tried to integrate them with another group of chicks quite unsuccessfully and gave up after this. My daughter had no problems integrating hers from the same two batches of chicks so maybe I got the cranky ones? lol

Hopefully GFF will get back to me soon. I know they don't check email on the weekends. I don't think it's Mareks. It really seems to be something with the vaulted crests. I think the crests are beautiful, but think I may not be breeding any with the vaulted crests, though the other crested chicks seem perfectly fine. Just crossing my fingers for an uncrested rooster.

Those of you who have GFF Swedes, are there major visual differences in phenotype between their 3 lines?

 

[Muzzie]

I think you would gain some insight into the vaulted head brain injury issues if you take a look over at the Silkie group it sounds like you are having similar issues that have arisen with the Silkies and their vaulted skulls though not as severe. Good luck with your little ones it is heartbreaking to see them suffer. Vitamins do seem to help especially E and some add selenium but you must be careful it can be toxic in severe cases some have used prednisone to reduce the swelling of the brain.

 

[Bulldogma]

I've been lurking for a few weeks. My SFH chicks hatched on the 30th of July - got 3 adorable little chicks. Within a few days it was clear that one (Frida) was not doing well at all. She was not growing and once her wing feathers started to come in, she would get "turtled." She would end up on her back and couldn't get back up. It was like her wing feathers outweighed her body, making it impossible for her to get up. She also got repeatedly pasted up. First I separated her from the bigger chicks and put her and one other chick in a different brooder. I started giving her some gatoraid. Then I cut off all her growing flight feathers - that helped her a lot as it made it easier for her to get back up if she got tipped over.

And here's something I never thought I'd say... I shaved the chick's backside to prevent her waste from sticking there and pasting her up again. (Yes - I shaved a chicks butt!)

Then folks on here started posting about their own "special needs" SFH chicks and the use of vitamins. Adding vitamins made a big difference too. I believe Frida is now out of the woods, health wise. She's still far smaller than the other SFH chicks of the same age, but she is up, active and growing. She doesn't get turtled any more.



Frida (on the left with the chopped-off wing feathers) is still smaller than Inga (on the right) who is the same age.

Thank you to those who posted about the use of vitamins for these chicks! I'll be using them with all my future SFH chicks!

 

[Dahlisgrams]

I think you would gain some insight into the vaulted head brain injury issues if you take a look over at the Silkie group it sounds like you are having similar issues that have arisen with the Silkies and their vaulted skulls though not as severe. Good luck with your little ones it is heartbreaking to see them suffer. Vitamins do seem to help especially E and some add selenium but you must be careful it can be toxic in severe cases some have used prednisone to reduce the swelling of the brain.

Thanks Rita! I will take a peek over there. I don't have any silkies so I'd never have seen the thread. It is heartbreaking even though I'm already doing everything I can, it doesn't seem like it's enough. He is moving around a lot more today but seems thin and I don't think he's eating as much as he used to. I've got vitamin water and regular water available for everyone and they are drinking both. None of the other chicks are showing any signs of this at all so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I brace myself to find him expired every time I check on him.

I'm grateful for the experiences offered so freely here. Thanks to everyone for their openness in sharing both the positives and negatives about the breed.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

I've been lurking for a few weeks. My SFH chicks hatched on the 30th of July - got 3 adorable little chicks. Within a few days it was clear that one (Frida) was not doing well at all. She was not growing and once her wing feathers started to come in, she would get "turtled." She would end up on her back and couldn't get back up. It was like her wing feathers outweighed her body, making it impossible for her to get up. She also got repeatedly pasted up. First I separated her from the bigger chicks and put her and one other chick in a different brooder. I started giving her some gatoraid. Then I cut off all her growing flight feathers - that helped her a lot as it made it easier for her to get back up if she got tipped over.

And here's something I never thought I'd say... I shaved the chick's backside to prevent her waste from sticking there and pasting her up again. (Yes - I shaved a chicks butt!)

Then folks on here started posting about their own "special needs" SFH chicks and the use of vitamins. Adding vitamins made a big difference too. I believe Frida is now out of the woods, health wise. She's still far smaller than the other SFH chicks of the same age, but she is up, active and growing. She doesn't get turtled any more.



Frida (on the left with the chopped-off wing feathers) is still smaller than Inga (on the right) who is the same age.

Thank you to those who posted about the use of vitamins for these chicks! I'll be using them with all my future SFH chicks!

Best of luck with your Frida. Poor thing! She looks so sweet. Her coloring is beautiful. I laughed about shaving her butt. I trimmed a few here too but it seemed to really help!

 

[15littlem]

I heard somewhere that, the crested gene, like the frizzled and rumpless genes, when over crossed or interbred too much, can cause fatal mutations in chicks. Don't know for sure if this is true, but it sounds reasonable.