The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

I use the Nustock for many things. A bald Stella from the big girls pecking her head when she gets to close. On legs and feet when they look sore. On vents when they were dirty last year from not wiping. I have never had a problem with it. A little goes a long way.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

This isn't the issue I'm talking about. In very "layman's terms" .... When mineral oil (used topically or internally) absorbs into the body, it is not digestible. It "passes through" the system and out. The problem is that oil soluble vitamins (ADEK) "attach" themselves to the mineral oil and are unable to be used by the body. When it goes out of the body, it takes those oil soluble vitamins with it.

Again...very layman's terms. But the idea is that it removes those vitamins from being able to be absorbed from the system.

The article clearly states that absorption of mineral oil through the skin is negligible and poses no hazard. If your theory were true then ALL oils would be toxic, including olive oil, coconut oil, etc.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have the NuStock in my first aid and have used it when needed. But....I am very careful with any product that has mineral oil, (or any petroleum based oil like petrolatum for example).

And I avoid using anything that has it on a "regular" basis.

In days gone by, people used to take mineral oil internally for various reasons which also seems to have caused problems. This is something that I learned about more than 30 years ago and it is just coming more into public awareness recently. There has been a lot written about using baby oil (which is mineral oil) that you can read. It is now advised that folks not use baby oil on their children. (Oprah even did a show on the dangers of using baby oil on children at some point recently!)


Anyhow...I just avoid it in general. That doesn't mean I wouldn't use it judiciously in a preparation like NuStock that you wouldn't use as an everyday item! I just wish that they would use a different carrier oil in some of these items.


A lot of what is written about mineral oil interfering with absorption of the oil soluble vitamins was done in studies of oral ingestion.
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+1922

However, the oil is absorbed into the body through the skin and can also "grab" the oil soluble vitamins at some level so I just prefer to avoid it as much as possible.

 

[Leahs Mom]

OH...and mineral oil is very different from oils from animal or vegetable sources. Mineral oil is a petroleum product.

Animal source fats and (some) vegetable source fats actually provide and help with the assimilation of fat soluble vitamins.





Edited to make what I was saying more clear

 

[Leahs Mom]

I found a local source for my pasture seed!!!!!! They specialize in non-gmo And they have their own pastures and lots of experience (Amish guys )

 

[Leahs Mom]

I use the Nustock for many things. A bald Stella from the big girls pecking her head when she gets to close. On legs and feet when they look sore. On vents when they were dirty last year from not wiping. I have never had a problem with it. A little goes a long way.

How is Stella's head doing?

 

[GreenSoul]

I found a local source for my pasture seed!!!!!! They specialize in non-gmo And they have their own pastures and lots of experience (Amish guys )

is that like "scratch"

 

[armorfirelady]

I found a local source for my pasture seed!!!!!!   They specialize in non-gmo   And they have their own pastures and lots of experience (Amish guys )

:yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!

I use the Nustock for many things. A bald Stella from the big girls pecking her head when she gets to close. On legs and feet when they look sore. On vents when they were dirty last year from not wiping. I have never had a problem with it. A little goes a long way.

How is Stella's head doing?

Still bald. Well not completely it's not bare skin you can see the feathers trying to grow back in. I don't put on the Nustock enough since it's hard to hold her, try and hold her bobbing head still & apply Nustock while her head bobs. My mom will be over Sunday. I will have her hold her favorite girl and coat her up well. I put the Nustock in one of this travel size containers you can use for shampoo. Much easier to shake it up and squirt it out.

Up you would think with all the sunny weather we have had she would not be so bald but as soon as she sees one of the hens scratching in the garden she runs over to see what they found. She is not starving tho from watching her you would think she was. I gave them yogurt & herbs this morning and this is still some left in the pie plate. And food still left in bowl. I think she is just nosey. They all have full crops lately just from scratching they the garden. If it stays warm this weekend I will be taking the stuff in the compost pile and dumping it in the the garden. I certainly can't complain about the great job the hens do scratching up the garden

She is going to be very unhappy when I get them out in the yard again. She will need to hunt for her food for the day. I plan on cutting back on feed so they eat all that free clover, grass & bugs in the yard. I'm sure she will have something to say about that

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: GS - this is seed I'm going to plant to have pasture grasses growing. If your birds get to range around they will eat a lot of green vegetation in the spring/summer/fall months. I just wanted to have more variety than I have growing now.

I don't have a lot of time right now but I'll post what is in the mixture and what he told me about seeding later

 

[Leahs Mom]

Still bald. Well not completely it's not bare skin you can see the feathers trying to grow back in. I don't put on the Nustock enough since it's hard to hold her, try and hold her bobbing head still & apply Nustock while her head bobs. My mom will be over Sunday. I will have her hold her favorite girl and coat her up well. I put the Nustock in one of this travel size containers you can use for shampoo. Much easier to shake it up and squirt it out.

Up you would think with all the sunny weather we have had she would not be so bald but as soon as she sees one of the hens scratching in the garden she runs over to see what they found. She is not starving tho from watching her you would think she was. I gave them yogurt & herbs this morning and this is still some left in the pie plate. And food still left in bowl. I think she is just nosey. They all have full crops lately just from scratching they the garden. If it stays warm this weekend I will be taking the stuff in the compost pile and dumping it in the the garden. I certainly can't complain about the great job the hens do scratching up the garden

She is going to be very unhappy when I get them out in the yard again. She will need to hunt for her food for the day. I plan on cutting back on feed so they eat all that free clover, grass & bugs in the yard. I'm sure she will have something to say about that

@armorfirelady
Last year one of my EEs had the bald spot on her back - presumably from her rooster friend. That back stayed bald all summer and right into fall. I was wondering if it would ever grow back.

Late fall when she went into molt she began go grow in some beautiful new feathers.

I had begun to wonder if it was permanently damaged or something but it finally did come back. Hopefully you don't have to wait that long!