The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[vpatt]

yeah, I say mareks just because often a bird exposed to mareks will succumb to something else because their immune system is overwhelmed with the mareks.  And watching her this morning, well she has the muscular issues mareks has - and she won't swallow.  Poor baby.  I know I could force feed her by tubing even with food her prognosis is so poor I hate to put her (and me) thru that.  Although her crop was empty yesterday, she had two totally normal droppings overnight but again, no luck with food this morning.  She just let it fall out of her beak, ditto with liquid.

So sorry for you and your girl.

 

[COChix]

So sorry for you and your girl.

X2

Our gang did fair overnight, coop didn't get below 14 and humidity didn't go above 18%. That being said went without a heat lamp last night, got down to -14, our roo's had some frostbite on their wattles. Our alpha's waddles are a little swollen he also has a tip that will probably fall off, his comb has a few super pointy tips compared to the second in command. I was able to catch both and apply bag balm over their wattles and combs. The waters have been changed out the the small size chick water sitting in sand inside the heated dog bowls.

So what other types of things should I be concerned about with the alpha and his swollen wattles? Also what other remedies can provide to them that will help?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I tried sand in my dog bowls and for some reason it didn't work as well as filling them with grit and water. At least I'd encourage you to put some water in the sand if you haven't already so that the heat is conducted. I tried sand dry and it didn't conduct to the water above so it froze solid.

Just my opinion, but I try not to touch combs or wattles in the winter.
From my observation it appears to me that doing so makes the frostbite much worse. I don't even do the greasy treatment for prevention (bag balm or other oils) as it feels somewhat "counter intuitive" to me. I almost tried it last year but every time I though about doing it, it just seemed like it wasn't good to put anything on them. Again...just my opinion, but it seems to make things much worse. If I had something from someone's concrete experience to go on that would tell me that it really helps for prevention I'd reconsider...

If they get frostbite, I just watch for any sign of wetness or rotting/oozing/deterioration. If I don't see that I don't treat or otherwise touch. If I saw deterioration in the form of wetness/oozing etc., I'd bring them in (in my case it would be the house) and treat. Then they'd stay there until temps were above 35. That may be a long haul with a bird inside... so far never had to do any treatment even though "Mister" had the frostbite on the wattles after getting them in the wet feed.



@lalaland
I'm really sorry to hear that. I was hoping they'd do well for you from here on out. How old is this girl?

 

[Lacy Blues]

COchix, I wish I knew of something that could relieve the swelling but I don't. My boys are doing pretty well this morning. The wind has stopped and the sun is warm, though the air is cold so I opened up the coops. For the worst boy, the sun shines right in the door of his coop and he is able to sunbathe for a while. Poor thing. He goes backward and forward when trying to get somewhere. His wattles are still very swollen but less than they were. One stands around quite a bit. This one cannot get to the sun. The other one had to be put in a different pen as the other boys he was with beat him up after that first feeding and I put him back. I found him standing out in the cold wind while the others were all warm and snug in the coop! Aggravates me to no end!

Anyway, he is quite talkative when he hears me coming... so cute! I just love roosters. They have the best personalities.

lalaland, I'm sorry to hear about your girl. I wouldn't force her either. I wouldn't let her waste away either. I would end her life humanely and just let her go.

 

[COChix]

I tried sand in my dog bowls and for some reason it didn't work as well as filling them with grit and water.  At least I'd encourage you to put some water in the sand if you haven't already so that the heat is conducted.  I tried sand dry and it didn't conduct to the water above so it froze solid.

Just my opinion, but I try not to touch combs or wattles in the winter. 
From my observation it appears to me that doing so makes the frostbite much worse.  I don't even do the greasy treatment for prevention (bag balm or other oils) as it feels somewhat "counter intuitive" to me.  I almost tried it last year but every time I though about doing it, it just seemed like it wasn't good to put anything on them.  Again...just my opinion, but it seems to make things much worse.  If I had something from someone's concrete experience to go on that would tell me that it really helps for prevention I'd reconsider...

If they get frostbite, I just watch for any sign of wetness or rotting/oozing/deterioration.  If I don't see that I don't treat or otherwise touch.  If I saw deterioration in the form of wetness/oozing etc., I'd bring them in (in my case it would be the house) and treat.  Then they'd stay there until temps were above 35.  That may be a long haul with a bird inside...  so far never had to do any treatment even though "Mister" had the frostbite on the wattles after getting them in the wet feed.



@lalaland

I'm really sorry to hear that.  I was hoping they'd do well for you from here on out.  How old is this girl?

Thank you for the feedback, of course I reacted to the situation rather than trying to do more in depth research on how to treat frostbite once they have it. As soon as I started reading on that, after I put bag balm on them, that you shouldn't really touch the frostbite! Gosh I hope I didn't make it worse. I didn't try and massage the wattle and comb just coat lightly. I appreciate your opinion as this is my first winter with chickens and am learning a lot as I go of course. I also want to try and keep it as natural as possible as that is very important to myself, my boyfriend as well as for our four dogs and 25 chickens.

I did add water to the dog bowls after reading your post and picture. Overnight the dog bowls froze solid. It was -14 here overnight, flippin cold, frozen pipes here this am.

COchix, I wish I knew of something that could relieve the swelling but I don't.  My boys are doing pretty well this morning.  The wind has stopped and the sun is warm, though the air is cold so I opened up the coops.  For the worst boy, the sun shines right in the door of his coop and he is able to sunbathe for a while.  Poor thing.  He goes backward and forward when trying to get somewhere.  His wattles are still very swollen but less than they were.  One stands around quite a bit.  This one cannot get to the sun.  The other one had to be put in a different pen as the other boys he was with beat him up after that first feeding and I put him back.  I found him standing out in the cold wind while the others were all warm and snug in the coop!  Aggravates me to no end!

Anyway, he is quite talkative when he hears me coming... so cute!  I just love roosters.  They have the best personalities.

lalaland, I'm sorry to hear about your girl. I wouldn't force her either.  I wouldn't let her waste away either.  I would end her life humanely and just let her go.

Ok thanks and I will just try to monitor from here, might turn on the heat lamp tonight. Have to see what temps are, of course I amkicking mysekf for not turning one on last night, but I wonder if they got drinks before going to roost for the night and were wet. I don't think humidity in the coop overnight is the issue. Will do bed checks tonight around 10 and see where the boys are roosting overnight.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have a dom who has gone gimpy. I've done a cursory exam, and can't find any obvious issues. She holds her left leg close to her body through the hip and thigh. She is gimping around with minimal weight bearing, bearing a bit of weight through the hock and very loosely held claw. When I try to get her to grasp my finger in a tenodesis action, she does not, but then again, neither does she grasp with the other foot when I'm holding her. She comes out of the coop, and gimps around with the rest of the flock, she is eating, no obvious loss of conditioning... yet. She was up on the perch last night... sleeping alone on the lower perch. A bit of a concern, b/c it was in single digits last night. She laid an egg yesterday, after I noticed the limping. Will observe a couple of days. I've thought about moving her into a cat crate at night, but hate to restrict her movement. I'm sure getting up and down from perch is not a comfortable thing for her... Ideas???

 

[COChix]

I have a dom who has gone gimpy.  I've done a cursory exam, and can't find any obvious issues.  She holds her left leg close to her body through the hip and thigh.  She is gimping around with minimal weight bearing, bearing a bit of weight through the hock and very loosely held claw.  When I try to get her to grasp my finger in a tenodesis action, she does not, but then again, neither does she grasp with the other foot when I'm holding her.  She comes out of the coop, and gimps around with the rest of the flock, she is eating, no obvious loss of conditioning... yet.  She was up on the perch last night... sleeping alone on the lower perch.  A bit of a concern, b/c it was in single digits last night.  She laid an egg yesterday, after I noticed the limping.  Will observe a couple of days.  I've thought about moving her into a cat crate at night, but hate to restrict her movement.  I'm sure getting up and down from perch is not a comfortable thing for her... Ideas???

do you have roosters? Was wondering if could be an injury from mating and the weight of the rooster.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yes, I have a rooster, and while that's a possibility, it's no more likely than any other possibility. He has 15 gals, and does a good job with them. I guess my question at this time, is should I try to keep her off the perch at night, or just let nature take it's course for a few days.

 

[lalaland]

You probably won't have much luck keeping her off the roost unless you put her in a kennel or something each night. That is what I would do as she might have been injured coming down from the roosts - and even if that had nothing to do with it, coming down now while she is gimpy could make it worse.

Don't worry about the temps, she will be fine assuming she isn't an unusual breed - light feathered or something. Just put extra bedding in the area you keep her in.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I had a cockerel that was limping for awhile. He insisted on getting on the roost. But while he was really bad, I tried to go out early enough in the morning to put him down before he jumped down. I didn't want him to injure it further. I did that for about a week and then he started beating me at it. I did put a stump there that was about half as tall as the roost so he could use that to jump up and down part way rather than having to do the whole jump.