The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Lacy Blues]

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???

Sounds like it might be a hock injury. Did you feel the joints to determine if the joint is hot? That's usually a dead give away. I would just watch her. If you want to provide any kind of pain relief, blueberries are high in natural aspirin as is turmeric. They don't like the turmeric much though as it has a very strong flavor. Getting them to try blueberries can be a bit of a challenge due to the dark skins. I keep mine frozen and cut them in half or four, depending on the size. They will at least try them this way. Then they'll know what they are and unless the berry is large, you won't need to cut it up.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'm doing the unthinkable tonight. It is supposed to get below zero in temps tonight and I just can't bear to leave my poor injured boys out in it. Even after putting lights in their coops, their water still freezes so they're not making a humongous difference but you can tell the difference when you open the doors in the mornings.

When you bring a bird in to eat and he nibbles but is super comforted by the warmth of the house and falls asleep in your lap it's kind of heart breaking.

So, I fixed up three boxes with shavings. No added heat though. The house won't get below 50 and that's a heck of a lot warmer than it is outside... even with lights.

I know, I know... you think I'm babying my birds. Well, if that were the case, I'd have 15 roosters in the house. Two others got frostbite last night but it's nowhere near as bad as these three are. I just hope it doesn't get worse tonight. It's going to be AWFULLY COLD!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
if you freeze the berries just a bit and toss in powdered sugar, they will taste them as fast as you can drop them. I had a few chicken even jump an inch or two to get the berries.

 

[lalaland]

Lacy, hope your boys are doing better.

I also have Angelina in the house. I would cull her but she is fighting so it is too early. Came home last night to find definite facial swelling and goopy eyes. Got out the vetrx and wiped her eyes down, put some on her nostrils, and got maybe 1/16th of a cup of a slurry of electrolytes and chicken into her.

Repeated this morning, but got almost a 1/4 cup into her - really helped that I bought eyedroppers yesterday to replace the ones that the cats ran off with. She actually was swallowing on her own but is not voluntarily eating. I put some bacitracin on her eyes.

As soon as it is daylight, I'm going to be checking over the flock to see how everyone else is doing. I am hoping this isn't some kind of infectious respiratory thing.

Not a great start to new years!
by the way, Happy New Year to everyone and your flocks!

 

[lazy gardener]

I would have no problem getting a chicken to eat blueberries. They'll strip my bushes before the berries are even ripe if I let them. I'm going to try some castor oil to all of the joints today. No signs of inflammation, no heat. I can't see any asymmetry through the hocks. What palpation I've done to the other joints does not point to any injury, but, I'll examine her closely when I do the castor oil.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm doing the unthinkable tonight. It is supposed to get below zero in temps tonight and I just can't bear to leave my poor injured boys out in it. Even after putting lights in their coops, their water still freezes so they're not making a humongous difference but you can tell the difference when you open the doors in the mornings.

I probably would have done the same thing. I had my heavy molter in or she would have died out there.

The trick will be getting them re-acclimated to go out. They may need to be in a long time before you can get them back out depending on the weather. I had it easy because it ended up having several weeks that were relatively mild in the 30's and sometimes above so I was able to get her back out. But if it had been in weather like this, I was ready to have a house chicken for a good long time.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I am happy to report that of the two boys left outside last night that had developed just a touch of frostbite on their wattles, one didn't show any further damage this morning and the other showed only slight swelling! I'm waiting for him to get better. I need to buy more chick waterers and feed pans that are very shallow and narrow so they can only eat at the edge and not get their wattles in the food.

The three boys that stayed inside last night all show drastic improvements in the amount of swelling. The black has receded to further down the wattle too. I will try to get pics to show progress. The two that aren't so bad will be going back outside at least for the day. The other one though, I may put him out for a little while. The sun is shining in his coop and he will love it, plus he'll be able to stand all the way up.

 

[lalaland]

I had to cull poor Angelina - even if I could get her past the respiratory thing I learned she was unlikely to be able to improve on her neurological mareks symptom - not connecting with food, pecking in the air.

I did find that vetrx was as good as it is reputed to be for respiratory stuff. I used enough on Angelina that I will pick up some more to have on hand (although this is the first time in 15 years that I have had a chicken with respiratory stuff as in goopy eyes and facial swelling).

I used it previously on scaly leg mites but think that regular oils are just as effective and considerably less expensive.

anyway, today adds more evidence to the old-timers thinking of "sick chicken= culled chicken". I can do ok with injuries such as frost bite, wound healing from hawk or dog attacks, but ill chickens, have only saved one or two over all these years.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Sorry to hear it, @lalaland

Could you tell us exactly how you administered the VetRx in this situation?

 

[lalaland]

yup. 2 drops in 1/2 cup water used with cotton ball to wash eyes and nostrils. Drop on each nostril. float a few drops in water dish (supposedly good to do for the whole flock if you think there is any respiratory thing going on). Followed by a smear of neosporin or bacitracin on the eyes - it will melt and the hen blinking will distribute it.

You can also put a couple drops under the wings and around the face to help. I didn't do that since I didnt think she was congested - her breathing sounded fine, she just had some sort of eye goop.

I hate mareks.