This forum has been much different lately.

[roosterhavoc]

Children, children, children can't you just give your egos a rest? 'Children' as in behavior not necessarily chronological age. Just look in the mirrors, pat yourself on the back, and say firmly, "I know that I am right." Okay, now, all better?

We all know age doesn’t equal wisdom. That’s evident every single day.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Which bring up another interesting point. Some old timers feel like because they have owned chickens for 49.5 years they are an instant authority. They may or may not be but owning a dozen chickens with only 1 being male at a time for said years does not equate to being an authority on roosters, rooster behavior etc…

 

[roosterhavoc]

Ask yourself how can any one person know so much about sick birds unless they themselves have had a ridiculous amount of sick birds. This *should* scare you away since apparently these people would rather play doctor to clean up the mess instead of avoiding it in the first place.

 

[marsmallowthesilkie]

Ask yourself how can any one person know so much about sick birds unless they themselves have had a ridiculous amount of sick birds. This *should* scare you away since apparently these people would rather play doctor to clean up the mess instead of avoiding it in the first place.

I agree

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Also haven’t read the whole thread, but I wanted to really quickly jump in and say that I’m finding that it’s very hard to get help here now, when I first joined I got a response within an hour for my first chicken emergency, but in March I started threee different threads begging for help on a sick chicken that eventually died, and I didn’t get a response until it was pretty much too late, which was so sad because I just wish that I could have gotten help earlier, just feels like there’s less people, not a reflection on those who are here but there’s just less now.

I think what you’re noticing is not the lack of responders, but the increase of posters who need help. As the forum grows this issue will inevitably grow as well. Unless more experts emerge, I suppose.

 

[The chicken Hatcher]

Who would I tag for a silkie not re-growing her head fluff? I was thinking behaviors but I could be wrong.

 

[The chicken Hatcher]

I suppose it'll be in emergencies diseases and cures huh?

 

[Sierra G]

Who would I tag for a silkie not re-growingi her head fluff? I was thinking behaviors but I could be wrong.

I suppose it depends on why the feathers aren't regrowing. How old is she? By head fluff do you mean down or actual feathers? How long has it been since she lost the feathers? When was her last molt? Are the feathers completely gone or just damaged? Does the skin look normal or has it been pecked? Is there scarring? What's her diet like?

It's not really an emergency because it's not life threatening and it probably isn't time sensitive either.

Cornell University has some great books on birds and some good online resources too.

Check out https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/feathers-article/
and pay particular attention to Feather Growth. It won't answer questions specific to silkies, but it will give you an understanding of various kinds of feathers and give you some possibilities for what might be going on with your bird.

 

[BantammChick]

I have noticed this, I do not reply to threads where I don't have the knowledge to help, but understand that some of us on the chat threads are people who like this site, but are somewhat new with chickens and can't help much with the threads where people have questions.

 

[theoldchick]

Ask yourself how can any one person know so much about sick birds unless they themselves have had a ridiculous amount of sick birds. This *should* scare you away since apparently these people would rather play doctor to clean up the mess instead of avoiding it in the first place.

I know about sick birds because I work in a veterinary practice. See lots of sick birds, chickens, ostriches (those things kick worse than a horse), parrots and so forth. Go volunteer at an animal sanctuary and you will learn lots about sick exotic animals. There are many ways to see ailing animals and gain experience on how to deal with them.