*Update - Unsuccessful Spay. Anyone have experience with Suprelorin implant and/or spay? Egg yolk pe

[Luvmy9hens]

Hi Kimberly!

Here are a few more pics.


My husband, Gabe, sits on the floor and lets the chicks climb all over him each evening before he puts them back in their box. Here is Betty (41 days old) sitting on his lower leg with one chick (Greta - 16 days old) under her (see the cream colored butt and tail?) and one (no name yet - 16 days old) under her wing.

I find it so remarkable that this sweet little hen acts like a mother when she is just a baby herself. I have never seen this behavior in such young hens.

Next up - Ellie. Walked into the kitchen to find her dirtbathing in her Rubbermaid tote. Here she is on her back, rolling around on her back with her beak up and enjoying the experience!



Lastly are the little guys that hatched in late June. 2 hatched on June 20 and 2 more hatched on June 21.







The above chick is the one with the leg problems. I tried a hobble, splinting, and attempting correction for the "tibial torsion" with a chick chair. Nothing worked. Her left leg continued to grow at almost twice the pace of the right leg as it twisted outward. She uses her wings for speed and can run, but the length and clumsiness of the left leg are inhibiting her. I have to make a decision within the week of the course of action to take. I had her separated from the other chicks but now they are all 5 are together. (She initially had to be separated because she developed an open sore on the hock at 2 days old and needed to be bandaged to prevent the others from pecking at her leg.)

Here she is today in the box with the others:




You can see how long the bad leg has gotten. The base of her hock is so wide and thick that I believe that she would be able to use it as a foot to help propel her along. What do you think?

 

[kculbert]

They are all adorable but I have to say, the "leggy" one's face is pretty special.

I have never seen anything like that before so I have no idea if she could manage without the foot or not. What you're saying makes sense to me though. Even if the legs ended up being a little off I would think she would be able to balance. I have seen pigeons with one foot before and they seemed to get around just fine. I am shocked by how long that leg is. I don't know how she would manage to walk if it stays on. Do they use a general anesthesia on a little one like that? I have never had a chicken younger than 10 weeks so I have no idea about their pain tolerance. My silkie was attacked by something and it ripped a huge chunk out of her back and ripped off her tail, leaving the bone exposed. The vet cleaned it up but then we were on our own. I thought she was a goner but she made it and seemed to be pretty much unaffected by the wound as long as we kept it covered. They are surprisingly tough little things sometimes.

I know it's a tough decision. Personally, I would do the surgery but I have also taken a pet rat to the vet to have a broken arm set. It had a little tiny cast which it immediately chewed off. I am just weird that way. I just feel better knowing I did everything I could within limits. It looks like you have some gentle girls in your flock so she probably has a good chance of being accepted even if she is a little different and only has one foot and a limp.

Whatever you decide to do, will be okay. You are a great mom and do so much more than most : )

 

[mg15]

kculbert, wrote,
"I hope you don't have any further issues with your chickens. I am scared it's going to happen with one of my other girls who has started to drop her eggs at night and lay weird eggs. If her problems get much worse, I go with the Suprelorin again. I do not think I will attempt to go through another spay. Too expensive, too risky and too sad for me."

I agree, I will not give any of my girls over to the vet for a spay or try to stop laying by being in the dark. It did not work for either of my girls, and
I would have wanted them to be with me. I have learned so much from your posts and the other posts. I have kept this thread for future information, and I thank you both for sharing your experience. Thank You.
mg

 

[Luvmy9hens]

Believe it or not, I've had a chick in a cast before. Like you, I want to do all I can. So far the leggy chick is doing well with the others. She can get to the food and eat and drink independently. The others accept her which is a blessing in itself.

For surgical procedures, chicks are given a general anesthesia as far as I know so... I prefer to wait until she is a bit bigger before getting the procedure done.

I had no intention of hatching chicks or even buying baby chicks this year but I guess it happened. Now we are up to 18. I am grateful that we didn't wind up with 5 males when the eggs hatched. At least they are all females. That usually NEVER happens!

How is Phyllis Diller? Are her feathers growing back yet?

 

[kculbert]

Well, that's chicken math for you!

I'm glad you can wait a little bit on the surgery. She looks so tiny!

Sadly, Phyllis Diller is still hideous. I see no sign of mites but I might go ahead and pull out the big guns and dose her up for everything under the sun. I hate to do it because she is the only one laying right now and I like my eggs. I have had other chickens that continued to lay through a molt but I am a little surprised that she is because of the severity of her molt.

It has occurred to me that she might be a frazzle. Her feathers are very brittle but not as curly as the frazzles in pictures. If she is, I know it's not good. I am going to have to research it a little bit before I get myself all worked up. I am a human version of Chicken Little - the sky is falling!!!

 

[kculbert]

kculbert, wrote,
"I hope you don't have any further issues with your chickens. I am scared it's going to happen with one of my other girls who has started to drop her eggs at night and lay weird eggs. If her problems get much worse, I go with the Suprelorin again. I do not think I will attempt to go through another spay. Too expensive, too risky and too sad for me."

I agree, I will not give any of my girls over to the vet for a spay or try to stop laying by being in the dark. It did not work for either of my girls, and
I would have wanted them to be with me. I have learned so much from your posts and the other posts. I have kept this thread for future information, and I thank you both for sharing your experience. Thank You.
mg

Glad that the posts helped. It's so hard to know what to do with chickens. I would be lost without this forum!

 

[Luvmy9hens]

I haven't heard of a frazzle...a cross between a frizzle and a ? Don't worry about her looking really nasty. My frizzles look disgusting during the summer. They are nearly bald and the crop is exposed because no feathers cover it. It just hangs. They even lose the feathers on their heads except for the short ones so they look as though they have crew cuts! It's not really a molt. The feathers just gradually fall out and do not re regrow until the weather cools down!
These are from last September...
!

 

[kculbert]

A frazzle is the result of breeding a frizzle to a frizzle. The frazzle offspring then carry a lethal gene. I have spent the afternoon reading about them. After seeing your frizzles' pictures, I guess it's normal and she's just going through a hard molt. She seems happy but she is scary looking. She has no feathers on her wings, just those spiky feather shafts, and is pretty bald in the neck and area. Her wattles were covered in feathers and now it just looks like she has a giant goiter. I will try to get a picture of Phyllis tomorrow. She never stands still!

 

[Luvmy9hens]

I guess that as long as the frizzles are happy and not in direct sunlight (so as to avoid sunburn on the exposed skin) the feather loss must not bother them. I, too, did some research regarding frazzles after I signed off last night. Do you think that Phyllis Diller is a frazzle?

I can remember back to October 2011 when I first received my flock from a woman who could no longer keep them...
I looked at the frizzles and almost died. I initially thought that they had a disease or were ill due to wings being nothing more than ugly feather shafts and bodies covered sparsely in curly feathers. It took 3 years for them to begin looking like normal birds. I have noticed that switching to 100% organic feed with no GMOs has helped with feather retention. I have never wormed nor given any meds to the hens as they will eventually wind up in the eggs that I eat. I have never had to deal with serious health issues aside from the egg laying issues due to thin shelled/shell less eggs. The hens die from old age. My oldest is now 7 years, currently broody, and still flock-master! This year, the birds look better than they ever have! I also love the waterer that I made a few months back which keeps the water clean and fresh. The bucket is food grade plastic so I don't have to worry about poisoning them (or me) with BPA!



The little leggy chick continues to do well and keeps up with the crowd. That's a bit of good news. Although my husband brought our Mille Fleur D'Uccle hen inside today because she was looking droopy and staying at the floor of the coop. She is confined to a "hospital" box and has been drinking quite a bit of the "rooster booster" enhanced water. I am being VERY careful to keep her isolated and washing thoroughly after handling her. So far, I see no obvious signs of illness: eyes and nostrils are clear, breathing is normal, abdomen is normal. Since she is at the bottom of the pecking order she may have been denied access to feed and water. Not sure but time will tell. Everyone else is healthy.

 

[Wol1]

I've had two with egg peritonitis, both Golden Comets. I posted earlier on this thread. One, Honeybun, finally died from it. Her oviduct got inflamed from the infected egg in it, then more backed up behind it, it spilled over inside her. I took her to an avian vet who gave her a long acting antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory. (If you live near Cincinnati, OH, Dr. Dahlhausen in Milford is a good avian vet. A long drive for us, but it was a relief when I found myself in a waiting room full of birds instead of cats and dogs.) She got better, took her back the following week, and he thought she was doing well, gave her another shot. We went on vacation and our daughter watched the farm. She kept a close eye on her, but I guess Honeybun was hiding it from her. Should have just had her take her back to the vet that week to be sure all was ok. When we got back, I took one look at her and knew it was back. Took her back to the vet who tried a different anti-biotic that works well at reducing inflammation in the oviduct. He thought she would make it. On Thursday, she didn't want to eat much. On Friday she wouldn't eat unless we fed her, bite by bite. Her droppings had become bright yellow, not curdled. Called the vet to update, they said they couldn't get her in until Monday. We managed to keep her alive over the weekend. First thing Monday am I was there with her. They kept her for 3 days and tube fed her, gave her sub-q fluids. Anti-biotics, etc. She just wasn't responding. The yellow poop was because her liver was infected/inflamed. The vet didn't think she would survive surgery. I decided to put her down rather than risk her dying in surgery. They gave her the shot and then I held her and talked to her and pet her while she drifted off to sleep. It was so peaceful. At the end she opened her eyes and looked around, saw me, looked at me for a few seconds, and calmly fell asleep. Of course I cried so hard I couldn't see straight for two days. And the unbelievable...they didn't charge me anything. At all. That made me cry even more.

The other, Sweetpea, I caught early and gave her penicillin shots and some Meloxicam (Metacam? an anti-inflammatory) that I had. She got better, then worse, so I gave her Ciprofloxacin that I had, 1/4 of a 500 mg tablet seems to work with my chickens. We kept her inside without much light (not completely dark, just no lights on). She got better and is now molting. So far, no more problems. She has been devouring crushed eggshells. I sprinkle them outside the barn when we let them out to forage at night. Some want them, some don't. I'm assuming the molt has stopped her from producing eggs. I've been taking her of the run and letting her eat her fill without rude interruption, and she is losing her boniness. I hope she recovers without relapse. If she does continue to have the problem, I will get the implant. Her health is more important to me than another egg.

I appreciate the description of the surgery/recovery time. Does anyone know the cost of the implant?