What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

I just love the image of your quail cuddling into the shavings . Think I'll scratch quail off my list of wants...lol. That sounds like some great ideas you have percolating!

I'm wondering if the rats keep the mice away or if you have to deal with both? Do you ever see signs of mice around your coops or just the rats? I have mice and I've always assumed that means no rats...but not sure.

Your rat plans sound good too. Let us know how it works out. Those pesky devils are amazing at finding a way.




That green bag is soo pretty!

I'm so sorry about your crossbeak sweetheart . What a kind hubby to help you out like that.

@FrankieDoodle she certainly looks well loved

We have mice in the garden and rats in the run, so no, rats don't drive mice out in my experience. Little sods.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

You need to borrow Gladys! She loves catching mice, we never have them in the coop. The cats seem to manage to keep them out the house, I've never seen one anyway.
When I was growing up we lived in the back of beyond and had one mouse even our cat couldn't get. Turned out baiting a trap with chocolate did the trick!

I may try chocolate…I haven’t done that one yet. Beef sticks, peanut butter, marshmallows, etc. just not chocolate. I have only had one problem mouse in a different house I lived in. It was TERRIBLE! We would catch like 4 or 5 a nights. Needless to say we didn’t stay in that house long as we rented it and they didn’t do anything about the problem. Which really was their problem due to foundation problems and holes/cracks in the foundation. Anyway, I had one that I could not catch for anything! It would avoid all snap traps and I even watched it JUMP over one of those long snake/rat sticky traps. I made 2 apple pies for thanksgiving that year and I put it in my oven over night thinking it would be safe in there. As I lived in the country as a kid and my mom did it and never had problems. But no, no, not me. That little butt decided to EAT MY PIES!! Now it would have been one thing if I had used canned pie filling but I love making my own so I hand peeled and sliced every one of the apples. Oh I was hot! Now at the same time we had a cat named peaches. He was SOO lazy but also could really care less about the mice. He never killed any, which is why we got him in the first place. Well my husband took the door off the oven so I could scrub it clean and that night he left it off. We woke up the next morning and had my 3rd youngest playing on the floor (she was 1 at the time) and Peaches brought her something. My husband got up too look and it was that MOUSE! But did he bite it…no, he licked it to death. I was proud of him though.

We have some cats that are around, not sure who the belong to, but I’m sure they keep the mice population down out here. I wish we had more.

 

[FrankieDoodle]

@TropicalBabies I’m so sorry about your crossbeak boy. It can be such a tough call to make, but I know he was well loved and taken care of during his time with you. <3

Your bags look great as always!

In the U.K you can only get antibiotics on prescription but i understand it's different in the U.S. and you can buy most antibiotics at feed stores etc? I don't think you can get enrofolaxin (Baytril) other than prescribed by a vet though? I did notice a business based in California on eBay called Crown Pet Supplies that seemed to be selling a lot of bird meds. No idea how good they are and I don't know anything about them?
Things like the Echinacea are available in most health stores. All the things I mentioned (apart from antibiotics) I got from The British Hen Welfare Trust shop. They are a brilliant charity and I try to support them as much as I can.

I hope you don’t mind if I jump on this real quick. If anyone in the US is looking for Baytril or other meds, this is where I get mine:
https://www.glamgouldians.com/shop-medicines.php
The site isn’t the most mobile friendly, but it’s the only place I’ve found that sells Baytril without a prescription.

 

[kurby22]

I just love the image of your quail cuddling into the shavings . Think I'll scratch quail off my list of wants...lol. That sounds like some great ideas you have percolating!

I'm wondering if the rats keep the mice away or if you have to deal with both? Do you ever see signs of mice around your coops or just the rats? I have mice and I've always assumed that means no rats...but not sure.

Your rat plans sound good too. Let us know how it works out. Those pesky devils are amazing at finding a way.




That green bag is soo pretty!

I'm so sorry about your crossbeak sweetheart . What a kind hubby to help you out like that.

@FrankieDoodle she certainly looks well loved

Yeah, quail bring their own list of baggage haha--but the snuggled little piles of quail is pretty adorable. I think the mice are limited due to the owls, outdoor neighborhood cats, and other prey that live near the river. Rats are big enough and fit in better with this crowd of predators it seems.

Well today it is just raining. However I have YupYup outside in his pen, he has only been coming in at night. I got the puppies moved out of the whelping pool into an area that they can’t climb out of. This morning I came down and the puppies were all out. It was cute to see them run to me when they seen me but it is so much saver for them to be out of the pool. So, I have had a lot to do to move them and with everything going on, it has taken me a lot longer, which also means the Christmas tree has not gone up yet. But now there is space for a tree and I haven’t even started present wrapping and with 6 kids…that’s a lot. I’m really hoping next year is better!

I feel you with this so much! I've been so sidetracked by chicken issues that Christmas just hasn't even been on my mental radar and now it's 12/13 and our tree is bare and I have a ton of presents left to buy...I'm starting to stress out a lot. Gotta love the holidays!

DH culled my cross beak for me last eve. I did not have the heart. This one just got to me and made me very sad though I knew it was the right thing. Crossbeak knew it was the right thing as he went willing and quietly. The trimming of his beak helped the first few times and I am sure I could of kept him plugging along with a sadish life but with my flock size it def factored in. No room for another personal pet. DH was terrific as he knows I get sad and snappy with my chicken losses. Going to be a little lonely this morning.

My takeaway is to NEVER let my broodies sit in summer again. Think the humidity and heat may have been the reason for such horrible hatches and his deformity. Maybe it was Manono's egg... IDK just not going to do it. Too sad.

Been knocking the heck outta the bags. Have at least 2 big stands to refill. Finally making them some $! New bags look terrific. Gotta go sew... almost there...View attachment 3348698View attachment 3348699View attachment 3348700

Ahhh, I'm so sorry about your cross beak...that is just the toughest thing to have to do for our babies.

I do love your new bag designs! Especially that yellow one! It's awesome you are having so much success

Pur is doing a lot better, thank you everyone. I told her how concerned you all are and I think it perked her up a lot!
She was still pretty wheezy this morning so I borrowed a nebulizer from my vet ( have to pay a £40 deposit but I get that back when I'm done). She's been nebulised twice, once with F10SC then with Vet RX this afternoon. I gave her another dose of enrofolaxin and I'm going to continue it for 3 - 5 days depending on how she's doing. And everyone got a dose of Echinacea in a warm mash and multi vits in their water. Even my wild robin had Echinacea on his mealworms! By the time she went to bed, she was barely wheezing and eating like a horse so fingers crossed I've started treatment early enough. None of the others are showing symptoms so far.

You absolutely must not beat yourself up about Fluff and Asha, thinking you missed something. To me, it sounds like Asha's surface GD healed well but it had already gone deep into her body cavities. It may have developed into gas gangrene which is notoriously difficult to treat. I think they said on my course the mortality rate jumped from 60% to over 80%. You did your absolute best for her and with all the odds stacked against her. You did your best for both of them and nobody could have loved and cared for them harder.

Re Brownie, it certainly sounds like post antibiotic thrush. I try not to give antibiotics as a prophylaxis as I worry about causing thrush and antibiotic resistance but if Denagard helps keep your flock healthy, I'd make sure I was following up immediately with pre and probiotics.
You can treat with Nystatin, Fluconazole (Diflucan) or Ketoconazole very successfully . Keep going with the copper sulphate and you could try some natural remedies too e.g. clove oil, cinnamon, thyme oil or pomegranate peel powder. They're all quite effective anti-fungals and can all be added to food or water. Mine love anything cinnamon! You can also feed natural bio-yogurt too. I'd definitely be giving them probiotics, get their gut flora back to normal. Oh, and watch for sour crop too. Something else I've used is human paediatric Daktarin for oral thrush. Just about a pea-sized amount in the beak. That worked pretty well in just 2-3 days but it was a mild infection.
If you think it's affecting her breathing, I'd try removing the plug of thrush with a q-tip, then applying an anti-fungal.

Hope some of this helps and I'll keep everything crossed for

This is super helpful, thank you! I have a question--since canker and thrush seem so similar, can i treat for both? Is there a reason not to? I brought Brownie inside since she seems the worst off...and the others are outside with the acidified copper sulfate in their water. I have Metronidazole which I have read is good for canker...and I have Nystatin I can treat for possible thrush. I don't think I have time to take her in and get her a special culture to ensure which it is so I kind of want to treat for both? I understand that canker is a protozoa and thrush is a fungus...so it seems like it wouldn't hurt to try both? But I am not a vet and want to make sure I make the best decision. I was told by my vet that Denagard doesn't cause antibiotic resistance according to studies, so I use it as a go to if they show signs of URIs...and I usually follow that up with some kind of probiotic...but perhaps just not enough this time. And maybe I am not doing enough proactive stuff...I am trying but it's a lot to keep track of all the things. I bought some cinnamon and some pomagranate peel powder that I can mix in with their food. I also got some greek yogurt and greens and blueberries to give them as well. Hopefully that is enough??

@kurby22 @Shetland lover .Wow, I haven't heard of these treatment medications before. Where would I get these if a situation like yours came up? Are they prescribed?

@kurby22 Oh, the hairdos! So cute! Yeah, they may not like their embarrassment shared with us, though. Lots of things going on for you. I have some same issues with stinky, muddy run, a tenacious rat who digs under to go in and out of the coop/run. Next project is to bury some old railroad tie heavy plates vertically under the bottom of the structure where it keeps digging up. Just a thought, for post fungal treatment, would probiotics help to repopulate the good bacteria, along with ACV? Poor birds. So much to deal with for you. Hope it clears up soon.
Today, I had to redo the bedding in the main coop, and probably the other one tomorrow. The moisture from the poops and maybe their muddy, wet feet got the ammonia level going. I'll get more shavings and PDZ tomorrow along with a feed run.

I have Enrofloxacin as well as Doxycyclin and Amoxicillin and Tylan and Tylosin powder...I found a Falconry/Pigeon online store in Oregon that will ship meds to me in CA since poultry antibiotics are hard to get otherwise. I'm all prepared with a vet clinics worth of medications and no idea what I'm doing.

Yes, Polish hair dos are my favorite hahaha...I'm certain he curses me and gets made fun of by all the others. The frizzles are just so much more ridiculous than even the normal Polish hair dos!

The rats are becoming the bane of my existence. I don't have the ability to move this coop it's massively heavy and took a LOT of work and people to put it where it is haha, so I am just trying to stop gap the issue spots! They chewed holes in a couple of the 2x4s and apparently managed to chew thru the horse stall mat I laid down underneath the coop and a pseudo floor. My next step will be pulling out EVERYTHING inside and installing a floor, I'm just NOT handy so it is a last resort option haha. Would have to be designed to hold a LOT of human weight plus shavings and nest boxes and chickens haha. It's doable though. Just not ideal! PDZ is on my list! On that note, I gotta get ready to pick up the kids and run to the Feed Store!

Thanks all for the ideas and support!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

@TropicalBabies
what a dear hubby you have! I'm sure you did all you could. I cannot imagine having one in that situation. And my DH would never!!! The few hatchlings I've had to make that decision on he didn't even wanna know. And the first one bout killed me! So I cannot imagine your loss in one you have raised and cared for so much!
Hugs to you over there!!!

I got so sick of dealing with stinking mud in the run and filthy feet, I've dug it all out, laid paving stones and I'm going to lay 5-6 inches of sand at the weekend. That gives me a couple of days to water bioocyst and dust ground sanitizer all over the run before I put the sand down. Ferdy has constantly broken foot feathers, drives me mad

Wow! That's gotta be expensive and time consuming as heck! How big an area is it?!
I always wondered what people with sand in their run did...cuz sometimes I swear it looks like mine are digging a tunnel to China! So are the papers to prevent that from happening and they just stop when they get that far down?

 

[Shetland lover]

I may try chocolate…I haven’t done that one yet. Beef sticks, peanut butter, marshmallows, etc. just not chocolate. I have only had one problem mouse in a different house I lived in. It was TERRIBLE! We would catch like 4 or 5 a nights. Needless to say we didn’t stay in that house long as we rented it and they didn’t do anything about the problem. Which really was their problem due to foundation problems and holes/cracks in the foundation. Anyway, I had one that I could not catch for anything! It would avoid all snap traps and I even watched it JUMP over one of those long snake/rat sticky traps. I made 2 apple pies for thanksgiving that year and I put it in my oven over night thinking it would be safe in there. As I lived in the country as a kid and my mom did it and never had problems. But no, no, not me. That little butt decided to EAT MY PIES!! Now it would have been one thing if I had used canned pie filling but I love making my own so I hand peeled and sliced every one of the apples. Oh I was hot! Now at the same time we had a cat named peaches. He was SOO lazy but also could really care less about the mice. He never killed any, which is why we got him in the first place. Well my husband took the door off the oven so I could scrub it clean and that night he left it off. We woke up the next morning and had my 3rd youngest playing on the floor (she was 1 at the time) and Peaches brought her something. My husband got up too look and it was that MOUSE! But did he bite it…no, he licked it to death. I was proud of him though.

We have some cats that are around, not sure who the belong to, but I’m sure they keep the mice population down out here. I wish we had more.

Ooh! The rotten little !!! I don't use canned fillings either and make my own pastry so I'd have been furious too! It did make me laugh though Sorry.

Elliot sounds like Peaches. I once saw him catch a mouse and proceed to lick it to death. Once it was good and dead, he sort of recoiled in shock then made an enormous 'huffing noise and lay his head down next to the corpse. He's such a silly sausage

 

[PopoMyers]

I haven’t even started present wrapping and with 6 kids…that’s a lot.

Oh, I have an idea! Make some bags like @TropicalBabies does, and use those as reusable gift bags! Drop in, close, label, and go! , Well maybe for next year.

 

[Shetland lover]

Yeah, quail bring their own list of baggage haha--but the snuggled little piles of quail is pretty adorable. I think the mice are limited due to the owls, outdoor neighborhood cats, and other prey that live near the river. Rats are big enough and fit in better with this crowd of predators it seems.

I feel you with this so much! I've been so sidetracked by chicken issues that Christmas just hasn't even been on my mental radar and now it's 12/13 and our tree is bare and I have a ton of presents left to buy...I'm starting to stress out a lot. Gotta love the holidays!

Ahhh, I'm so sorry about your cross beak...that is just the toughest thing to have to do for our babies.

I do love your new bag designs! Especially that yellow one! It's awesome you are having so much success

This is super helpful, thank you! I have a question--since canker and thrush seem so similar, can i treat for both? Is there a reason not to? I brought Brownie inside since she seems the worst off...and the others are outside with the acidified copper sulfate in their water. I have Metronidazole which I have read is good for canker...and I have Nystatin I can treat for possible thrush. I don't think I have time to take her in and get her a special culture to ensure which it is so I kind of want to treat for both? I understand that canker is a protozoa and thrush is a fungus...so it seems like it wouldn't hurt to try both? But I am not a vet and want to make sure I make the best decision. I was told by my vet that Denagard doesn't cause antibiotic resistance according to studies, so I use it as a go to if they show signs of URIs...and I usually follow that up with some kind of probiotic...but perhaps just not enough this time. And maybe I am not doing enough proactive stuff...I am trying but it's a lot to keep track of all the things. I bought some cinnamon and some pomagranate peel powder that I can mix in with their food. I also got some greek yogurt and greens and blueberries to give them as well. Hopefully that is enough??


I have Enrofloxacin as well as Doxycyclin and Amoxicillin and Tylan and Tylosin powder...I found a Falconry/Pigeon online store in Oregon that will ship meds to me in CA since poultry antibiotics are hard to get otherwise. I'm all prepared with a vet clinics worth of medications and no idea what I'm doing.

Yes, Polish hair dos are my favorite hahaha...I'm certain he curses me and gets made fun of by all the others. The frizzles are just so much more ridiculous than even the normal Polish hair dos!

The rats are becoming the bane of my existence. I don't have the ability to move this coop it's massively heavy and took a LOT of work and people to put it where it is haha, so I am just trying to stop gap the issue spots! They chewed holes in a couple of the 2x4s and apparently managed to chew thru the horse stall mat I laid down underneath the coop and a pseudo floor. My next step will be pulling out EVERYTHING inside and installing a floor, I'm just NOT handy so it is a last resort option haha. Would have to be designed to hold a LOT of human weight plus shavings and nest boxes and chickens haha. It's doable though. Just not ideal! PDZ is on my list! On that note, I gotta get ready to pick up the kids and run to the Feed Store!

Thanks all for the ideas and support!

I'm no vet either but I can't see as it would do any harm to treat her for both. Like you said, they're two separate diseases with different causes. My only worry would be overwhelming her with too many meds at once. I'd definitely keep her indoors for now though, whatever you decide to do. Trichomoniasis (canker) I've no personal experience with but from what I've read can present more danger to the bird as it can choke them if it builds up in the throat. It looks like it's nearly always yellowish and has a caceous (cheese-like) look and texture if that helps with diagnosis? Could you try treating for a few days for one of them and if there's no improvement, treat for the other? I'd maybe acidity her drinking water too. And thyme oil is supposed to be effective for both conditions. Blueberries and greens like cabbage and kale are brilliant prebiotics so should help feed the probiotics and allow them to do their job more efficiently. I hope she gets better soon.

We've got a rat problem in the run, it's driving me crazy. I thought we'd managed to drive them out by flooding the tunnels repeatedly but yesterday I noticed a new tunnel going into the flower border next to the run. They're clearly too bright to fall for the traps we have down. I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion we're going to have to put poison down the main tunnel. I really, really do not want to do this!

I have done almost nothing to prepare for Christmas either. I have made my cake and plum puddings but I've bought hardly any presents yet or written cards or anything else yet! I just can't seem to get my act together this year and I'm now panicking...
We did get the tree last weekend but it's out the back until the weekend. You'd think the chickens had never seen a Christmas tree the way they booted off when DH carried it out, with Ferdy ably leading the chorus of course

 

[PopoMyers]

Yeah, my two cockerels are brood mates, hatched the end of July. Ertugrul was the first to try crowing, and is larger. There was another Sapphire Gem cockerel before them, their dad, who died suddenly at around 5 mo. in August, so these boys of his are coming into their own.

Went to open the temp coop door, and what do I see? Leaves piled into the corner. Some chicken is making her own nest from the leaves I had raked into the run. Is this a strange behavior? There are already shavings in there.

Got a heated water thingy for them since temps next week will certainly freeze the bucket. Lazy me does not want to cart water out there twice a day. Something I did not know is that if you are in the Tractor Supply loyalty program (points for $spent), they automatically give you an extra 2 years extended warranty, worth $14.99. If this breaks down before 3 years, I could get a replacement. Pretty worth it to me.

 

[Shetland lover]

@TropicalBabies
what a dear hubby you have! I'm sure you did all you could. I cannot imagine having one in that situation. And my DH would never!!! The few hatchlings I've had to make that decision on he didn't even wanna know. And the first one bout killed me! So I cannot imagine your loss in one you have raised and cared for so much!
Hugs to you over there!!!


Wow! That's gotta be expensive and time consuming as heck! How big an area is it?!
I always wondered what people with sand in their run did...cuz sometimes I swear it looks like mine are digging a tunnel to China! So are the papers to prevent that from happening and they just stop when they get that far down?

It wasn't too bad cost-wise as it's not a big area and I managed to grab spare pavers from family and friends. I've only had to actually buy two at the princely sum of £6. I put the pavers down mainly to stop the sand mixing into the soil, which is the problem I've always had with wood chippings. Mine will do the same with any loose earth. Maud, one of my ex-batts, was a champion digger. Now she WAS digging a hole to China, I'm convinced of it. I once went out to find her stood up in a hole she'd excavated with just her comb visible!. I'm hoping the paving slabs will stop them digging too deep but the sand will still allow them to indulge the desire to dig. Thinking it might be a bit kinder to their feet too as it should drain well.