What did you do with your flock today?

[FBMcrazy8]

Beautiful!!

She’s about the same. It’s been cold and wet the past two days so I haven’t had the chance to be consistant with the clotrimazole, but I’m hoping to get it going tomorrow.

I’ve noticed her new thing is to act “better” for a few days, followed by a few days of her doing nothing but sitting in the run/under a car. It’s making it hard to know whether she’s getting worse or not.

Hoping she starts actually getting better!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

@kurby22 you can't blame yourself for those Ashsa and Fluff! All you can do is keep investigating and treating and doing the best ya can...which u certainly are! You luv em! We could all look back and see how we could have done things differently and had different outcomes but that could also drive ya crazy ya know.
Where do you get the zeolite? Is it a powder you just sprinkle? I hadn't ever heard of it but sounds like I could use it! We had mostly sunny yesterday for the first time since before the cruise and the run is still nasty. I keep flipping and raking and ugh!
I wonder if come spring I need to just clean the entire ground area out and lay bed of rock then 6" or more of sand...but I just don't know if that would help and be worth huge expense or not. I'm so frustrated at how several of them have broken feathers on their feet! Bluey is the only one that doesn't have broken feet feathers!
Do your boys ever crow whenever the rats come in during the night?
Mine have been crowing off and on during the night and i don't see anything on the cameras.

In my cases they do whoever whenever...sadly.

I’m getting rain today but the ground has been pretty wet the last couple days. I don’t have any bedding in my run but my run isn’t covered on the top either. I kinda feel like if I put bedding in mine it would be redundant. They have under their coop for dry area and if it snows good enough I have straw to put down on top of it. I hate how muddy it is but at the same time I don’t want to put a top on the run. Partly because of the way the run is…even a tarp would fall apart or weight the netting down.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Yes and No. IF you have an established flock master they are HIS girls. If he has too many he may let a lesser roo mate the girls that he is not that interested in and it slightly splits the flock. The magic number is up to him though smaller flock = more drama.
If you have a young cockerel and another young cockerel there may be more overstepping as your main guy does not have things under perfect control yet.
The older roo is more practiced and discriminate. I think... it really depends on who his favorites are and of course, flock dynamics supercedes all logic lol.

My flock master is diligent about mating and herding his favorites. The lower ranking hens he let's #2 have a snack. If #2 tries to snack on #1's girls there is trouble. #1 is mating the alpha hens, some who are 5 and not necessarily laying and also, who ever he wants. He will not mate a pullet till she is ready, just b4 POL. A young cockerel may try and mate a pullet sooner. A established flock will protect her against that happening.
I used to hate intro but now I absolutely love it and having an older flock. Lots to be said about those matriarchs ♡♡♡

I love the way this sounds . Seems just so much easier than first starting out. Kinda gives me hope about adding to my flock come this spring.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

@TropicalBabies

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

I’m so sorry! I know you did the right thing. Yes he could have lived longer but what life would it be. I really think that having any animal with a disability is one that everyone needs to make their own decisions on and weigh out what kind of quality of life they will have. I wouldn’t have been able to do it either, even if I knew it had to be done. My husband too would have had to do it.

I love those bags!! They are just so different from the ones here! It looks really cool to see the different ones. It’s awesome that your bags are doing SO well!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

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!

 

[Shetland lover]

Oh no! How is Pru? I had a discovery today that has me wondering if I could have saved Fluff and Asha if I’d only known. I brought Brownie in to get some Terramycin for her eye which looked bubbly like MG and she happened to open her mouth and I found yellowy white cheesy looking stuff in the roof of her mouth. Doesn’t smell bad so I’m assuming thrush? Not canker…and all my research says that thrush can mimic MG and other URIs and that URI meds can possibly worsen a fungal infection? They all just finished with a preventative dose of Denagard in anticipation of the weather a few weeks back and I’m wondering if several of them are getting some fungal crap post-antibiotics? I’m so sad that it might have been my fault Asha never got better So I got some acidified copper sulfate for their waterers and will look at locating something meds wise if needed. Any suggestions? I have micronazadole (spelling ?) and a fish antifungal as well.

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

 

[Shetland lover]

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.

 

[Shetland lover]

@kurby22 you can't blame yourself for those Ashsa and Fluff! All you can do is keep investigating and treating and doing the best ya can...which u certainly are! You luv em! We could all look back and see how we could have done things differently and had different outcomes but that could also drive ya crazy ya know.
Where do you get the zeolite? Is it a powder you just sprinkle? I hadn't ever heard of it but sounds like I could use it! We had mostly sunny yesterday for the first time since before the cruise and the run is still nasty. I keep flipping and raking and ugh!
I wonder if come spring I need to just clean the entire ground area out and lay bed of rock then 6" or more of sand...but I just don't know if that would help and be worth huge expense or not. I'm so frustrated at how several of them have broken feathers on their feet! Bluey is the only one that doesn't have broken feet feathers!
Do your boys ever crow whenever the rats come in during the night?
Mine have been crowing off and on during the night and i don't see anything on the cameras.

In my cases they do whoever whenever...sadly.

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

 

[Shetland lover]

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

Poor cross beak boy. It sounds as though it was for the best. You're so lucky to have a DH who can do that for you. Mine is wonderful and tolerates my chicken obsession like a champ but no way could he cull anything (expect wasps, he's terrified of them). I'm not hard enough to do it either. I once had to decapitate one of my fish as she had catastrophic injuries but was somehow still alive. It still haunts me.

The bags look amazing!

 

[Shetland lover]

Eeeeewwwww eeeewwwww eeeewwwww!!! I have a mouse in my house currently that I can’t catch for the life of me! I’m thinking I may have to go with sticky traps. He is completely avoiding all the other traps I have in here. I can deal with mice better than other things. Everyone has mice at one point or another. I don’t know if I said this but I feel like maybe I did, so if so ignore me . There is something out there where you get a deep bowl with peanut oil in it. You set something up where they can climb in it and then they can’t get out. I would need mine super deep so I don’t have one jump out at me or climb on me

What are you doing to keep them out? Beside the plates coving the holes…anything else?

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!