Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[lightm]

Awww, such a cute little face!

Thanks I look pretty good for an old lady

Which one, the bird or the human?!

Yes, I realized that my complement was ambiguous ...
It is this face.

But Kelly, you have a cute little face too, you do! I just didn't want to make that a public statement.

 

[Ponypoor]

Yes, I realized that my complement was ambiguous ...
It is this face.
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But Kelly, you have a cute little face too, you do! I just didn't want to make that a public statement.

Twister is a cutie pie, I am very happy I got those three little ladies, they have fit in real well here.

 

[lightm]

Butters Update - seems to be slowly improving

No evidence of any bloody pus anywhere yet. Looked at the picture again and the poo part really looks like Butters' poo did, so am heavily leaning on it being Butters'.
I emailed the vet that picture that evening (Friday) and she emailed back on Sunday evening, very interested in what appeared to be "caseous" pus to her, and I think mistakenly assumed it is Butters, but if it is, here's her thoughts:

"....Chickens develop a hard caseous pus as opposed to fluid-like pus in the face of an infection. So if Butters has/had some kind of severe gastric obstruction/impaction, her body might have laid down this hard caseous pus due to the inflammation or infection.

I would not recommend any NSAIDs for Butters (tylenol, asprin, meloxicam, etc.) because these can be very hard on the GI tract and can cause and exacerbate gastric ulcers. Since Butters has evidence of disruption of her GI tract it's probably best to steer clear of these.

I would recommend continuing your care for her as you have been! If you see can more evidence of her passing caseous pus perhaps we could put her on an antibiotic to see if it helps, but again I am hesitant because they can be hard on the GI tract especially if the bird is not eating, so we would probably have to administer it at the same time as a meal."

After weighing her a couple of weeks ago and seeing the few ounces of weight lost, nothing gained, I decided to try to tube-feed her twice a day when possible. On 1x/day she would rally for some hours after feeding and be flagging by the end of the day, and be poorly by next morning. I also felt it's kind of a "fish or cut bait" situation in a way, I don't want to string her along in such an underweight vulnerable state, something else will get her, so let's see what more intense nutritional rehab will do, or not do, for her.

If the vet's hypothesis is the case, then the issue is how much healing is happening, and what scarring might cause. It's also possible that there's an entirely different problem, like a gastric cancer, going on, or that the bloody pus was evidence of salpingitis or another infectious situation (but nobody's poop is looking anything like what happened that day).

I know some people tube-feed three times a day, as @lightm did? There's the issue of how much they can fit in their crop at one time, even when eating naturally, and getting enough calories, something @Shadrach has written about. I'm not inclined to stress her needlessly - she is eating some foods on her own. She is eating goodies of yogurt and sweet corn, and now mealworms, which she wasn't before.

Yesterday she actually ate dried BSF mealworms for the first time, and fought Popcorn for them too (Popcorn backed down, she doesn't try to shoulder her way in anymore like she used to). She was taking real chomps and eating the whole mealworm, whereas before she would look very interested but couldn't actually get anything down except a few crumbs. I haven't seen her eat the crumble feed a lot yet, though I see her at the treadle, and she comes back to the yogurt dish until it's gone. However her crop by late afternoon is not very full. Hazel's is still bigger than what I feel with Butters. Popcorn is such a pig she's no comparison, she's in a different league....

She is fighting me more with the tube-feeding, and besides beating Popcorn back she even lightly pecked at Hazel when Hazel coughed while eating a mealworm next to her - but a quickly raised neck and hard look from Hazel put her in her place. All a good sign. I will weigh her soon I think, and decide on further 2x day or go back to 1x or none....

Improvement is good. It is hard to know what is going on in her body, but sounds like there is a good chance that she makes a full recovery.

I have tube fed Light twice a day. But most of these days she probably only got tube feeding once because I was a tube feeding newbie and made mistakes like not making paste liquidy enough. She was also eating on her own a bit so it seemed ok give up tube feeding at times.

It sounds like Butters is in the same boat? Maybe only once a day?

 

[lightm]

I tried to get some storm pictures but rain doesn’t show well with my phone camera.
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The chooks all barricaded themselves in their coop but Mama Ducky likes getting a shower!

(Her babies hid under the deck.)

Yep, super stormy here too. I think we are close.

 

[featherhead007]

Princess is starting off the wattle Wednesday. With her crazy comb to

Wattle and untidy comb Wednesday
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Now that, by far, is the most British looking, stiff upper lipped, hen I have ever seen!

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

I didn’t know there was a Wattle Wednesday!
I think Lucy has a fabulous comb and wattle combo.

And Elvis is very proud of his wattles.

 

[bgmathteach]

Thank you for the update.
I’ve been away from the site for awhile, and so I am out of the loop.

Welcome back @LaFemmeKatia Hope all is well with you and your absences was due to a busy life/work, not stress, and that you can 'hang out with us' again! The thread has become quite chatty, and it is hard to keep up, but a few very wonderful volunteers take turns posting a weekly synopsis on Saturdays to catch up those who just can plow through the volumes of chatty posts.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Welcome back @LaFemmeKatia Hope all is well with you and your absences was due to a busy life/work, not stress, and that you can 'hang out with us' again! The thread has become quite chatty, and it is hard to keep up, but a few very wonderful volunteers take turns posting a weekly synopsis on Saturdays to catch up those who just can plow through the volumes of chatty posts.

That is a great idea, because I know I am behind. Gotta catch up!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

ooohhhh...they are getting big! in no time they will be full on mini-mes!

Today. They've learned the drill. Opened the brooder, lay the plastic mesh brooder upper "door" like a ramp up to the tote on the desk,holding it on the edge of the tote and under it for a little support, and they jump or fly as far as they can toward it and climb the mesh to the tote edge. But the last one hung back today. Then looked like she didn't want to go and was walking away. But what she was doing was backing up and getting the proper flight angle (@featherhead007) to fly straight out onto the edge and bypass the mesh entirely!

Thought I'd bring them outside for a bit, but they immediately dustbathed and then sunbathed in the sun right there. So they had a grand time inside, hopping all around it, running on the mesh, the windowsill, watching DH on the lawn mower out the window, etc. (Don't worry food and water is in here too.)

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Today. They've learned the drill. Opened the brooder, lay the plastic mesh brooder upper "door" like a ramp up to the tote on the desk,holding it on the edge of the tote and under it for a little support, and they jump or fly as far as they can toward it and climb the mesh to the tote edge. But the last one hung back today. Then looked like she didn't want to go and was walking away. But what she was doing was backing up and getting the proper flight angle (@featherhead007) to fly straight out onto the edge and bypass the mesh entirely!

Thought I'd bring them outside for a bit, but they immediately dustbathed and then sunbathed in the sun right there. So they had a grand time inside, hopping all around it, running on the mesh, the windowsill, watching DH on the lawn mower out the window, etc. (Don't worry food and water is in here too.)
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PS they fly and little dandelion-like wisps of baby down (?) from pins of their new feathers float in the air....