Mischievous chicken
Sorry it has been a while since i have been on here. I am going to school part time, work part time, and full time wife, mother and chicken mommy. Anyways i hope your chicken is hangin in there. Of course, I took him to the vet as soon as she was opened on Monday (because i found him on Saturday) She took x-rays and ruled out that he hadn't broken anything, thank goodness, but she said his bones looked thin, and she said it could have been the angle of the x-ray. she wormed him and said he was underweight, and gave him an injection of calcium to give him a boost. so i had a base of what it possibly be, but still wasn't sure and she wasn't sure, the rest I did on my own, I totally did alot of reading on my rooster when he just couldn't walk or stand, I researched on so many different sites and he never seem paralyzed. He could move his legs, he just didn't have any control over them. He could not stand or walk. I put him in my garage inside of a big dog crate. I didn't put shavings in there, I put towels to make it soft because I didn't want him to be getting sores. I read about Ricketts and this sounded like it was possible that this is what Jack had (I prayed that this was it and not something worse). anyways, I mixed him egg, honey, oatmeal, calcium powder, and yogurt. I also gave him water with vitamins and electrolytes mixed in it. At first I gave him raw egg, because I didn't know if it should be cooked, but he still ate it, after 2 weeks, I noticied he was getting stronger but not much, I almost gave up and not sure of how I would have handled having to cull my baby boy that I adored. Luckily the urge left overnight, thankfully, i didn't give up.
this was during the summer so I wasn't in school and only worked Tuesday and Thursdays. so each morning I would make him his meal and would go in the garage and hold him and work his legs, I would massage, push and pull (not hard, just enough to feel that he was resisting, which was good. I fed him his egg, honey, etc. 3 times a day. I also gave him the chick starter food which has more vitamins and protein in it. (and by now I am hard boiling the egg, (the vet said it was nothing wrong with the raw egg, but didn't want him to eat the eggs when he went back outside.) (i never gave up hope after that one moment of lapse in nerves). I just kept working with him. I also went to the pet store and purchased Crickets for him to help with extra protein. I useally gave him 10 to 12 dozen a week, sometimes more.... When crickets were abundant in the wild I would also give tons of them to him. I was worried to give him the wild ones but if he is free ranging then he is eating the wild bugs, so that just made him stronger.
I just kept reading and finding things that had extra calcium and protein. I added calcuim to everything i gave him. I started giving him scramble eggs also. I actually still do for all of my chickens.
I make my own calcuim. I use all of my eggshells from the eggs my babies lay. I clean them and bake them for 15 minutes and then put them into the food processor and grind them up to fine particles. I mix the homemade calcium with their scrambled eggs, cheese, and yogurt eggs each week. I have 40 chickens of different breeds and I usually cook about 6 to 8 dozen of eggs. they love them and when it is cold outside they gooble them up and this gives them extra protein and it is all organic and I know what goes in is the best I can provide them.
I hope this has helped you at least a little. If you have any more questions or if something is unclear just let me know. I will try to get on often as I can.
Oh and I also started raising mealworms last summer. I have let my colony go through a whole cycle and now am able to give these tasty treats to my babies. Now I believe that what you put into these worms is what your chickens eat also, so I start out with some chickens food (i use the grower/finisher, because I don't need to force them to lay eggs), i add powdered milk, oatmeal, calcuim (from my eggs), grits. I vary and just use whatever is the healthiest for my girls and couple boys. Oh how they love these treats, they would eat the whole tub full if I let them. but that is more protein for them as well.
Hope your chicken is hanging in there.
xoxoxoxo
Sorry it has been a while since i have been on here. I am going to school part time, work part time, and full time wife, mother and chicken mommy. Anyways i hope your chicken is hangin in there. Of course, I took him to the vet as soon as she was opened on Monday (because i found him on Saturday) She took x-rays and ruled out that he hadn't broken anything, thank goodness, but she said his bones looked thin, and she said it could have been the angle of the x-ray. she wormed him and said he was underweight, and gave him an injection of calcium to give him a boost. so i had a base of what it possibly be, but still wasn't sure and she wasn't sure, the rest I did on my own, I totally did alot of reading on my rooster when he just couldn't walk or stand, I researched on so many different sites and he never seem paralyzed. He could move his legs, he just didn't have any control over them. He could not stand or walk. I put him in my garage inside of a big dog crate. I didn't put shavings in there, I put towels to make it soft because I didn't want him to be getting sores. I read about Ricketts and this sounded like it was possible that this is what Jack had (I prayed that this was it and not something worse). anyways, I mixed him egg, honey, oatmeal, calcium powder, and yogurt. I also gave him water with vitamins and electrolytes mixed in it. At first I gave him raw egg, because I didn't know if it should be cooked, but he still ate it, after 2 weeks, I noticied he was getting stronger but not much, I almost gave up and not sure of how I would have handled having to cull my baby boy that I adored. Luckily the urge left overnight, thankfully, i didn't give up.
this was during the summer so I wasn't in school and only worked Tuesday and Thursdays. so each morning I would make him his meal and would go in the garage and hold him and work his legs, I would massage, push and pull (not hard, just enough to feel that he was resisting, which was good. I fed him his egg, honey, etc. 3 times a day. I also gave him the chick starter food which has more vitamins and protein in it. (and by now I am hard boiling the egg, (the vet said it was nothing wrong with the raw egg, but didn't want him to eat the eggs when he went back outside.) (i never gave up hope after that one moment of lapse in nerves). I just kept working with him. I also went to the pet store and purchased Crickets for him to help with extra protein. I useally gave him 10 to 12 dozen a week, sometimes more.... When crickets were abundant in the wild I would also give tons of them to him. I was worried to give him the wild ones but if he is free ranging then he is eating the wild bugs, so that just made him stronger.
I just kept reading and finding things that had extra calcium and protein. I added calcuim to everything i gave him. I started giving him scramble eggs also. I actually still do for all of my chickens.
I make my own calcuim. I use all of my eggshells from the eggs my babies lay. I clean them and bake them for 15 minutes and then put them into the food processor and grind them up to fine particles. I mix the homemade calcium with their scrambled eggs, cheese, and yogurt eggs each week. I have 40 chickens of different breeds and I usually cook about 6 to 8 dozen of eggs. they love them and when it is cold outside they gooble them up and this gives them extra protein and it is all organic and I know what goes in is the best I can provide them.
I hope this has helped you at least a little. If you have any more questions or if something is unclear just let me know. I will try to get on often as I can.
Oh and I also started raising mealworms last summer. I have let my colony go through a whole cycle and now am able to give these tasty treats to my babies. Now I believe that what you put into these worms is what your chickens eat also, so I start out with some chickens food (i use the grower/finisher, because I don't need to force them to lay eggs), i add powdered milk, oatmeal, calcuim (from my eggs), grits. I vary and just use whatever is the healthiest for my girls and couple boys. Oh how they love these treats, they would eat the whole tub full if I let them. but that is more protein for them as well.
Hope your chicken is hanging in there.
xoxoxoxo
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