Hi! I can't help you with your cockerel, but I'm not too far from you. Are you on Facebook? If you are, you could try posting in the Vermont Bird Fanciers club page.
They canceled it last year because of Covid as well. They posted about it on their Facebook page. I hope they're able to do it this year, but with Omicron, who knows.
Mark Nowlan has nice ones. You can contact him on Facebook. He's in the Vermont Bird Fancier's Group, if you're a member of that. He's also in the New England Poultry Chat and Swap group, which is mine, and I'd be happy to add you.
@MilesFluffybutt how's the little chick doing? Sorry, I missed your last post; didn't get a notification for the thread. I'm not sure what that lump is, did it go down?
Perfect! Alright, so I would start with some water. Not a lot at first. Fill a 1 ml syringe with the water, and prepare the tube with the coconut oil. Then, get the chick and open its beak, and slide the tube down the esophagus and into the crop. The esophagus is down the right side of the...
Perfect! So the first thing to do, if you suspect she is dehydrated, is to tube her a little bit of fluids first. You might want to start right off with that.
Do you have something like coconut oil you can use to lube the tube? It's not necessary, but it can make it more pleasant for the bird.
Okay great, I can walk you through it. For her you're going to need an actual feeding tube, since she's so small, so I would order one. This is the size I would get:
http://www.greatmedicalsupplies.com/supply~Rusch+(RU)~rusch-8-fr-all-purpose-robinsonnelaton-catheter-351008.htm
They sell other...
Poor little thing - would you be comfortable tube feeding her if she's having trouble eating on her own? It's not hard, very safe when done correctly, and I could teach you :)
They usually wait until the days are long enough to trigger laying, so the good news is the temperature doesn't impact laying, lol. I expect my geese are going to start up any time here now. I've also got a couple hens that have started back up for the year, which is nice.
Oh I hear you. I won't purchase anything that is not hatching eggs from that group after I bought from someone and the birds infected my entire flock with coryza. I had to cull all my chickens and start over.