Hi, all. Most of you know that I've lost three girls to internal laying and I have two more who seem to be going the same way. Today, I noticed one of my Poufy-Head Sisters, the smallest girl, Tux just standing around. She was a bit off yesterday, too, so I picked her up and took her to the house. In examining her, we found part of a soft shelled egg hanging out of her vent and when we gently pulled on it, what I believe was the rest of the shell came out. I'm afraid she will develop peritonitis so we decided it was best to do Penicillin injections for 3 days to maybe head off trouble.
Tux is molting; she'll be 2 years old in January. Seems the molts this year are really awful. I have several bare-bottomed ladies. And when they molt, seems that some develop egg issues. It's just very hard on their systems and they are using protein to grow feathers back, etc.
We have the broody pen empty in Suede's coop, underneath Zane's dog kennel he lives in, so we grabbed Tux along with Rosemary and Ivy and put them together in there so the roosters would leave them alone and they could rest in a low light setting.
Rosemary is a RIR, hatchery type, who is almost 3 years old. She hasnt laid an egg in maybe 7 months or so. Her tailfeathers are turning white on the edges, like an old lady going gray. It's very odd, something I've not seen before. She and my BR, Ivy, are both very thin though they do eat. Since I've gone through this several times, I'm 99% sure I will lose them both before the end of the year. Ivy hasn't laid an egg in maybe 2 months. That will be 5 out of 10 original girls gone from a hormone imbalance. And then I lost Hawkeye to what I thought was a drug reaction, but he may have just had a heart attack. And Zane was hurt right after that. I sure hope all the bad finishes up this year so 2009 can be better.
As far as Tux is concerned, I crushed up a Tums and gave it to her in yogurt, then gave her some crumbled cornbread with olive oil. Besides giving her penicillin to ward off infection, any other suggestions? Oh, we did syringe some mineral oil up her vent in case there is anything else in there that needs to be expelled.
Tux is molting; she'll be 2 years old in January. Seems the molts this year are really awful. I have several bare-bottomed ladies. And when they molt, seems that some develop egg issues. It's just very hard on their systems and they are using protein to grow feathers back, etc.
We have the broody pen empty in Suede's coop, underneath Zane's dog kennel he lives in, so we grabbed Tux along with Rosemary and Ivy and put them together in there so the roosters would leave them alone and they could rest in a low light setting.
Rosemary is a RIR, hatchery type, who is almost 3 years old. She hasnt laid an egg in maybe 7 months or so. Her tailfeathers are turning white on the edges, like an old lady going gray. It's very odd, something I've not seen before. She and my BR, Ivy, are both very thin though they do eat. Since I've gone through this several times, I'm 99% sure I will lose them both before the end of the year. Ivy hasn't laid an egg in maybe 2 months. That will be 5 out of 10 original girls gone from a hormone imbalance. And then I lost Hawkeye to what I thought was a drug reaction, but he may have just had a heart attack. And Zane was hurt right after that. I sure hope all the bad finishes up this year so 2009 can be better.
As far as Tux is concerned, I crushed up a Tums and gave it to her in yogurt, then gave her some crumbled cornbread with olive oil. Besides giving her penicillin to ward off infection, any other suggestions? Oh, we did syringe some mineral oil up her vent in case there is anything else in there that needs to be expelled.
