Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

School chick update

Seems all the blue egg chicks have hatched out - not sure where that black one comes from and is that other a lavender?
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And now 4 of the silkie eggs have pipped, sure hope they all hatch by days end.
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All four of the silkie eggs have hatched, the fifth egg stopped developing half way through. So only one Curly chick and three Fluffy babies. So disappointed no Henny or Marty chicks

But glad for some silkies.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Hi everyone. I know I rarely post any more, life has just gotten so incredibly busy. But I do try to read the weekly synopsis and check out some of the threads, and I miss you all.

This is going to be a long post.

I have some really sad news, I lost one of my girls today. Goldy, one of my two-year-old ISAs had been laying large eggs with weird wrinkles on one end for quite some time, and then started acting a little off several weeks ago. I tried to keep an eye on her, checked her crop, etc. She seemed to snap out of it, but came up and talked to me a few times when she had never been one of my friendly ones. A little over a week ago I picked her up and noticed her abdomen was a little swollen. Checked her several more times over the next few days and decided it definitely felt like what I have seen people describe when their chicken has Ascites. Unfortunately, right about that same time Sassy, another two-year-old ISA started acting like something was wrong. And then I noticed she wasn’t getting down off the roost at all. Her cropped seemed to have a small knot in it, but not anywhere near as bad as I have had them get before and been able to get them over it. I took her some water in a small bowl because to has started getting hotter and she sucked down the entire thing, plus most of another one. That gave her a very full squishy crop, that had not gone down all the way the next morning. Sassy really didn’t seem to fit the pattern of an impacted crop, it seemed more just slow, with small bits left in the morning. I got it in my mind that they both were probably having reproductive issues, especially being hatchery quality production birds who had rarely gone a day without laying up until the past month or so, and made the decision to just monitor them and give them supportive care, and let them go on their own terms. Especially since money is so tight after all my husband’s health issues last year and him still being on disability. I know Ascites can rarely if ever be treated successfully long term so didn’t have much hope for Goldy, and Sassy had gone downhill pretty quickly over a few days and I didn’t expect her to make it.

I decided to put Sassy in a crate in the coop since I didn’t want her to fall of the roost, and so I could give her soft food and water with nutridrench in it. Goldy was still getting around fine, eating and drinking so I left her alone. Sassy seemed to rally a little with the extra supportive care. So I decided to try to really flush her crop out well and try to give her a chance, in case it really was just a crop issue. After a few days of really working with it I was pretty sure I was feeling the same thing left in her crop each time, and on Wednesday decided to take her to the vet who did crop surgery on Crystal a little over a year ago. He did an exam and also a fecal test since she was nice enough to poop a little while we were there. Her heart rate was fast but not too weak, lungs seemed fine with no sign of respiratory issues, and no worms or coccidiosis. But she is down to 2.5 lbs, and he didn’t think she is strong enough for surgery. So he sent me home with an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic (to make sure there isn’t a secondary infection starting in her crop) and had me get some parrot hand feeding formula to try to get a lot of calories in her.

I have been treating her, and also keeping an eye on Goldy, watching for any sign she was starting to be in distress or have reduced quality of life. I also was feeding her any of Sassy’s food that was left over when so couldn’t get her to take any more. I was also talking to my husband today about how she seemed to be starting to struggle just a little, and when the vet’s office called to check on Sassy I told them about her symptoms and my suspicions, to see if they thought it was time to let her go, or if they thought I might be wrong and it was something else that was treatable. They said they couldn’t say for sure without seeing her, but that there was a chance it was just egg yolk peritonitis which they have sometimes managed to treat. We were out to eat at the time, and I had pretty much decided to take her in on Monday morning and see what they thought.

When we got home, I made Sassy’s food and went out to feed her and then put them all back in the coop for the night. When I walked in, I found Goldy lying right inside the door, muddy and with her head swollen and covered in blood. The other hens had pecked her almost to death, she was just barely alive. I was devastated. I put her out of her misery, I never wanted her to suffer like that.

I went back through the footage on my coop cam, and still can’t figure out what triggered the attack. I hadn’t really seen anyone picking on her the past week, no more than the usual pecks on occasion and no worse than anyone else. She had just been calmly standing by Sassy’s cage, like she had done many times, and one of them suddenly ran up and pecked her. She tried to run behind the cage, and they chased her down. Eight of them brutally attacked her for several minutes, until she just laid there when they stopped. Over the course of the next five hours one would occasionally go grab her head and if she tried to get away at all there were suddenly several attacking her again. Even when she stopped moving at all they would occasionally go peck at her again for several minutes.

I am so upset. I know chickens can get aggressive on occasion, but never expected such a brutal attack that was seemingly unprovoked. Not when I have had sick ones before that they never bothered.

My beautiful little golden chicken. My very first one to lay an egg. Rest in peace little one, I’m sorry your passing was anything but peaceful. Tomorrow we will find a good place to lay you to rest. (Although I am debating whether or not to use the opportunity to try a practice crop surgery on her, and to do a simple necropsy to determine what had caused her symptoms. In order to maybe be able to help another one in the future.)

Goldy as a chick, definitely the brightest yellow of my ISAs.
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Her “ruffles”. She always had some curly frizzled feathers at the base of her tail.
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Headed for a bite of pumpkin last October.
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I wish I had a better recent photo of her. She was a little darker last year, but a definite light golden brown this year, almost dark yellow.

I am so sorry.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

All four of the silkie eggs have hatched, the fifth egg stopped developing half way through. So only one Curly chick and three Fluffy babies. So disappointed no Henny or Marty chicks

But glad for some silkies.

I’m so glad that four of them hatched bummer about the fifth, and sorry that there are no Henny or Marty chicks.

 

[Ponypoor]

The last of the chicks to hatch

Final silkie count is 4, 3 from Fluffy, and 1 from Curly.

 

[rural mouse]

The last of the chicks to hatch
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Final silkie count is 4, 3 from Fluffy, and 1 from Curly.

Are all the silkies dark?

 

[janiedoe]

All four of the silkie eggs have hatched, the fifth egg stopped developing half way through. So only one Curly chick and three Fluffy babies. So disappointed no Henny or Marty chicks

But glad for some silkies.

Will you be getting the chicks?

 

[featherhead007]

Are all the silkies dark?

They come in lighter colors too:

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Someone got murdered in DC last night. Two miles away from where I am

 

[featherhead007]

On the lighter side of the news. Aero has decided that she wanted a shoulder back ride into the human coop. She got treats and time with the “chicken daddy”

 

[LhickenChicken]

I was on my way to dinner and the chicken sitter called Mom. She is a good friend of ours and has chooks of her own.

Pastel got out of his coop! We put Pastel in a separate coop so that he can’t attack the chook watcher. He busted a door open I guess.
He has attacked her in the past when she watches the chooks, so she was pretty worried, but he was good. She put him back in his coop and tied the door shut.

Polishes are good, Guineas are good. Now Pastel is good.
Wait, what is that? Dead chick she sent Mom a picture and it was one of the Ayam Cemani’s. I only have one left now I still have Pegasus, which I’m kinda happy about because of how pretty he is, but I would much rather he be dead than my Cemani’s. Fingers crossed that this one is a pullet and that she survives and thrives. I think that I’m going to call this one Midnight. So that means Obsidian and Onyxia have passed.
Mom told her to toss the chick over a fence. I realized that it would be cool to put her in the freezer and then I can cut her open once I get back into town to see if she is pure AC. I told Dad and Mom that we should’ve had them do that, and they told me that I’m disgusting for that and that I shouldn’t do that to animals I name.
I’m really bummed out. They are such pretty birds, and I only have one. And yet, there is such beautiful things in this world.

At the farm where Mom works, they had a pregnant Belgian draft horse. She had her foal this morning. (I was hoping that she would have it one of the days I was there, but of course she didn’t.)
Unfortunately, there were twins and one didn’t make it, but the other did. He is a beautiful little mule. (I thought it was going to be a horse, not mule, but he is adorable either way)
I can’t help but think that my chick died to make room for the gorgeous little colt. I’m not sure if that sounds weird…

For you
I name my chickens. But I still did a necropsy on Lady Nacho and Ginger. I've processed meat chickens, laying hens that I've named, and cockerels (who were also named but had extremely absurd names, usually inspired by sounds they made or how they looked - NeckBother was a bother, one of the kinds that you get in your neck after sleeping in a weird position).

The only exception to this rule was Lhicken. She was a really good friend while she lived, and I couldn't think of chopping her up. I did, however, put her down when she was suffering. She was also cremated. (That isn't to say Lady Nacho and Ginger weren't cremated, but not in the same place - they were cremated on the burn pile while Lhicken was in her own place.)

And hopefully your Midnight does well! I would have also (if I had the chance) cut open the Ayam Cemani, just to see (a), if it's a real Cemani, and (b), to see what was wrong with it.