Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

I'm so sorry for Petunia, and that it's all happening at once.
To me AI does not sound likely if she had been not well for a week, and with them locked up most of the time. At this stage, I would think that it is just a sad coincidence between an elder hen passing away from old age and Petunia whose reproductive issues may have caused her death, or be a symptom of something serious but individual like cancer.
But I also don't feel worms and coccidia are very likely at this time of year and locked up most time. Lots of other things can cause yellow poops - in facts anything that affects digestion, kidneys, and liver.... Have you seen other yellowish poops ?

Hang in there, you should know more in a few days .

Burying horses at home is also not allowed here. People still do it, but it's potentially a 4000 euro fine if you get caught. I do hope Trudy gets better - she might not yet be at the stage her mum was, and I hope she sees another spring. But you're so experienced with elderly horses you will do whatever is best for her.

Now she truly looks like some mystical magical creature. A bearded dragon ? Or a griffin ?

A sun visor that stays on when it rains ...leghorn Tuefer !
View attachment 4047828
The visor belongs to Nieva. Behind her is Alba, who has survived her dramatic soft egg issue and is slowly getting better, for the time being.

Another Tuefer : Mélisse and a slowly recovering Alba.
(followed by a floppy comb question )
View attachment 4047900
About this picture : Mélisse is a backyard mutt, (like her siblings Annette, Lulu and Laure). I think Annette and her have body shape rather similar to that of my leghorns, and slightly similar floppy combs.
Their mother was a mixed type layer. Are there other breeds that have this type of floppy comb and slim figure ? Or does this indicate they are likely part leghorns ?
Happily they don't lay at all like the leghorns - they make two or three big eggs a week (70g+).

So far I've only known Mediterranean breeds or Med-mixes to inherit the overly large floppy combs. Smaller combs can flop but the Mediterraneans are known for the massive over-the-eye floppies.

 

[BY Bob]

Crap


Darn autocorrect

Woe is me!

I have a terrible time with autocorrect but that was too much fun to pass up.

Still friends?

 

[BY Bob]

I have seen some very healthy leghorns on this thread. Makes me wonder where TSC got the ones they had two years ago. It was the first time I bought a chick from TSC; I got 4 leghorns. Two have already passed from ascites, and I have one that is very sick now. Chickens are healthy and generally live a long time here, my oldest are 8 years old. The leghorns are only two.

It's heartbreaking to watch these little leghorns suffer so much. I just asked DH this morning to cull this one. She has suffered long enough and I know the end will come soon one way or another.

We don't do necropsies, although I would if I thought there was a contagious thing going on. I'm not sure we would be able to diagnose anything if we did one. But these have been so obvious. I'm guessing they have some sort of heart failure. With one of them I tried draining the ascites every day to see if that helped. She died shortly anyway.

We have only had chickens for 9 years now, and have not dealt with illness much at all. This experience with the leghorns has really been difficult for me.

This mirrors my experience with them as well. As much as I love Leghorns, I will not have them in my flock again. I have moved to the Legbar and whatever Aster is for my leghorn fix. Polish are also very similar in personality and behavior and are one of my favorite chicken breeds. Of course, personality is individual and any chicken can be unique but I do not recommend getting leghorns if you want a pet chicken that will be long lived.

 

[SimpleJenn]

News rebuttals said she didn't directly order euthanizations of healthy poultry during AI inspections but she was the inspector general head of USDA so therefore responsibility fell on her for those actions. But who knows? After 22 yrs as general maybe she should have been more active ~ should have researched vaccinations to avoid mass extinctions? So many ???? We've many of us wondered why vaccinations weren't initiated when some other countries are/have been doing it already.

Mareck's is a horrible death & vaccinations are available to hatcheries here so why not have AI vax available as a choice today ~ when AI was going rampant as far back as 1985? I don't know if commercial poultry vaccinates for Mareck's but hatcheries offer it as a choice (there are 5 known Mareck's mutations but the vaccine virtually stops deaths & using AI mutations as an excuse that vax won't work doesn't make sense). So far no AI choice is offered. Wheels at USDA turn too slowly while our birds & other livestock suffer & poultry prices soar.

My AI pet concern tax
2-FER TUES ~ Violet & Mini 2015
View attachment 4047991

Bob said no more discussion.
Naughty, now I need FLUFFY SILKIE PICTURES as tax

 

[ValerieJ]

This mirrors my experience with them as well. As much as I love Leghorns, I will not have them in my flock again. I have moved to the Legbar and whatever Aster is for my leghorn fix. Polish are also very similar in personality and behavior and are one of my favorite chicken breeds. Of course, personality is individual and any chicken can be unique but I do not recommend getting leghorns if you want a pet chicken that will be long lived.

Thanks. It helps to know it’s not just my bad luck. This has been the roughest journey I’ve had with chickens. I think worse than the eagle attack because it’s such a long slow way to go. DH is not quite ready to cull her. He says sometimes she is downright energetic. Not when I have been watching her. IDK …

 

[RoyalChick]

Agreed - I love her colouring and that lovely fancy topknot

Piglet and Pooh have the top knot. Cute!
Sylvie just has a straight comb.

 

[featherhead007]

You did the right thing.

Colic surgery is very risky and isn’t good odds for recovery.

Even if I were a billionaire I wouldn’t put my horse through it

And now with the chooks - well I am just as happy Penelope passed away peacefully. And Petunia went so fast also.

Here’s Nacho and the babies for you: Have a look

 

[SimpleJenn]

Funny little side story
I de-scaled my Keurig today...it's been way too long. While it was brewing it was making those little motorcycle "wheeewhee" noises. It was hilarious

Tax
I don't think I've shared this knitting pattern here. "Hen" by Claire Garland

 

[featherhead007]

I always said if she keeled over dead in the summer I would haul her out to the back and let the vultures have at her. Dying on the ground and having the scavengers remove them is fine, but burying prevents the natural process of being eaten by scavengers and insects.

I should say it’s fine as long as the animal has no medication or drugs in them. Especially for scavengers like eagles and vultures.

This is the one reason I don’t give truly too much pain meds - if she were to die on her own, I would see if my neighbour could come and drag her out back for the coyotes, wolves, bobcats, fisher, etc to dine on.

Back to Mother Earth. But if she has meds in her system then that’s a no go situation.

Birds esp are prone to poisoning from various meds.

I don’t have anyone to drag me out to the back of my property.
Plus, yes it’s true that I have many chemicals in my body ( more than I need I think)
I don’t plan on kicking the bucket quite yet either.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have seen some very healthy leghorns on this thread. Makes me wonder where TSC got the ones they had two years ago. It was the first time I bought a chick from TSC; I got 4 leghorns. Two have already passed from ascites, and I have one that is very sick now. Chickens are healthy and generally live a long time here, my oldest are 8 years old. The leghorns are only two.

It's heartbreaking to watch these little leghorns suffer so much. I just asked DH this morning to cull this one. She has suffered long enough and I know the end will come soon one way or another.

We don't do necropsies, although I would if I thought there was a contagious thing going on. I'm not sure we would be able to diagnose anything if we did one. But these have been so obvious. I'm guessing they have some sort of heart failure. With one of them I tried draining the ascites every day to see if that helped. She died shortly anyway.

We have only had chickens for 9 years now, and have not dealt with illness much at all. This experience with the leghorns has really been difficult for me.

Sweet Leghorns are a great personality bird ~ but prolific egg layers have the most health issues & shorter lifespans. Out here White Leghorns were used like caged guinea pigs to determine if West Nile virus mosquitos are in the agricultural areas ~ apparently White Leghorns are immune to West Nile mosquito bite virus so when blood is drawn the researchers can determine if there is a possible danger in the area. White Leghorns are over-used as egg layers but if cross bred w/ other breeds the offspring seem to have less health or reproductive issues.

In research its estimated 45% pure White Leghorns develop ovarian cancer & the birds are used for human ovarian cancer research. I got this info from an agricultural website over 13 yrs ago ago so don't ask me where.

Our sweet White Leghorn ~ I'd say our smartest breed in 14 yrs ~ independent, active forager, smart not to jump/fly up anywhere once she was removed from an area we didn't want her, she was not stubborn & learned voice commands & hand signals fast, kind flockmate yet stood up against a bully Marans 2-1/2 lbs bigger! This is a super breed & it hurts me that these beauties were abused in commercial egg factories for so many decades!