Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ValerieJ]

A palindrome is a number or word that is the same forward or backwards

Bob
Mom
121
345543

And just because I get a chuckle over this photo here it is again
View attachment 4061407

I love that photo. Not because the rooster is crowing, but because the hen is saying, "what are you crowing about now??"

 

[Sylvester017]

My brother is allergic and after living 20 years without cats, he heard about these special cat kibbles with egg white for allergic people, and adopted two kittens from a friend of mine in September.
The kibbles work for him. He wanted to test whether it was a placebo or not, so he went back to normal kibbles in december for a while and the allergies flared back up immediately, and stopped when he switched back.

They don't completely suppress his symptoms but they make them much less intense and easy to bear.

My brother is also asthmatic, and since he is a paramedic his local doctor is a friend, so he had no problems convincing him to prescribe cortisone and a bronchodilator preventively before the cats arrived, in case the kibbles did not work. He said he did have to use them once early on, after he was on guard for three days and the kittens had explored all over the house but did not dare go outside on their own. Since then he has had no issue.

He gets them on Amazon and they cost four times the usual kibbles I buy. The process to make them with the egg white is apparently still under an exclusive patent, here at least, but I suppose at some point price will go down. I can ask him for the name of the brand if anyone wants.

Short answer is no, I'm not sure, but some options seem more likely than others.

Long answer will be a bit long, my apologies. She had seizures at the same time last year for a few days. I immediately started supplementing her with food rich in vitamin B and E and the seizures completely stopped.

So up to now I had assumed nutritional deficiency. However I've been giving her the supplement daily since all that time, so I'm not so sure now that is the reason.

The next two most likely possibilities are that she got pecked in a nerve sensitive place by another chicken, or that she has some kind of neurological issue getting old.

Other reasons I've thought about don't really fit. Marek, ALV, Newcastle can show up as seizures, but it wouldn't make sense that she stopped having them after a few days last year and was in great shape for a whole year. Epilepsy is a thing in chicken but it's genetic and shows up early. And it doesn't look like a stuck nerve as happened to Piou-piou because she has two very different types, one where on one side her wing and thigh goes paralysed and she runs in circle, and one where she flaps her wings uncontrollably.

My partner thinks it could possibly be linked to the fact that she may be approaching her laying season again, which usually lasts from march to mid may.

Anyway, the first seizure I saw was on the 7 February, and the last was Sunday, so I dearly hope she is over it again.
If anyone has any insight I'd be glad to hear about it !

19 June 2022, Chipie with 13 days old Merle, Léa, Gaston and Piou-piou.
View attachment 4061102

Purina LIVECLEAR is a brand for supposedly reducing allergies...however, the main ingredients before the dried egg ingredient are grains & by-products w/ a lot of chemical additives sandwiched in-between the vitamins. It's best to make our own real meat dishes w/ our own eggs added for our cats to eat. Meat by-products can be anything & you never see sirloin or top round listed on pet food packages...would be nice if the mfrs listed exactly what part of the animal used is the "meat by-product"...

For how costly pet foods are it could be the same price in the long run & healthier if we made our own kitty meals. My friend in Florida has 3 small dogs & 2 kitties & since making her own balanced meals for the pets they've had kidney, skin, & liver issues resolved. One pup even loves salad

 

[Sylvester017]

Guess who has chosen to hang out with me today:View attachment 4061142

Sweet family

 

[Marie2020]

Now you know me every night with the meds I take for my RLS - my zombie meds. Have to be careful I don’t fall going to the barn they also make me rather toppley- I once fell off the fence when I was climbing over it - not to worry though - the tree on the other side broke my fall

Silly turnip I am! Tax
Sharing dinner with Reenie
View attachment 4061410

Did Reenie manage to get a mouthful of her dinner? With the mob there

 

[Sylvester017]

Fluffy Butt Friday.
View attachment 4061294

So-o-o pretty I regret never having a Legbar. Does yours truly lay blue, light blue, or blue-green? We loved the blue eggs from our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana but she lived only 3 yrs Her eggs were quite big.

 

[Marie2020]

Yes I took ibuprofen with dinner. Tomorrow my paperwork says I can start weaning to take a dose when I wake and another at bedtime, then ibuprofen in between. Sounds like a plan to me.

I just love mr P

Don't we all. He's the most handsome boy

 

[ValerieJ]

Purina LIVECLEAR is a brand for supposedly reducing allergies...however, the main ingredients before the dried egg ingredient are grains & by-products w/ a lot of chemical additives sandwiched in-between the vitamins. It's best to make our own real meat dishes w/ our own eggs added for our cats to eat. Meat by-products can be anything & you never see sirloin or top round listed on pet food packages...would be nice if the mfrs listed exactly what part of the animal used is the "meat by-product"...

For how costly pet foods are it could be the same price in the long run & healthier if we made our own kitty meals. My friend in Florida has 3 small dogs & 2 kitties & since making her own balanced meals for the pets they've had kidney, skin, & liver issues resolved. One pup even loves salad
View attachment 4061612

We make our own dog food. Maybe we should be thinking about kitty food. I thought that was more complicated, for some reason.

 

[Marie2020]

We make our own dog food. Maybe we should be thinking about kitty food. I thought that was more complicated, for some reason.

Turkey is the best IMHO because it contains high levels of taurine.

I can't possibly completely cook all the time but most of the time there's a more natural food for Nancy and Oliver.

 

[Sylvester017]

I am used to French Marans which have feathered legs.

I really would have like a cuckoo Marans but maybe next year.

I hope you have good luck w/ a Cuckoo Marans. The European Cuckoo Marans have feathered legs but the ones in USA are sold clean-legged..Why All other Marans varieties are feather-legged here but not the Cuckoo.

Our Cuckoo Marans was a bully to the Silkie Violet & picked fights w/ our gentle White Leghorn. & her eggs were not as dark chocolate like the Copper or Black Marans eggs. Malines eggs are a light brown which may account for the lighter chocolate egg of the Cuckoo Marans when crossed. I've started to wonder if the Cuckoo Malines in Europe were used to create both the Cuckoo Marans as well as the Cuckoo Breda? It's the only answer I could figure as to why the Cuckoo Marans eggs were not as dark as the Copper or Black Marans eggs. Maybe since the decade ago that we had our Cuckoo Marans breeders may have improved the egg color but there's still the Malines ancestry that may spring up in Cuckoos.

We had both a Cuckoo Marans & a Cuckoo Breda & both were large body chickens & bullies & had to be re-homed...I'm starting to question Malines temperaments being passed on to the cross breeds. Just thinking back on our experience

Bela & Violet w/ Tish the large Cuckoo Marans 2012

Our large Cuckoo Breda, w/ Malines history, & she was also a flock bully

 

[Sylvester017]

We make our own dog food. Maybe we should be thinking about kitty food. I thought that was more complicated, for some reason.

I'm all for anyone who makes their own pet food. The manufactured stuff is not natural plus they process the heck out of packaged or canned food & have to add additives to get pets hooked on the flavor so owners keep buying it. All about the $$$. My farm folks fed our dogs, cats, poultry, livestock veggies from the garden, meat, milk from the cow, cows were on pasture raised grasses, etc. Maybe alfalfa & hay bales for winter months but basically the animals ate what we ate or grazed/foraged for their own. Nothing was processed like today.

Farm folk c.1930's