Hi, Friends. We've been a bit dark as of late (couple years, I'm afraid), as we've dealt with some extended family health issues that have affected farm life, but we are still here. For those of you that know us, we sadly lost out best boy Angus two weeks ago.
FYI: He was almost eight years old. We were sadly out of the country, but we have the most amazing farm sitter who reported that on Wednesday evening he was fine, but on Thursday morning he was lethargic and not eating. Our farm sitter brought him inside (it was quite cold), and got him to the vet early Friday morning. His bloodwork showed low PCV--so he was pretty anemic, but no blood parasites were seen. He died Friday night. The differentials are cancer, and our vet thought possibly testicular (X-rays showed he may have had a mass in his abdomen, which was possibly a diseased testicle). X-rays also suggested his heart was enlarged, and upon examination the day before he died, he had an arrhythmia. We were not due back in the country until Monday, and it was the weekend, so we did not ask our farm sitter to pursue necropsy with the state vet.
This is the first time any of our girls have been without a drake, and it shows! They are all over the place--mounting each other, posturing, etc. Poor girls.
We were planning to move forward with our work with the breed this spring by exchanging some fertilized eggs with another local silver appleyard breeder, but without a drake, we've needed to shift gears a bit. The breeder with whom we were planning to exchange fertilized eggs very graciously offered us a drake.
We have not brought a new bird into our flock that we didn't hatch ourselves in many years, and I'm therefore reaching out to this community to ask what your QT set-up looks like and how you are pursuing QT these days. Any thoughts, pictures, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated. I'm also going to start digging through the forums.
Thanks in advance!
Oh! P.S....for those of you that followed the Rosie and Pickle saga, Ella Pickle is a big duck now and she is doing GREAT! She is a bit like a toddler at the old folks home sometimes, but she is big and strong and happy!
FYI: He was almost eight years old. We were sadly out of the country, but we have the most amazing farm sitter who reported that on Wednesday evening he was fine, but on Thursday morning he was lethargic and not eating. Our farm sitter brought him inside (it was quite cold), and got him to the vet early Friday morning. His bloodwork showed low PCV--so he was pretty anemic, but no blood parasites were seen. He died Friday night. The differentials are cancer, and our vet thought possibly testicular (X-rays showed he may have had a mass in his abdomen, which was possibly a diseased testicle). X-rays also suggested his heart was enlarged, and upon examination the day before he died, he had an arrhythmia. We were not due back in the country until Monday, and it was the weekend, so we did not ask our farm sitter to pursue necropsy with the state vet.
This is the first time any of our girls have been without a drake, and it shows! They are all over the place--mounting each other, posturing, etc. Poor girls.
We were planning to move forward with our work with the breed this spring by exchanging some fertilized eggs with another local silver appleyard breeder, but without a drake, we've needed to shift gears a bit. The breeder with whom we were planning to exchange fertilized eggs very graciously offered us a drake.
We have not brought a new bird into our flock that we didn't hatch ourselves in many years, and I'm therefore reaching out to this community to ask what your QT set-up looks like and how you are pursuing QT these days. Any thoughts, pictures, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated. I'm also going to start digging through the forums.
Thanks in advance!
Oh! P.S....for those of you that followed the Rosie and Pickle saga, Ella Pickle is a big duck now and she is doing GREAT! She is a bit like a toddler at the old folks home sometimes, but she is big and strong and happy!
