Happy Chooks

After I laid Almond to rest yesterday I sat with the other girls for a bit. I noticed one of my girls, Alkaline, was standing a bit odd.

Every so often it would appear that she was straining – a classic sign of being egg bound. So I took her inside & gave her a warm bath for 20 minutes. While giving her a bath I massaged her abdomen gently and tried to feel for any egg that might be lodged. I couldn’t feel anything so I was concerned that perhaps I misdiagnosed but I kept at it.

When I was done with the bath I popped her inside a mower box with a heat pad under a towel, as keeping an egg bound bird warm is vital. I made sure I put in a bowl of water in there in case she got too warm and put some liquid calcium in in case that would help her pass the egg.

In the morning I found this in the box:

Two soft shelled eggs. Success! I then put her outside with the other girls and she’s been fine all day.

Now to figure out why she’s laying soft shelled eggs. My girls get calcium grit, high quality feed and they free range so in theory they should be fine. For the next few days I intend on putting calcium in one of their water bowls to try and fix things up, we’ll see how that goes. Fingers crossed things with my girls are a bit quieter for at least the next few days!

In other chicken news, I did my first sticker run by putting some of these beauties up

on the boxes that contained caged eggs at the local supermarkets. If it makes even one person reconsider buying caged eggs then it’s been a success.

-Paula

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As the titles suggests, we said goodbye to Almond at the vets today. My first ex-batt girl to pass on. I don’t have a good poultry vet to go to but I do have a good vet who put it to me plainly and honestly – she’s lost weight, she has some sort of internal growth and she now has something wrong with one of her legs. He offered metacam to see if that would improve her leg, but ultimately there were other problems that could not be treated. Despite being a beautiful bright and alert girl, I did not want her to suffer another day in her life so I made the hard choice to say goodbye.

She went incredibly peacefully. Having held many birds while they’ve been given the ‘green dream’ I knew I definitely wanted her have some gas to knock her out before they attempted to get her vein. Doesn’t matter how good a vet is and how much they assure you they can get a vein quickly, I’ve never seen lethabarb injected on the first go into a bird.

I held her the whole time until she went to sleep and told her I loved her over and over.

Huge credit needs to go to Almonds original mum, Sherrie, for her fantastic work in rehabilitating both Almond & Banana. She did such an amazing job that allowed Almond 1.5 years of freedom and happiness, I’m just sorry that it ended so soon after she came into my care.

So now I’ll spend the rest of the night crying on the couch for a beautiful girl who had such a tough beginning to her life. She was a life just like any other life and she deserved to be loved so much and deserves to be missed. They all do, and this is what inspires me.

Rest forever in peace now beautiful Almond.

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It’s a bummer to start my first real post with something sad, but I think it’s valuable to document the steps that I go through, as an amateur, with ill ex-battery hens in the hopes that we can all learn something. If anyone reading has any better ideas & tips I would love to hear from you.

About a month ago I received two chooks – Almond & Banana from a friend. Both are ex-battery hens however due to the tendency that chickens have of attracting rodents, my friend was unable to keep them anymore.

A blurry picture of Almond (L) & Banana snuggling.

My initial observation of Almond when I first picked her up was that she was heavy- very heavy. Upon closer inspection it appeared that her abdomen was large. Her original mum said that Almond had stopped laying months ago. My initial thoughts were (and still are) that she has a giant tumour or an enlarged liver, neither of which can be treated.

Almonds large abdomen. The feathers have been cut back as it is so distended that when she defecates the poop gets stuck to her feathers.

Anyway, Almond was happy enough the first couple weeks I had her. Quiet, but she was a quiet chicken with her previous owners too. She would do the occasional green poo but then she’d do a few normal ones so I wasn’t too concerned.

Last week I noticed that every time I came home after work Almond was hiding in the bushes. I became concerned that perhaps the other chooks were picking on her, or that she was having “a sook” because her mate Banana was settling in well with the other girls. To be on the safe side, I started her on an Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) regime in the hopes that it would clear out anything that was making her slightly down.

Friday came and there was no improvement, so I sat outside for hours watching her. I noticed she was just standing on the one leg (right) and not moving much at all. Since she came to me I noticed that she walked a bit odd compared to the rest of the girls but on Friday I noticed that she actually had a slight limp. She also wasn’t eating as much as I’d like.

Almond favouring her right leg

Close up

I syringed her some ACV (3 mL ACV to 7 mL water) twice on Friday & boiled her an egg and rice to get her to eat some more. I of course thoroughly checked her legs for any signs of trauma and checked feet for scaly mite and the pads for bumble foot (any foot lesions under the feet.) All came out clear.

Slowly syringing ACV & water

Yesterday (Saturday) and Almond started spending more time sitting down than standing. Again with the ACV, rice and egg and a vet booking for Monday.

Almond enjoying the sunshine despite being unwell

Today, again, no improvement. I went “all out” and decided to worm her directly (syringed orally 4mL Avitrol Plus per KG weight mixed in with 3mL of water- I find chickens ‘drool’ if given the worming solution straight.) I then gave her 10mL of water and ACV and let her rest. During this time I noticed her eating some seeds but I still gave her some rice & egg.

After a rest I then decided to give her a warm bath and massage her “tummy” in case by chance she was egg bound (highly unlikely but I’m trying to eliminate all possibilities.) When I was drying her inside she did a “starvation” poo, despite eating and having food in her crop – not a good sign.

Almond getting a warm bath while I massage her tummy

Starvation poo

She has spent the entire day sitting down, walking perhaps only a total of 2m. I’ve syringed her water and ACV twice today and given her two meals of rice & egg. She is still bright eyed and alert and she is not fluffed up at all. In fact, she seems quite content just sitting there, although clearly she’s not well.

So tomorrow, it’s off to the vet. If they do diagnose her with a tumour/liver problem then unfortunately we will have to say goodbye to our beautiful Almond.

-Paula.

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