Carol's Chickens

I just love Peaches and Barley’s opposite flopping combs and love that I can tell them apart at a glance now.

Barley and Peaches at bedtime

They look so funny straight on. Barley is on the left and Peaches on the right.

Barley is such s poser

Barley is easier to photograph. She is the one that jumps on me the most and she photo bombs other girl’s photos. Her comb isn’t as floppy as Peaches and that seems to make it look bigger.

Peaches floppier comb

Peaches

Peaches comb reminds me of a mop cap. I love how when they are pecking at the ground together their combs bob up down. These girls really make me smile.

A while ago my friend Jackie gave me a bag of leaves for the girls. With my attention focused on Emerald I had forgotten that I had put them in the shed for later.

It’s been wet and miserable today so now seemed like a good time to give them to the girls. I emptied them in a pile and as they were dry and rustling I think at first they scared them.

Peaches was the first one brave enough to investigate the leaves

Honey, Amber and Toffee take a look

A selfie of Barley on my back

I held the camera over my head and blindly snapped with no idea if I would get Barley or not. I am wearing a hooded cardigan under my fleece and she is just below my hood. She jumps to here when ever she can, that is whenever I bend over slightly.

Topaz takes a look at the leaves

Toffee has a scratch in the leaves

An hour later the leaves are well scattered

I think once they started to scatter the leaves they had fun with them.

Emerald is now on the fifth day of tylan and although it’s been slow she is getting better. She is still gaping after she eats but not as often and she is brighter.

As usual I hand fed her twice today but while taking the photo above I saw her peck at a bit of apple then eat a few pellets. It’s the first time I have seen her eat any pellets for days.

Emerald has a drink of water

Emerald has a peck at the apple

Emerald has some pellets, Hurrah!

This was so good to see and I really hope it means she is on the mend.

Other news is that after Topaz laid an egg almost a month ago she hasn’t laid another. I think she is still recovering from the moult. We have had Topaz and Sparkle for six months now and in that time Topaz has laid six eggs and Sparkle has laid ninety nine.

I wonder if Topaz will hit her stride in the spring or if she will always remain a poor layer. Sparkle on the other hand is our only girl laying at the moment and is laying about five eggs a week.

Amber laid one egg in July, August and September then stopped altogether. With her egg laying problem I am glad of that. Honey stopped laying three weeks ago and both Honey and Amber started moulting a few days ago. This is a good thing as they should get their missing feathers back in. Honey already has pin feathers showing on her neck.

I just wish Sparkle would moult and get her fluffy bottom feathers in even if it meant no eggs for a while.

We have had Toffee and Emerald for four months and in that time Emerald has only laid one egg and Toffee has laid five. They had been broody before this and then went into their moult so they may start again in spring (If we can get Emerald back to full good health).

Peaches and Barley are four and a half months old now, I can’t believe we have only had them three months as I couldn’t imagine not having them now, so they may start laying next month. They haven’t shown any interest in the nest box yet.

Eggs are always a delightful bonus but my main concern at the moment is getting Emerald well again.

It’s been very slow but Emerald is beginning to look better. On Wednesday when we saw that her legs were trembling I knew that I had to get her to keep on eating absolutely anything that she would to keep her strength up.

I separate her every morning and give her the antibiotic powder sprinkled on two chopped grapes. Once she has had that I try her with a buffet of different things to tempt her. I have given her a dish of mash which she ignored, chopped grapes and tomato, she ate the grapes but not the tomato, chopped spinach, corn and sunflower hearts which she ate and scrambled egg which she ate only a little. I have tried her with probiotic yogurt which she ignored and tuna which she ate a little.

I asked on the forum, Down The Lane, if anyone had any experience of gape worm and I have been updating them and getting advice.

Someone suggested that I continue to give the flubenvet along with the antibiotic as she is still gaping. It was also suggested that if she has a sore throat the mash could be too gritty and the tomato too acidic so she is probably picking the things that are easiest on her throat.

It is always very difficult to be sure when diagnosing chickens but my guess is that it was gape worm because she was gaping and shaking her head but after three days of flubenvet she stopped shaking her head and hasn’t done it since and she brightened up. I think that the after effects of this have left her with a sore throat and she was struggling to eat and becoming weak.

I then started hand feeding her twice a day and she has started to show improvement. I separate her again in the afternoon and give her the flubenvet powder on two chopped grapes ( I started doing this yesterday) then tempt her with anything else she will eat.

She also has some sunflower hearts in the morning with the rest of the girls and some corn at bedtime with the rest of the girls.

On Thursday I went to a fishing tackle shop and got some maggots to help keep her protein up.

I separated her and gave her some maggots on her own so that she didn’t need to compete for them and gave the other girls some in their part of the run. I did the same thing today and she tucked into them.

Emerald tucking in to some maggots

I only give maggots when I feel there is a special need for them such as a crop problem or a need to build a girl up as in Emerald’s case.

She was spending all day on a perch, preening and dozing but for the last two days she has been moving about a lot more and has looked part of the flock again. She is also moving much more quickly and I think she is gaping less.

I am feeling much more positive now. When Amber had a swollen face and we thought that she had taken a peck to her face (during one of her spats with Honey) and it had perhaps got an infection, it took a month for her face to get back to normal. I feel that if it takes a month for Emeralds throat to heal then I need to keep hand feeding her during that time so that she doesn’t get weak. I hope that as her throat gets better she will resume eating the pellets.

It has now been ten days since I started the flubenvet and three days since I started the tylan.

I was really scared that I was going to lose her but I think we have turned a corner now and I am feeling much more optimistic.

I was so worried about Emerald that I went back to the vet today and asked for antibiotics for her. I am afraid to leave it any longer as she is just not getting better and seems more lethargic.

The vet gave me seven days of tylan which is a powder.

When I got back Emerald was in a dust bath which I thought was a good sign but then we noticed her feet were trembling. I think she is getting weak because she isn’t eating enough.

I coated some sunflower hearts with olive oil and sprinkled them with a little of the tylan. We put Emerald in the separate part of the run. Once she had eaten the seeds I added a dish of tuna and a dish of mash both sprinkled with seeds and corn. I put a water dish in and a plate of chopped grapes.

I dropped bits of grape in front of her and she ate four grapes and there are another four grapes on her plate.

Emerald has a buffet to try to tempt her

Emerald ate a little from each dish then started gaping again. My husband thinks it hurts her throat to eat and that is what is putting her off eating. Once she had eaten and gaped for a bit she settled to doze.

I managed to get a photo of her gaping today.

Emerald gaping

Poor Emerald

I am so worried about her and really hope the antibiotic will help her. I will try to get her to eat anything to get her strength up.

Today is day seven of the flubenvet. Emerald is still gaping although not so much. I tried to look inside her beak and it is just pink. What really worries me is that she is so lethargic. She has her sunflower hearts laced with olive oil and flubentvet in the morning then goes to a perch and preens and dozes for most of the day.

I picked her up at bedtime last night and felt her crop which was not as full as usual but felt normal and there is no sound from her chest.

I talked to the vet again this morning and he is as perplexed as I am. He feels that if it were gape worm the flubenvet would have killed it by now but if it was a respiratory problem there would be other symptoms such as a rattle in the chest, bubbles in the eyes and runny nose which there is not. He wondered if it could be a throat infection.

I asked him about doubling the dose of flubinet and should I carry on with it and he said it can’t do any harm so I should give her double the dose for the next few days and if there is no change we could try her on antibiotics.

I am going to go back tomorrow and ask for antibiotics as I am afraid to delay any longer as it’s already been more than a week.

Tonight I gave the girls some corn before bedtime and Emerald ate the corn and had some water but then instead of having some pellets as usual before bedtime she went to the high perch ready for bed.

I was worried that she isn’t eating enough so my husband suggested that as she helps herself from the corn or sunflower seed container I should try offering it to her to get her to have a bit more. Although not ideal any food is better than no food.

That started some fun and games and you wouldn’t think there was much wrong with her when she is trying to help herself to the treats.

I decide to let Emerald have some extra corn

Peaches and Amber want to get in on the act

Peaches jumps on my right arm and Amber jumps on my left arm

Peaches has her tail in my face

Peaches makes her way to the corn

Barley photo bombs

We give Emerald some corn and seeds on the shoe box but Sparkle gets in on the act

It all got a bit chaotic with all the girls trying to get in on the act. When Emerald went to the shoe box we thought this would be a good spot to give her a bit extra but Sparkle soon cottoned on to it and cleaned up.

At least I knew when I put the girls to bed that Emerald had something in her crop. Emerald is lively to the treats but it worries me that she is not scratching around during the day and dust bathing but just sitting preening and dozing. I have checked the coop for red mite and it is clear.

I just want my beautiful Emerald to get back to her usual busy self.

I am still really worried about Emerald. I talked to the vet on Friday about her. I described her symptoms and he agreed that it sounds like gape worm. He also agreed that Flubenvet was the treatment and that it should be given for seven days then given again for a further seven days after three weeks to break the worm and egg cycle.

On the third day of treatment Emerald stopped gaping in the afternoon and brightened up. She ran to greet me and ran to the treats and I thought we had turned the corner.

By the next morning Emerald was gaping again and spending a lot of time dozing. I haven’t found any worms while poop picking and Emerald seems to have brighter moments and then seems to go down again.

We are now on day five of the flubenvet and I am not sure what I should do if she is still the same by day seven. I will pick up more flubenevet tomorrow so will ask at the vets.

I am concerned that she is still gaping and lethargic but my husband pointed out that she has stopped the head shaking and he thinks maybe her throat is remaining uncomfortable and maybe the whole thing is running her down. She is eating, drinking, pooping, preening and running for treats but I would really like to see her stop gaping and back to her lively self again.

I tried to get a photo of her gaping but my camera isn’t fast enough and I only managed one just as her beak was almost closed again.

Emerald after gaping

Emerald dozing

She is spending a lot of time like this.

While I was trying to get a photo of Emerald gaping Peaches and Barley had one of their little spats. I quickly turned and managed to get just one photo.

Peaches and Barley with their ruffs raised

They raise their ruffs and run at each other then away. It happens so quickly that it’s over in seconds and a second after this photo they were both pecking at the ground together beak to beak.

I really hope Emerald starts to improve soon and will update again after talking to the vet tomorrow.

My friend Jackie has just returned from her holiday and I went to pay a visit to her girls so that I could do an update on Blossom. Blossom was Bluebell when she was with me but Jackie already had a Bluebell in her flock so she renamed her Blossom.

Jackie first showed me a wasp nest in her walk in run. As it’s the end of the season the wasps haven’t been very active so she is leaving it until the weekend to have it removed. We admired it’s beauty.

Wasp Nest

Blossom was in the nest box getting her egg laid so I took a photo of her in case she wasn’t out before I left.

Blossom in the nest box

It wasn’t long before Blossom had laid her egg and returned to the flock for a spot of scratching.

Scratching with the flock

Jackie decided to dig some worms for the girls.

Clover supervises the digging of worms

Where are the worms!

Blossom is happy with her flock

It is good to see Blossom so happy and her little crest has regrown. She is a happy and settled member of Jackie’s flock and I know that she is loved. I also like that I get to visit her. This is a happy ending for both Jackie’s flock and my flock.

I think Emerald may have gape worm. Yesterday I noticed her shaking her head and gaping. I thought at first she may have something stuck or have scratched her throat. Topaz and Sparkle sometimes vigorously shake their head for a day then return to normal.

Today she was gently shaking her head and gaping and wasn’t interested in treats apart from corn or sunflower hearts. She wasn’t her normal self, not running to greet me but sitting around a lot. She was however eating plenty of pellets and drinking.

I googled gape worm and the symptoms fit. I had seen her eating a slug about five days ago (I remember because it was sticky and stuck to her beak which I found quite revolting) and gape worm can be passed to chickens by host slugs, snails and worms.

Worming with flubenvet is the recommended treatment. I had only wormed the girls three months ago but decided it best to worm the whole flock again starting today.

I usually put the flubenvet in mash or treats but as Emerald isn’t interested in these at the moment it posed a bit of a problem. I decided to close off part of the run and separate her to make sure she got her share as I think that while not feeling great she isn’t willing to compete.

This was easier said than done and it was tricky  getting her and her alone in the separated section. Eventually my husband came to see how I was doing and between us we got her in and a couple of the other girls out again!

I decided to put the first dose in some yogurt as they all love yogurt (live probiotic). I mixed one scoop of flubinvet (using the measure spoon provided) between five ramekin dishes and placed four at intervals in the run and the fifth in with Emerald alongside a bowl of water. All the girls tucked in apart from Emerald who wasn’t interested.

I sprinkled some pellets on top of the yogurt and she picked them off the top. I had to go out to do a late delivery and when I returned my husband had sprinkled some chopped grapes into her dish. Still no interest. Finally I sprinkled corn and sunflower hearts in and mixed it up to coat them with yogurt and powder.

Emerald ate most of this so will have got a share of the flubinvet. A change of plan is clearly needed. Tomorrow I will do what I did the first ever time I wormed them. I will coat sunflower hearts in a little olive oil then sprinkle with the powder so it sticks to them. While eating the seeds they get the powder too.

I will continue to separate Emerald to make sure she gets her share as she is the most important one to get treated.

I will also call in at the vets tomorrow to order more flubinvet for the next worming and to check if I need to treat again in three weeks time as with when they had worms before. I assume the egg cycle is similar for gape worm to any other type of worm.

Once Emerald rejoined the flock she was first to head for the high perch ready for bedtime.

Emerald just before bedtime

Most of the time you can tell there is a problem when the girls have a pale comb but not with Emerald. She has the smallest comb I have seen in an adult hen and it is always pale. She looked just like this when she laid the one and only egg that she has laid since I have had her between being broody and starting the moult.

I hope the worming soon gets her back to normal.

Yesterday afternoon my husband was going over to the farm where we get our disposable supplies from and where we re-homed Pepper and Dotty. He asked me if I would like to go with him and see if I could find them on the farm.

I  went along armed with my camera.

My husband went to collect our supplies while I set off to look for Pepper and Dotty. At first there didn’t appear to be a chicken in sight. I checked the barn which was empty. I could see by the amount of feathers in the yard that there is some serious moulting going on.

I went to the orchard which seems to be the chickens favourite place on the farm. At first I couldn’t see any chickens but then I spotted Pepper emerging from the undergrowth. Then Dotty appeared from under the yew tree.

I called to them and crouched down to try to get some photos while cursing myself for not thinking to bring some treats. Soon they came close to me and I was able to get some photos.

Pepper

Dotty

I don’t suppose they remember me but there again they did let me get close to them which the other chickens and the cockerel didn’t.

The feathers have grown back on Dotty’s head whereas when my husband last saw her, her head was still bald. She is moulting and has lost most of her tail but I remember her looking just like this last year.

Dotty

Pepper with some of the other hens

It was good to see Pepper mixing easily with some of the other hens.

Pepper and Dotty together

They still seem to stick together which is rather nice. I love Dotty’s crossed legs.

Pepper in the foreground and Dotty in the background

Pepper has her bottom feathers back in so despite the moult they do seem to have got their missing feathers back which is a really good sign.

Claude the cockerel

This was closest I could get to Claude the flock’s cockerel.

Some of the geese on the farm

I felt so happy to see them free ranging happily on the farm. I feel this environment is much more suited to them and how ever long a life they have here it will have been a happier one than in an enclosed run.

It is so good that they are together too as it would have been heartbreaking to have them separated. Seeing them again reassured me that I had done the right thing re-homing them on this farm. They looked so happy scratching in the meadow and grazing on the grass.

A few days ago we attempted once again to get some photos of Emerald helping herself to the corn.

Emerald sees the corn tub coming out of the cabinet

Emerald helps herself to some corn

We didn’t get many good photos so yesterday we decided to have another go.

Again Emerald helps herself to some corn

Emerald has the corn to herself but not for long

Emerald has always been the only one to do this but then I usually only let her have a few seconds before I move away with the tub and sprinkle the corn out in the run.

Today I held the tub for longer than usual while my husband was taking photos.

Amber decides to join in

We can both fit our heads in the corn tub

Amber is enjoying the corn

Honey decides to join the party

At this point I decided to sprinkle the corn and let the other girls join in as it seemed a bit unfair to let this trio have the corn to themselves for any longer. They are such cheeky little girls.