On Decorating and Chicken Hospitals
We've finally finished decorating my eldest daughter's bedroom and moved her in. It's resulted in a good few things to go to the charity shop, so hopefully she'll now have a place for everything and be able to keep things under control.
I'm trying to find the motivation to carry on while everything is piled in the living room and decorate the room she's just vacated, before moving furniture back in. I just want to get the living room cleared, but if I do it now I won't want to drag everything out again at a later date and the carpet looks terrible next to the new one in the passageway, just outside the bedroom door.
First world problems! I should probably put a different perspective on it and realise that while it's time consuming, costly and we're eating take out far too often because of it, at least were in a position, for the moment, where we can do it.
On the chicken front, I've turned one of the spare runs into a hospital run, hopefully temporarily. The chickens in there have antibiotics in their water. The antibiotic I'm using is colloidal silver. I realise some people sneer at that, but I've found that it works. It's not fast acting, but it has always done what I need it to.
Sage, one of our little bantams, seems to have got whatever Puddin had a little while ago. One side of her mouth swelled up and had a yellow gunk coming from it. From what I could find on it, it seems to be canker. I tried a copper sulphate treatment for the flock, back when Puddin had it, as that was the only treatment that I could find at the and it was well recommended. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work and obviously didn't help as a preventative either, because now Sage has it. I moved over to putting colloidal silver in Puddin’s food and feeding her separately. That seemed to do the trick as Puddin is all better and it's working well for Sage too.
Sage
Canker is apparently a fungal infection and copper is often used as a treatment for that in plants, so I see the reasoning behind it. However, I wonder if it really needs to be in stronger doses to work, which could end up being toxic. In small amounts it's beneficial, so it wasn't a bad thing for the flock to have.
The others in the hospital run have foot problems. Hannah has had bumblefoot for a while, which has improved, but just isn't completely clearing. Aphrodite has the same, but it was much worse before I realised there was a problem. She was showing no signs of it being an issue, not even a limp. It was purely by accident that I was doing something where I was low enough to see that her foot looked swollen. She practically had a club foot, which turned out to be a huge lump of solidified infection inside it. It was causing her pain, but she'd hid it well. As soon as I got the first part of the lump out she relaxed. Fingers crossed that I got it all out. After changing her dressing this morning I'm worried they may still be something between her toes.
Aphrodite
Willow is limping and looks a little swollen around her ankle. She's a heavy bird, so it could be an injury from jumping down from the roost or twisting it. She is rather clumsy. So antibiotic water in case of infection and I'm thinking maybe keep her off the roost for a bit.
Willow
The garden's been neglected other than watering, so not much to say about it. Hopefully soon I'll get to play in it!
In the meantime, I'll...
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I cant add any valuable advice about the chickens, but I do hope that you are able to resolve their problems.
As for the house, it will be grand, its a home, you have forever to get it sorted so if its out of kilter for a little while, dont stress and enjoy the take outs :-)
Haha! Thank you Paula. You're so right, enjoy the good instead of focusing on the bad.
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Gosh, your girls really are in the wars!!
Not laughing at colloidal silver - I've heard good things. I also put garlic and ACV in their drinking water, which seems to work at treat, and if i feed them a mash once in a while (especially in winter) I put a fair bit of chopped garlic in there.
We had two birds die in quick succession with this new flock - awaiting the guy to drop some more off. Sometimes I think they're more trouble than they are work. I wrote about chooks today - and @goldenoakfarm also wrote a good one this week. Chooktastic!
I do ACV in their water, but not every time. I've never really tried garlic properly, just on occasions, because we love it so much ourselves I'm loath to share! We had a really good harvest last year, though, so I probably ought to try it.
Way to distract me with a temptation to chook articles to look at when I should be getting jobs done! ;D
Ah Ah always chookies...
Yeah we had good harvest but aren't eating it much as Jamie discovered he can't tolerate it. Gutted. Might not plant as much next year.
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Lisa of Fresh Eggs Daily swears by garlic cloves in the water and powdered garlic sprinkled on the feed, in a mix of other supplements. I've never done it in the water, and did try the powder for a year in the mix. I've not gotten back to it, as it was pricy to do. But the chicks and broilers and hens did very well that year.
Garlic is anti fungal, etc and with all the problems showing up, it might be worth a try.
Awesome.. I've always had healthy chooks and I'm sure it's down to garlic in water!!! As I grow own chopping or blending into a mash (i get eggshells and wizz with garlic ACV turmeric water.. add this to oats/seeds) it's easy and cheap and chooks love it.
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