Goings on at the Chicken Hospital.

Recently I made some changes in the runs, consolidating the main flock into one with our big rooster and just keeping the small bantams out in a separate with some sick chickens and this has made things a lot easier to keep on top of.

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Banshee - the screaming bantam

Banshee, a young bantam who has recently started laying, is perfectly healthy, so I'm putting coloidal silver in the water, as it's an antibiotic which isn't going be damaging to a healthy biome in the way that most antibiotics would be. The four older bantams have been having respiratory issues off and on for a while, so I'm hoping the silver in the water and less stressful environment will help. A couple of them had gotten plugs of dried discharge in their ears, which I've cleaned up and they finally seem to be staying clear now. I still see the odd one gaping, so they're not out of the woods yet, but hopefully they'll continue improving.

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Two of the bantams and Aphrodite mid-moult.

Willow has arthritis in her foot and was limping quite badly at one point. Since she's been in the hospital run, she is doing much better. She isn't being harassed as much and may also be eating better, because, due to Precious, they are only getting Showbird pellets which are a complete feed which is easier to digest as it's pre-ground before being compressed into pellets.

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Willow, who believes we only enter the run to give her special cuddles.

Precious is my girl with the chronic crop problems. It had reached a point where nothing I did would stop the Candida build up and her crop ballooning up. She got so bad one day that when I gently squeezed her crop it all came back up without even needing to tip her. As a last resort, I put her on colloidal silver and she improved dramatically. As soon she came off it for a few weeks, back with the flock, she went downhill again. I had to withhold food for a bit and put her back on the silver, but she's doing well again now. To be on the safe side I'm also making sure she has easier to digest foods, which is why the flock is on Showbird.

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Precious

Aphrodite has bumblefoot. Her right foot was like a club foot when I first spotted it. I've removed some solid lumps of infection and it's improved greatly, but I still need to get the scabs healing.

IMG_20190608_171631.jpg
Aphrodite in her undignified moult.

Pompom has a swelling in front of her right eye, which doesn't seem to be bothering her much, except for blocking her vision a bit on that side. I'm spraying neat colloidal silver directly onto that area as well as it being in the water.

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Pompom on the left, Red on the right.

Hopefully, Aphrodite and Pompom will be able to make a full recovery and return to the main flock, but the others will be permanent residents.


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We've domesticated all the wild resilience out of them. Much better yield, but everything needs to go right.
Our girls are ravenously hungry and they've stopped laying. Guessing it'll take a while for them to adjust to the cold weather.

Definitely! Breeds like old English game are much closer to their original ancestors and much more resilient. They don't lay as often and not at all out of season.

I'm surprised yours aren't laying at all, as ISAs usually continue through winter, especially in their first year. Could be a good thing if they are more seasonal. You may have them around for longer than usual with less laying issues. Do they look like they're moulting?

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Yes, they do. They've been looking a little frazzled. That and the egg strike started not long after we contained them in one area, so I figured they were just adjusting.

Their energy will all be going into growing new feathers. Moving them can also disturb them enough to stop laying too.

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Colloidal silver for chickens? Makes sense to me! Maybe also try making your own chicken food with medicinal herbs in it?


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It works. I do chicken fed with oregano and garlic before, at different times. I also now have wormwood, which I threw a big stem in recently and it seems to have disappeared.

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