We have four new-to-us chickens that we picked up today. Sex-links whose owner was trying to find them a less stressful home. They were raised with four Ameraucanas, but early on they had an “incident” which seems to have affected the temperament of the small flock. The owners had to use chicken “blinders” to keep them from picking on each other… it had gotten so bad that one almost died. But we think that the prolonged use of the blinders caused some stress on the chickens; they have been loosing their feathers for some time and just aren’t growing them back.  They had been receiving a wonderfully high protein diet, they had a really nice coop and attached run, they had been getting out to free range on the property several times a week, they were, and are still, laying well – but their feathers were just a horrible issue.
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Wednesday = short day. Thought I’d give you the DL update. Mostly because we just had the duck in for a checkup and that’s on my mind. We’ve continued to let her take a bath in the tub; I haven’t been very good at taking any photos through this whole process, so you’ll have to make do with the rubber ducky in the bubbles. She’s becoming more and more relaxed while in the house and therefore, more and more animated in the bathtub. Next time maybe I’ll remember and take a video – it’s pretty fun! She is definitely making good progress, although there is still a bit of infection present. So, Sue cleaned the foot out and added more Prid to see if we can draw the rest out. We’ll give it a couple of days and look at it again. She still favors it a little, but not nearly as badly as before – she’s putting more and more weight on it as we go through the healing process.  Continue reading →