Carol's Chickens

I have moments of thinking that the girls are improving and then they seem to slide back again. For three days I didn’t hear wheezing and and didn’t see any bubbles in their eyes. Yesterday afternoon they were perched in the shelter and I could hear the slight wheeze in Freckles and Dandelion’s breathing and once again they both had bubbles in their eyes.

Today I haven’t seen any bubbles but sometimes it may be a case of which moment I am watching them. The fact that both Freckles and Dandelion are moulting is really not helping matters, especially with it being so cold.

The forecast is for milder weather to come so I hope that will help them. I am resigned to this taking a long time and now wonder if I will need to keep them on tylan through the winter. I am continuing the daily regime of tylan in the water and three dishes of mash made with tylan water and a teaspoon of crushed poultry zest.

Freckles looking a bit tatty

Dandelion

Apricot

Cinnamon with a ridiculously full crop at the end of the day

I have said before that I wonder if Cinnamon is the most well because she eats the most and therefore gets a bigger dose of tylan. She is the smallest girl of all of them but has always been the one constantly feeding and always looks lopsided at bedtime because her crop is so full. Her comb is also the most red. She was also the only one still laying until recently but hasn’t laid for the past week.

I would think Cinnamon had escaped this if it wasn’t for hearing the occasional sneeze. Apricot only sneezes occasionally too but has had the wheeze in her breathing but that seems to have gone now. Freckles and Dandelion have been the worse effected with wheezing, eye bubbles and sneezing and Freckles sneezing the most of all.

The two bigger girls, Emerald and Speckles don’t seem to be effected, thank goodness. I am very up and down with how positive I feel about this but I think that for now there is nothing more I can do but carry on doing what I am doing and just keep hoping they will get better.

We don’t like to decorate for Christmas too early and generally do it two weeks before Christmas. This year however, with one thing and another, time somehow got away from us. We suddenly realised that it’s only a week to Christmas and we thought we had better swing into action.

I had a five pound off voucher for our local garden centre so we went there first to look for a tree. We were shocked at how expensive they were. They were much more than last year. They were priced at fifty and sixty pounds. We didn’t want to pay that sort of price especially as there is only a week until Christmas so we wouldn’t get value from it.

My husband remembered seeing a sign advertising Christmas trees for sale further up the road so we decided to go and take a look. We drove up a steep drive onto a muddy field with a small car park, a tent and piles of Christmas trees.

A man came out of the tent and asked if he could help us. I asked him what his cheapest Christmas trees were. Among the big piles of trees he took us to a small pile of just two trees. He said that they were twenty pounds and held one up for us. I said it wasn’t bad at all and was a bargain. I said we would take it.

We were really chuffed at our bargain and in fact it’s a better tree than we have had some years.

The tree is ready for decorating

I trimmed down the rather long branches at the top to give it a better shape.

The tree is decorated

I am really pleased with this tree. We put a wreath on the front door and put up the rest of the decorations in the sitting room and the dining room and hung the Christmas cards from ribbons in the dining room. We are now ready for Christmas.

My lovely vet ordered me in some denagard. She looked for the cheapest option as she had already talked to me about the fact that it is in big amounts for farming and there are no small options for backyard flocks.

I have paid ten and twenty pounds for tylan and the cheapest denagard was fifty pounds which came out at sixty pounds after the V.A.T. was added. Gulp! I ran it by my husband and we decided to go for it.

I went to my local vets to collect it and when the receptionist put it on the counter I did double take. Wow! That really was a big amount and was bigger than I had anticipated. I imagined going on the “Down The Lane” forum and telling anyone near me who wanted some that they should come to me and I would let them have some for free.

Denagard with my tylan bottle in front for comparison

I started to read the complex instructions for use. I had expected something to add to the water like the tylan but this was to be added to the feed. I could add it to their mash I thought. I tried to find the quantity but it gave an amount to be mixed with a ton of food. Uh oh! It also said that not enough wouldn’t be effective and too much would send chickens into toxic shock.

Oh goodness! This was going to be impossible for me to measure accurately and would be much too dangerous to risk using. I called the vet and explained the situation to the receptionist. She said my vet would call me back which she did and she said to take it back and get a refund. We discussed that the girls seem to be improving so we agreed that I should carry on as I am and update the her next week.

Today I continued with the daily regime of three dishes of mash with the ground poultry zest and tylan water. They girls were eating one of the two dishes at first but over the last few days they have eaten two of the three dishes and today they ate all three dishes, hurrah!

This afternoon they had a communal dust bath. I haven’t seen the whole flock dust bathing together for ages. This is a good sign that they are feeling better.

Communal dust bathing

Freckles helps Dandelion with her dust bath

All the girls dust bath together

There has been no bubbling in their eyes and the sneezing has been quite a bit less. I am really hopeful that we are getting there now.

This morning I made up three little dishes of mash with the tylan water and the ground poultry zest mixed into them. I put one dish by each shelter and one dish on the chicken’s patio.

By mid morning the dish by the big shelter was empty. I refilled it and by this time the little girls had moved to the small shelter.

The little girls are in the small shelter and not looking a picture of happiness!

This is when they seem to look their worse but there were no bubbles in their eyes and I couldn’t hear any wheezing in their breathing.

Emerald and Speckles are waiting for the sun to hit this spot

A bit later the little girls joined Emerald and Speckles in the sun.

I dug the run over yesterday and both yesterday afternoon and again this afternoon the girls were out scratching and pecking.

The girls scratch and peck in the run

Pecking in the run

It was so nice to see them being a bit more active. They had eaten most of their mash by the end of the day.

I really think we have finally turned the corner with this although I am still afraid of getting too carried away. They seem to be gradually getting better and sneezing less. I am hopeful that we are over the worse.

Its day twelve of the tylan and the first day of the poultry zest. I had asked for something that didn’t need to be administered to their beaks as getting anything in to all four little girls’ beaks would be a stressful task for them and me.

The poultry zest is in pellet form and it says to put a heaped spoon (measuring spoon enclosed) into the food for ten hens. We have six and four of them are very small so I guessed a slightly less than level spoon would do.

Poultry zest

I had a feeling that I would need to disguise it but as it smelt quite sweet (aniseed), I decided to try it, as it is first, and see and if they would go for it. I sprinkled it with some sunflower hearts on to the girls’ patio area.

As I expected they all picked out the sunflower hearts first. After they had gone the two bigger girls, Emerald and Speckles, hoovered up all the pellets and the little girls ignored them. Well that went well!

On to plan B. I then measured out another small spoon and put them on top of their mash, made with the tylan water and mixed them a bit. The little girls tried to avoid the poultry zest pellets. I can tell because they are yellow (turmeric) compared to the brown of their normal pellets. I’m not sure if it’s just because they look and smell different.

By the end of the day they had eaten nearly all of the mash so I was happy that they had had enough of the poultry zest. Tomorrow I will grind the poultry zest pellets to powder with my pestle and mortar and mix them into the mash made with tylan water. Hopefully that way they won’t notice them.

The girls seemed about the same as yesterday. They are still sneezing, Freckles the most, but I haven’t seen any bubbles in the eyes and I can only hear a very tiny whisper to Freckles breathing when she eats. They seem generally brighter. I think they are very slowly improving.

Yesterday I was feeling down as the girls seemed worse but today I am feeling more hopeful again. It has been much warmer today but wet. It has rained all day.

A wet day has all the girls in the big shelter

I left the girls with two dishes of mash with the tylan water by the shelter and one on their patio.

I was out for longer today as work was busier so I didn’t get to check on the girls until after lunch time. When I did check on them they looked brighter. They were scratching and pecking around and had eaten twice as much mash as the day before. This means they will have had twice as much of the tylan water, hurrah!

I couldn’t hear any wheezing in their breathing and they seemed to be sneezing less and there were no bubbles in their eyes.

I rang the vets and the poultry zest they had ordered for me was ready for me to collect. When I went to collect it I got the chance to talk to my lovely vet and she is going to order the denaguard for me.

So tomorrow I will start the girls on the poultry zest along with the tylan and as soon as the denaguard comes in I will switch to that. I don’t want to get too carried away but I am feeling much more hopeful today.

I am afraid everyone will get tired of me bouncing up and down with this but I just can’t help it. It almost seems like one step forward and two steps backward all the time. Every time I think I see a bit of improvement things seem to get a little worse again.

The last two days have been dull, almost dark in fact, miserable and wet. The girls spent most of the two days in the big shelter. Today was colder than it has been but it was dry, bright and sunny.

Mid morning the girls returned to their favourite spot in the sun.

The girls sit in the sun

On closer inspection I could see that Dandelion had bubbles in her eyes again.

Dandelion has bubbles in her eyes

Once the sun had moved from this spot the little girls returned to the small shelter. I bought the dishes of mash with the tylan water to the small shelter to encourage them to eat some.

I bring mash to the small shelter

Speckles decides to join in

Both Dandelion and Freckles have bubbles in their eyes again

This is worse today

I am seeing these two with bubbles in their eyes more frequently and the the wheezing sound has come back to their breathing.

I am on day ten of the planned twelve days of tylan so I will keep going for a few more days but I am constantly wrangling with how long I go on with this.

This has now been three weeks since the first signs of this and in my heart I know that the longer this goes on the less chance there is of a happy outcome. Freckles and Dandelion are just not shifting this and after moments of slight improvement they seem to worsen again. The bubbles in their eyes are now appearing more often but they are managing to blink them clear again. They seem to hit a low point in the afternoons.

I will call the local vets tomorrow to see if the vitamins have come in yet. My husband also suggested to give them their daily spinach once more as it contains vitamins and iron. I had stopped giving it to encourage them to eat the mash but now agree that it would be a good idea to go back to giving them some each day.

I hand fed the girls some spinach leaves dipped in the tylan water to try to get a bit more into them.

When I give them the bedtime corn you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong. They are at their most lively when scratching for every last bit of corn and digesting the corn helps them keep a bit of warmth at night.

Bedtime corn

Another couple of days of the tylan regime and then I will assess the situation again. I keep feeling my hopefulness waxing and waning but I am trying not to give up yet.

The snow seems to have changed the girls’ habit from hanging out in the small shelter to hanging out in the big shelter. I’m not sure if it’s because the entire run is darker than usual meaning the big shelter doesn’t seem so dark in comparison or if it’s because there is more space for the bigger girls to join the little girls.

At times the whole flock were in this shelter. I am so glad we built these shelters as they are really proving useful now.

The big shelter has become the shelter of choice

The girls seemed a little brighter in the first half of the day (both yesterday and today) but always seem to look a bit worse in the afternoons. Freckles and Dandelion had bubbles in their eyes again in the afternoon but were able to blink them away.

They were all in the chicken shed by four o’clock yesterday and all snuggled up tightly together.

Night time view from our front window with Christmas lights opposite

More snow had been forecast for today but it turned out to be sleet so at least it didn’t settle. By the afternoon the snow was beginning to disappear.

The girls haven’t wanted to come to the patio so much while it was darker so both yesterday and today I made up little dishes of mash with tylan water and put one on the patio, one inside the big shelter and one outside of the big shelter. This seems to encourage the girls to eat the mash.

This morning most of the girls are in the big shelter

Apricot is eating from one of the dishes that I have put around the shelter

Cinnamon is the most well and is busy digging and pecking

My vet called this morning to see how the girls were getting on. She had asked advice from the other vets. Another vet suggested vitamin drops to help to boost their immune system. I said that I had looked for them at my pet store but they didn’t have any. I asked if they could order some in for me and she said that wouldn’t be a problem.

She said the other vet had said that sinulox was her second medication to try after tylan. We discussed researching it first to make sure it isn’t a medication that means you can’t eat the eggs. Baytril means you can never eat the eggs again and I am now wary of checking this. This was what I used for Caramel and Pebbles and I had no idea at the time that it meant you couldn’t ever eat their eggs again. I am much hotter on doing my own research now.

She also said it has to be administered to the girls beaks. I said that would be quite stressful to the girls and I would prefer to go for something else that could go in the water such as denaguard. She said she would look into the possibility of gettng that.

We discussed that I am now on day nine of the tylan and we are intending to go for twelve days so she said to continue as I am for now. I have to say that I am very impressed with these vets. They seem to be trying to do their very best for me and she has taken the time to call me.

At the end of the day I thought the girls were sneezing a bit less so I  think we are hanging in there.

When I opened the bedroom curtains this morning this was what greeted me.

The scene from our bedroom window this morning

I opened the sitting room curtains to this

The back garden at eight o’clock this morning

The same scene a few hours later

I have been opening the chicken shed door at around eight o’clock with the automatic door opening about fifteen minutes later. This morning however at eight o’clock the chicken run and patio were in complete darkness due to the snow on the roof.

I decided there was no point letting the girls out into the dark and they would be better staying in the shed for a bit longer. I left them their new daily mix of tylan water and big dish of mash made with tylan water and decided to return later.

At nine o’clock I returned and the automatic door still hadn’t opened. I decided it was light enough to let the girls out of the main door. They looked a little surprised by how dim it was.

I checked Freckles and Dandelion’s eyes and they were clear which is good.

Emerald, Freckles and Cinnamon had a drink of the tylan water

Dandelion has a drink of water

After we had breakfast we tried to clear as much snow from the chicken’s patio roof as possible to let more light in. The automatic door was now open. The snow looks amazing but to be honest we could really do without this right now.

It is forecast to snow even more tomorrow. With the whole of the chicken run roofed, that is a lot of snow blocking out the light. It isn’t quite so cold though.

After talking to the vet yesterday I feel that I must just keep up what I am doing for the girls. I was afraid that she might say bubbly eyes was the point of no return but she didn’t. She said it was good that they were able to blink them clear and I haven’t seen bubbles this morning.

I have read that rattly breathing is the point of no return as you can’t them back from that point. I know that I have to steel myself towards the possibility of making a decision if this worsens to a point where I know they won’t get better. I am aware that there may be a possibility of having to have Freckles and Dandelion put to sleep to possibly save Apricot and Cinnamon rather than risk losing all four.

This a horrible thing to have to think about but I know I have to be prepared. However, all is not lost yet. They are no worse and in fact I think perhaps they are a little brighter today. There is still time for improvement so I must stay positive and carry on doing what I am doing and watching them very closely.

This morning I did the same as yesterday and used a bigger dose of tylan. One heaped teaspoon in a litre of water and then used some to make a big dish of mash once more.

It was very frosty this morning and for the first time this year the metal drinker was frozen. I had to bring it in under the hot tap to be able to untwist it apart. I returned it with the tylan water and tylan mash.

The girls were all perched on the ladder and the branch perch above the ladder while the morning sun was on it. Freckles gave an enormous sneeze and in the sunlight I could see the droplets fly from her. I winced as these droplets are contagious.

Once the sun had left the ladder the little girls went to the small shelter.

The little girls spend time in the small shelter

Freckles still doesn’t look good.

Freckles and Dandelion stayed in there when the other girls had left

I can’t hear their breathing so I have to hope that there is improvement but Freckles is still sneezing the most and looking the most poorly.

I checked on them a bit later and was horrified to see that both Dandelion and Freckles had bubbles in their eyes. Foamy eyes is one of the symptoms of mycoplasma.

Oh no, this is not good

Dandelion and Freckles have bubbles in their eyes

I felt quite panicked. My first instinct was to separate Freckles and Dandelion from the flock by bringing them indoors in the cat box.

I came indoors and told my husband and we both went back to check on them. Their eyes were now clear and they were pecking about in the run. My husband said that had I not gone out when I did I would never have known.

I decided to ring the vet for advice. My local vet was closed but I was put through to the sister vet. The receptionist wrote down everything I told her and said that she would get the vet to call me back.

The vet called me back and we went through everything. She said that I was doing all the right things and that I should carry on with the tylan which is the medication that every article recommends. She said that it was a good sign that they could clear their eyes. She agreed putting the tylan in the water and the mash was a good idea and that one teaspoon of powder to one litre of water was the correct dose.

She suggested that I disinfect the chicken shed. I told her about the droplets from Freckles sneeze in the run and said that the run is not possible to disinfect but she said that it was still worth disinfecting the chicken shed to keep the microbes as low as possible.

I had planned to clean out the chicken shed tomorrow so will disinfect at the same time. She said that I am doing all the right things and that I need to keep on going with it. She said she will talk to the other vets and if they can think of anything else I could do she will call me.

She said to continue the tylan for twelve days and see how they go and to call again early next week and give her a progress report.

I keep getting a bit of hope then losing it again. At the moment there is nothing more I can do but continue as I am doing. It is so worrying.