Good morning!

It's warm, it's sunny, it's the weekend - w00t!

The flocks are all sunbathing outside (bar two hens that have leg sprains and are still confined...), we are entering molt season and thus very few eggs are going in the daily basket but that's all right - life is good!

Wishing you all a lovely day!

lookin' good!

Crossing fingers and knock on wood, it looks like all of my sick banties have recovered from the terrible illnesses that suddenly plagued them two weeks ago.

If I had gotten home from my vacation on time, I could have saved my poor sweet Una (the only hen that died) but alas, it was not to be... I don't feel safe leaving them for a whole week anymore :-(

I have to thank this miracle product called Oxine (AH) for clearing up some of the nastiest lung gurglies ever, and Tylan-200 injectable for the other infection.

A friend of mine recommended the Oxine, I had never heard of it before.

Did some research online and flock owners are raving about it left and right - I knew it was my last chance to save my babies so I called the company HQ in the States who pointed me to their Canadian distributor, who then called me after business hours as my message was quite desperate. Lovely man, awesome service. The next morning they put a bottle on the UPS truck for me and I had it in my hands 24 hours later.

The treatment for "percolator lung" is to put your sick bird in a small, enclosed space (I used a small plastic pet carrier and draped a towel over it to cover the holes) and fog the inside for a good hour or so once a day using a cool mist air humidifier - or an ultrasonic one if you can afford it.

The bird is forced to breath in the the gently misted air which contains the spore-killing Oxine, plus it gives them a nice "spa" treatment between bouts of quarantaine. Keep them warm and offer Sulmet in their drinking water, protein-rich wet foods and their grains.

Now if only there was a miracle product to treat sprained legs...

Yep, a hen from one coop and a pullet from the other both suffered leg injuries the same day last week, it's a never-ending run of bad luck. One has a sprained ankle and the other has something wrong with her hip.

Besides quarantine in tight quarters and twice-daily doses of Arnica (a homeopathic treatment), any advice on treating such injuries? I gave them small doses of aspirin the first few days but don't want to damage their tummies so I stopped... Still no improvement after a week. :-/

My poor babies!

if you can spare some good joojoo...

My flock of banties, never sick a day in their lives before, got struck down with a terrible virus a few days ago.

I can't seem to get it under control, they are falling sick one after the other at a terrible speed. One of my sweet hens died two days after she started having difficulty breathing (liquid in the lungs, turned to bloody phlegm - she died choking...), three more are struggling to stay alive and nothing I give them is working.

There are two different strains hitting at once.

One I can control with Tylan-200 injectable, the other isn't responding to anything (Tylan-200, Procaine Penicillin, Sulmet) - even when I catch it early, isolate and keep the pullet warm. They stop eating and drinking, lose weight quickly, exhibit feverish chills and oh, the thick mucous bloody coughs are horrible :-(

Please have a good thought for my poor babies...

I love them all so damn much, this is breaking my heart :-(

Moooooose!

Our big boy Moose is already 3.5 months old now!

He's a Jersey Giant but I don't think

he will attain "giant" size as he's from a hatchery.

We still find him hot stuff though ;-)