by Heather Zubiate
It has taken me quite a while to write this post (sigh), and it still makes me sad that I lost another little chicken. Especially since we named her "Daisy." Oddly enough, it appears that I can't seem to keep a chicken with that name. Even so, Kyle is determined to have a white chicken named "Daisy." This little Light Sussex would probably be laying light pink eggs by now, but since she succumbed to coccidiosis about a month ago, I can only hope the breeder I buy from has more of these birds when I'm ready to buy another round in August. And yes, we will name her Daisy. I'm not superstitious, so would | it be out of line for me to say, "third time's a charm"? Kyle is absolutely undaunted, he insists that we get another white chicken and name her Daisy, so that is what we will do. The cynic in me can't help but rise up and say, "she's a goner." You know, it's like when one of the Cartwright boys got himself a girl? You just knew she'd croak somehow. Anyway, Daisy exhibited the same symptoms as little Lily did, the morning I let the remaining little birds from their small coop, Daisy hung back a while. Then later that day, I noticed she was in the coop by herself - uh oh, here we go again! |
Learning From Others
I learned from watching Natalie Redding (Shear Madness T.V. show), that when a herding or flocking animal sequesters itself from the group (or it's acting funny), then there is something wrong with it. This has turned out to be very true for me. But for chickens, by the time they exhibit this type of behavior, you might have hours or minutes before they expire, and predictably, Daisy didn't last but a few hours, more heart break.
After Daisy died, I still didn't know for SURE what was wrong, until I finally learned what happened thanks to my son Timothy's help. I sWEAR that boy can find any answer to any question or mystery in 30 seconds or less on his smart phone, while it takes me hours on my computer! Yes, according to my son's lightening fast inquiry skills, the culprit appeared to be coccidiosis. Well, I should have guessed as much after all of the Dr. Pol episodes I've watched! 95.5% of the time, that is the most common reason an animal is sick on the show, right?
After Daisy died, I still didn't know for SURE what was wrong, until I finally learned what happened thanks to my son Timothy's help. I sWEAR that boy can find any answer to any question or mystery in 30 seconds or less on his smart phone, while it takes me hours on my computer! Yes, according to my son's lightening fast inquiry skills, the culprit appeared to be coccidiosis. Well, I should have guessed as much after all of the Dr. Pol episodes I've watched! 95.5% of the time, that is the most common reason an animal is sick on the show, right?
Heather Feather How's The Weather?
I hate that rhyme, but ironically it brings up a point I want to share. Even though the hows and whys something happens aren't always crystal clear, there are still reasons behind them and we must search for the answers. I can tell you one thing that dawned on me during this plague, but it's something that may be common sense to a good farmer , and that is you MUST keep an eye on the weather! Why is that you may ask? Well, the weather is a BIG contributing factor to the well being of living things. The weather prior to my pullets getting sick was unseasonably warm right after it rained for several days. The weather the week prior to Lily getting | sick made prime conditions for breeding the dreaded coccidia in my hen's dirt run. Had I understood that before this tragedy, I may not have lost any of my little pullets. But the question in my mind is, even if I understood the danger that the weather would create, how would I have prevented the inevitable, their exposure to coccidia? Should I have blow torched the run, given them preventative medicine, or should I have fed them a medicated feed as a broad based preventative? I think either one of those solutions would have saved my little birds. Well...okay on second thought, the blow torch idea might be a little too extreme. Maybe. |
And so, I am making a dedicated effort to look at the weather forecast regularly to anticipate any actions I need to take to keep my animals health tip top. And not just the daily forecast, but the 10 day forecast. "Being forewarned is being forearmed," as they say, and rightly so. And, the more I understand the effects that the weather has on my little flock, the better I can take care of them. I hope you have learned from my mistake, and little Lily and Daisy wouldn't have died in vain. I admonish you-- don't ignore the con-sequences that the weather can wreak on your animals. Not just on their general physical comfort, but also in regards to potential life threatening biological health haz-ards like: fungi, bacteria, molds, and protozoans. On my next post I will be sharing what I learned about this evil chick and pullet killer - coccidia.
There's More To Read...