(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Such is Life with Pet Chickens ♥ (Permaculture)

erinn (47)in #permaculture • 7 years ago

I was planning a nice post about the Lunar Eclipse! A lot of people seem to get spooked, or watch for lunacy of all sorts with an impending Lunar Eclipse! Not me! I like to use the time to consciously allow/encourage the cleansing of things I don't want in my life. Thus, emerging from the other side a new!

Sigh

http://studioananael.com/product/luna-wolf-framed-artist-print-2/ I am a Contributing Artist for the site, and you are welcome to have a look! :)

I have yet to introduce my many "helpers" in my permaculture project that I have mentioned in my first Steemit Post which can be found here: https://steemit.com/permaculture/@erinn/hello-and-what-is-an-applesnitch Some of my helpers are a few Guinea Fowl and almost 70 chickens of various breeds. :) Yes, you read that right! SMH I didn't plan it that way. It sort of crept up on me as I now believe is quite common-- and often referred to by those with the lingo, as "Chicken Math"! Details to come in a future share here on Steemit!

To the point, my daughter had come in from watering the young chickens we have in the brooder (as 'Winter is Here'). "Mooom, I think something is wrong with the Svart Hen!" Great. LOL. Anyone who has pet chickens will just know. I love my chickens, so I deal. LOL.

So instead of spending time writing my fabulous Lunar Blog Post... I have spent two nights trying to help my beautiful little Svart Hona (Swedish Black Hen) Pullet heal from whatever is ailing her. She appears to be having seizures with her neck curled forward under her chest. :(

Most vets as far as I can tell will not have anything to do with treating chickens. Most people view chickens as food and not pets, thus; the pet chicken owner is usually left to diagnose and treat on their own. You have to really use your intuition and be very, very patient. One of the best places you can go to for information is Backyard Chickens Dot Com. Sometimes no one there knows what you are dealing with either.

The best I have been able to work out, the appearance of seizures seems to be a symptom associated with various health conditions-- and is called 'Wry Neck" or "Crook Neck". In the event it will help anyone there are quite a few cases of this which have been successfully treated. Treatment usually includes Vitamin E, Selenium (for use with the Vit E), anti-inflammatory treatment, and sometimes antibiotic treatment. the former are often used in conjunction with massage/wrapping the neck gently for support, and dropper feeding for a period of time. An eggcellent (yeah I did, haha) website describing some methods for treating, as well as additional thoughts is browneggblueegg dot com. I chose to go with Oregano Oil instead of Antibiotics because we are trying to raise birds that could not just survive, but thrive in the wild if they had to for some unforeseen reason. This has a learning curve much like Steemit :) but is also very rewarding! This won't be the only topic I blog about, but if you want to learn about the ups, and downs we've encountered along the way... I invite you to follow my work here! The Organic chicken rearing path is only recently becoming a big deal in the U.S. and thus it's often difficult to find people whom have experimented with the various methods of caring for their chickens organically. We've only veered from that once or twice and it didn't involve use of conventional antibiotics or hormones. They are also 100% Organically fed.