Ok ...now this one is a little louder....I know I sound crazy but the girls love the attention...they really do

Ok, I bug them way too much....but they tolerate me and give me lots of eggs.  They don't peck each others' backs or fight too much and they are gentle with children, animals and adults alike, not just me.  Pretty amazing birds if you ask me....just need a full time maid to clean their coop and poop :)

Leghorn is the most subdued and gentle of all my hens...Sally is too but she is more a mix of bossy and dainty

Warning ....please turn down volume before playing clip :) I'm loud...

here is a little clip of leghorn in her basket

 This is Shasta the new Christmas kitty...
She has an attitude problem and doesn't understand what personal space is.
That is my study space during college terms.







Next, below we have leghorn ingesting cottage cheese to help her with her well ...runny stool.

 This is her trying to figure out how to hop!








I eventually had to put her in a basket and carry her around all day.  So of course every cat in the house had to stick their noses in her face. Believe it or not she was feeling so poor she never once pecked them.  Also notice below, this is Creamy and leghorn meeting for the first time.  The cat in the picture above is Shasta and she is lighter in color.

Notice the Anatomy poster on wall next to my bed. I figure osmosis of 900 anatomical terms might be possible if I go to sleep looking at it and wake up looking at it.  This way I don't have to count sheep......I just keep repeating the bones, muscles, endocrine system and well you get the idea...
     And yes, after leghorns visit I stripped the sheets and cleaned up the entire room before I got back in bed...

 Lastly I gave her some electrolytes in her water and some fresh air by the window and then her time  in my room was done LOL.

She is now out with her hens, these pictures were from her first 5 days she lived in the basket

Finally here is Leghorn hobble girl

This was her first day in the house....still trying to figure out why her leg isn't working.

Leghorn is moving about with the girls now...yahoo

I saw her fly straight up onto their sleeping pole that they perch on at night....that's a first since she was wounded...I think we are in the clear now...I will post pictures tomorrow after i clean out the coop and clean out all my paperwork from Winter term to prepare for Spring term at school...Finished Finals yesterday thank goodness....what a relief...

looking hopeful

     Finished chemistry exam today and better yet...my white 

skinny leghorn (with help from my lame physical therapy

efforts) is now putting pressure on her leg and hobbling around more.

    Its been 9 days and she is making progress, even if it's slow.  It's kinda of funny cause while shopping for supplies at  our local feed store I shared with a clerk the plight of my chicken and was overheard by a Russian family shopping for baby chics. Speaking no English a local Russian lady where her younger family member kindly translated was emphatic and shook her head while advising me my chicken was a goner and  that I might as well just twist her neck and get it over with.... I thanked her politely for her advice and then left Wilco  thinking I'll show you die, over my dead body. I don't think so LOL...that chicken is gonna walk again LOL. Well so far so good, she eats, drinks, poops and lays an egg every other day. She co habitats in the coop with all the hens now, but not sure how badly she gets picked on when I'm not looking. She is till pretty sedentary and I will have to work with her during spring break by manually exercising her legs and hips till she puts more and more weight on the wounded one. 

Pictures will be posted tomorrow and a little video clip.  First day off is tomorrow so after some household chores I'll head out to do the coop chores.....hope the snow melts away and it doesn't rain tomorrow.  Would sure love to see some sun this weekend. 

 

I posted this last week when i found leghorn was injured...put it didn't post correctly....

My tiny white leghorn broke her leg, I think it must be high up at the hip...After a good looking over and evaluation the visible part of her leg is fine, she holds it up high and will only hop around on her good leg.  I noticed that she is very cautious and will not put any pressure on it when trying to hobble around the coop today.   

    Hope she works it out, otherwise not sure what we are gonna do with her. She has been in the house sitting on my lap or in a cat box ever since I found her lame a couple days ago.  She won't stand or move...I have to feed her and bring her water and wipe her butt ....I can usually tell when she has to go potty cause that's the only time she tries to stand up on one foot and gets slightly restless.  She has had 100% runny watery stool since I found her near the wood pile on one leg 3 days ago. I'm wondering if it’s from pain and trauma, cause every time she tries to stand on her one leg she squirts out diarrhea. Or is she standing because she has to go...? Luckily I've been home with her but tomorrow I have to go back to school.  Exams are next week.  

I could tell she was longing to get to the window behind the couch and could tell she really wanted to get outside so I put her back in the coop.  I feel it’s best to get her back with the hens as quick as possible so they can all work it out.  I'm afraid if she doesn't hold her own they will gang up on her and make life tough.   Watching them and how they react to her is very interesting, most show aggression and nervousness but my sweet Peggy Sue (my happy bird that sings like a trumpet has been very kind and stays close to her, she senses she is lame) is going to be her guardian,

   I will post pictures this week end and or a short video clip.  Exams are next week so I will be studying all weekend and watching over my little Missy leghorn.

    On Wednesday last week I found my skinniest white leghorn hobbling on on foot by the wood pile, after much evaluation and many hours of cuddling her in the house I deduced that she must have broken her leg at the hip, (or what we call a rotator cuff for them.)   It has now been 7 days and she has only put pressure on it a couple of times that I have seen.  She has laid an egg every other day and the only other symptom of distress has been diarrhea on and off.  I give her cottage cheese and this temporarily alleviates the diarrhea.  I lay her near water and food and she trys to scoot around a bit but generally stays still.  She still coo's and looks bright in her eyes and her waddle is still a proper color, no black and blue settling in there.  I will continue to nurse her through the next week and see if any progress can be made in regards to applying pressure on her wounded leg.  I would have splinted it but it's too high up in her body.  When I move the feathers apart I can see some black and blue discoloration which is either a really bad bruise or a broken leg.  Time will tell.  I will post pictures after my last final on Thursday.  Then it's spring break and I will devote most of that time to getting her well. 

Leghorn has broken her leg, high on the hip.

   

    

Another Trig exam down, yahoo.....

     The relief I feel after the buildup of pressure for the deadline of an exam....is just amazing relief...LOL I have only one more exam in that class and it's the Final in two weeks.

     The girls are doing well. To date I have not found any mites or bugs on them, knock on wood. I religiously check for white powder on the legs and whatever else might lie under their feathers. If they have bugs, I can't see them and as long as I can't see them I am not grossed out LOL. I think I clean them, their feet and their coop, as much as I do so that I can cuddle them as much as I do.

     I have been told by all who see my hens that they are extraordinarily clean and no stench from the coop probably cause I treat them like house pets and I spend a fortune on pine shavings (comparable to our house carpet, but instead of vacuuming I scoop it out every few days) and ddiatomaceous earth.

     I have to laugh because if anyone could see me clean their feet with a toothbrush in the laundry room washtub I would die or they would die laughing knowing I've lost my mind. I guess you'd call it the weekly chicken Pedi. I started this treatment when I read that cleansing their feet and legs with warm soapy water helps fight off bug infestation. So I clean them periodically. Of course the amount of Diatomaceous earth I use in the coop (is the one and only debugging method I know) but I'm afraid it is going to leave me with lung cancer or my girls with a respiratory infection. I jest, but I hope not. (Ironically my chickens were a gift when I quit smoking) ....But Hey No Bugs!!! Right, that is the most important thing.

     This has sparked a curiosity in me to do a little research on diatomaceous earth and find out the risks I pose to the girls and myself by using Diatomaceous earth as liberally as I do.

      What has stuck out from my research is that the product should have no unwanted sediment, food grade is safe, stay away from crystalline or pool product types (which are more damaging to the lungs) and if at all possible wear gloves and possibly a mask when using to clean out coop until it all settles out of the air.

     There is a form of diatomaceous called the flux-calcined form (I gather this is in the pool product form) and it contains a highly crystalline form of silica, resulting in sharp edges. This version is dangerous to breathe and a dust mask needs to be worn. I take from this that I should never deal with the crystallized version and I will stock up on dust masks in my coop.

     Apparently Natures Wisdom (a distributor of holistic products) sites that out of 600 deposits in the US only 4 are considered "food grade" by the FDA standards. Their Perma-Guard products use Diatomaceous Earth, mother nature’s eco-friendly naturally organic material. They say that their products fit into the "living Green" lifestyle. … more »

     With the information from  Natures Wisdom website and Wikipedia, diatomaceous earth is not earth but fossilized remains of diatoms, apparently hard-shelled algae.  It may be best to get from a fresh water source because they form a harder shell and are less fragile than salt water sources.      I’m Getting ahead of myself....So approximately in 1837 a farmer was digging a well near Luneburg Heath and stumbled upon what he thought might be some sort of limestone deposit. It was later discovered to have interesting qualities that allows it to be used in many ways today.

     First, industrially, it can stabilize dynamite. Then, it has filtering qualities used to filter drinking water and foods. The list goes on. It has abrasive qualities which give way to some of the oldest known uses in facial masks, cleansers, toothpaste and polishes. But most importantly, (Hello insecticide for my chickens) its special qualities of absorption of lipids (purposeful as dehydration mechanism) are most beneficial. As a fine powder it absorbs lipids from insect’s exoskeleton and dehydrates them. Based on Fick's law of diffusion, they die from water pressure deficiency. There is even a medical grade diatomite used to deworm humans and pets.

     In a nut shell, (actually they are an empty cell or shell of a single cell diatom) they absorb moisture or lipids at such a microscopic level that it dehydrates bugs, or wrecks their membrane system ultimately to their demise. (I read maybe even kills bed bugs too, but it takes a super long time to be effective on bed bugs, probably weeks to kill bedbugs, so it isn't a quick fix if you go to a Motel Six and find your too afraid to sleep in the bed...geeezzz LOL now consider that might be an internet rumor and requires more research...I'd be interested to know if research has been done on bedbugs with diatomaceous earth) Added side note is that interestingly it doesn't hurt earth worms which are a favored treat for "My Girls." (If you don't read my blog, I'm talking about my hens not my chest.)  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

www.natureswisdom.co.uk/ ( they carry their brand Nature's Wisdom DE which contains Perma-guard de, which I haven't personally tried yet, but they seem to be a natural holistic type of company, more research is required to form an opinion of this product and product supplier. )

***** Friendly reminder to all who read my blog. If I provide data, opinions or otherwise seemingly useful or useless information please be advised it is necessary to always do additional research to form your own opinions and to insure accuracy of topic discussed. It is very important as I've mentioned in previous posts to site all sources to the best of one's knowledge. I will always site where I found the information on my blog and credit will be given to where credit is due. I had hoped when I created this blog, it would be a mutual discussion forum, allowing others to inform me, correct me, or otherwise provide opinions and chatter about chickens, pets or whatever I'm blathering on about. I especially would love to hear from people that check out my blog and also keep chickens as pets or otherwise in different parts of the country or world. That would be so fantastic LOL. So please consider this an invitation to share on this blog. I look forward to any interaction this blog can provide. ****

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Friendly warning, anyone that watches the little video clip ...you might want to turn down the volume...It recorded awfully loud and I do alot of annoying screaching calling my girls .....sorry about that will tone it down next time...LOL

some photos from today.....

A little more and the neighbor dog Scout

This Post is for you Holly Enjoy

March 4, 2012 beautiful sunny day.  Spent some time outside before hitting the books for exams....the girls are so happy in the sun.

Sure would be nice to have a  GoPro HD Helmet Hero...they look like so much fun and easy to use for quick effortless video clips....(Google it and check it out) hands free and all