Gnarly Bunch - Chapter 25 - 10/14/12

10/14/12

Gnarly Bunch Update:  Two very large eggs today.  I'm not real satisfied with what I saw on Ruby Crockett's butt last night and am thinking this is still a gleet issue.  She is mildly prolapsed... her cloaca is swollen, red and protrudes a little when she is under stress.  Just a little.  I put Preparation H on her last night again and also dosed her with some Olive Leaf Extract, which I hadn't gotten around to doing on an individual basis with this hen.  I'll be dosing her again this evening with the OLE and looking at the vent for any progress. 

I must be getting soft, going to all this trouble for one hen and ordinarily I guess I would not.  But that is the nature of an experiment... try things to see if they work.  Can't really see if they work unless you try them first and then can report on if they worked.  So far, the Nustock was great and did wonderful things but this hen, of all the rest, seems to need a little extra booster to kick this gleet/thrush out of her system.  Not being one of my original flock, I have no way of knowing her immune system development or genetics, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants on this one.  

It would be a shame to cull such a pretty hen...who is still laying huge eggs when her butt looks and feels this way, and she is fighting an infection.  What a trooper!  

Middle Sister, whom we have nicknamed Stumpy, due to her swollen ankles, is looking better each day.  I'll be looking at her feet this night as well, to see how that gland looks and to smell it.  Yes, I said, to smell it.  Now, I don't often smell chicken feet but it behooves one to smell any areas that are suspicious looking and may have harbored infection.  As a nurse I've got a pretty good nose for infection and can often tell when someone has a sinus infection or allergies just by talking to them.  I can actually smell it on their breath.  Yeah... not my favorite gift, but I have it all the same.   

Yes, I even smelled Ruby's butt the last time we examined it... that's another reason I know the gleet is diminished a great deal.  When we first discovered it, her butt smelled like a real rotten deer that had been out in the sun for three days.  Very bad.  Now, I can not detect that rotten odor and she doesn't have any drainage but she still has this edema inside her vent, so I don't want to get lax on this infection.  Getting out the OLE and going to see if it works miracles like it did in my family.  I've dissolved 3 capsules in water and olive oil and am giving her 1/3 of this mix each night for 3 nights and will see if that helps at all. 

Evening Update:

The Prep-H really worked!  She is not so swollen and red inside her vent and I cannot see her cloaca tonight.  I just hope it stays that way.  It doesn't help that she lays such large eggs.  Went ahead and applied more Prep-H for good measure and also some NS on the rim and corners of the vent, just for kicks and giggles.  Gave her OLE dose and put her back on the roost... I bet she is getting pretty fed up with people touching her butt! 

I crushed the contents of 3 OLE capsules and dissolved them in water and a little olive oil and gave her one third dose the last two nights.  Tonight will be her last dose and then I'll wait to see if it is having any positive affect on her. 

Soaked Stumpy's (AKA MS) feet in Epsom salts tonight and massaged that gland, removed a little debris and reapplied NS.  Her legs now show no evidence of scale mites and are nice and yellow...no more pale legs!  

Gnarly Bunch - Chapter 26 - 10/15/12