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Aug 16, 2014

Finally Some Major Rain!!! Back To Work, At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens, A Perfect Salad

From Ktvb.com weather

Finally Some Major Rain!!!-
We have had a lot of "split storms" in Boise recently The way things are laid out here, we get a lot of storms that make a V in the valley. When they hit here they tend to split to the west and east and miss the middle of the Boise valley. Where I live. It stinks. Lots of rain in the mountains, foothills, east to Twin Falls, west to Oregon. Zippo here. It has been so dry and smoky here! Finally on Wed. we had a little rain in the morning, and a major thunderstorm came into town about 6 p.m. Lots of much-needed rain was expected in those few minutes, but we only had about 15 minutes worth. BUT in the middle of the night we awoke (about 12:30, I was sound asleep!) to a MAJOR thunderstorm, with tons of lightning, and a long lasting downpour. It even shook the windows. Happily it also filled up my 55 gallon rain barrel:) The air smells really wonderful since then, with deep blue skies. I'm sure this helped with the forest fires.  I checked with the news and we received between 1/2" and 3/4" inch of rain. It was such a great relief, settled the smoke, pollen and gave everything a good drink!!! We haven't had to water since then...




Back To Work-
Sadly my stay-at-home summer is coming to an end. I'm back to "work" on Monday. I've gotten lots of projects done this summer- deep cleaning closets, eBaying/Craigslisting extra items, painting, gardening, thrifting, you name it. I still see all the undone projects, but I have to remind myself there are these things called weekends! While I am extremely grateful for being employed, and all the benefits that go with it, it's a very stressful work environment. I work with about 85% high poverty kids, which gives me a very complicated student body to work with. Lots of behavior management, in a kind way:) Anyway, it's back to school for me. You'll see a few less posts, but I'm thinking about y'all!!! And wishing I were home. Let's see there's canning coming up, freezing, drying.....


At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens-
I've written about my Chicken Hospital set up before, and I had to set it up again this week. I went out Thursday morning to find a droopy combed, very lethargic chicken. Ellie, my sweet old retired hen. I've never seen a droopy comb before, and her coloring on her comb was off too, purplish. She seemed fine the day before. I brought her in and treated her for worms, and hydrated her. Worms are a common culprit here. I wormed the whole flock. Yesterday morning she was wheezing a bit so I suspected an infection. I had Tetroxy HCA-280 soluble powder on hand, but she wasn't drinking much. She's ate yogurt with wormer, but was still really droopy. I kept her inside the rest of the day. She's a real sweetheart so I hoped to be able to pull her through. I got her to eat some soft bread yesterday morning, then I gave her some watery homemade applesauce with the Tetroxy, and more later, which she ate. I washed her bum for good measure:)  I brought her in last night, repeated and focused more on the antibiotics. She seemed a little perked up. I just didn't want her to get more dehydrated. Today....

She's much better! This morning when I went out she was much perkier, tails up, alert. I brought her in again, since she's been out (it's mild) and she gobbled up her sauce. I gave her more diluted, homemade applesauce with Tetroxy, with some rolled oats. Comb's still a bit down, but that's ok. Long live the Internet! I get so many free resources there, and it's great in an emergency. I now keep a full-blown emergency chicken kit on hand. Good to have since things can happen quickly, can't afford vet bills, and stores might be closed. Here's a good article if you're scratching your head what to do for your birds- Caring For a Sick Or Injured Chicken 

Ellie free ranged a bit this morning after her meds, and she was much more alert and curious. I think she'll make it!!! We'll be cleaning the coop as well...





Her younger sisters, ready to lay soon!!!


A Perfect Salad-
Fresh from the garden- Swiss Chard, tomatoes (3 kinds), cukes. Add some leftover romaine- it's what's for dinner!!!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

That's great that you were able to help your Ellie feel better. They get sick so quickly, your quick action seems to have saved her life.

I'm stopping by from the HomeAcre Blog Hop. Look forward to following your posts in the future.

Unknown said...

Thanks Anna and welcome!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

That salad looks amazing!

Susan said...

Emily is so sweet! She is lucky to have you caring for her. I tend to let mine 'just get over it' because of the sheer number of them. That salad looks so amazingly good! And hurray for rain!!!!

Unknown said...

Thanks, and yes, Ellie is doing much better!

Leigh said...

Great job with Ellie. And thanks for the link to the article.

Unknown said...

Thanks, I always figure it's good to have that info on hand....

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