One of THOSE mornings...

In general, my girls are quiet in the mornings.  But if the neighbor's cat or a hawk is present, that will get them squawking.  I can usually get them to quiet right down if I scoot out there and shoo away the danger.

Today is Saturday and it was a VERY long week for me.  I was desperate for some peace and quiet so I could just sleep in till 7am without interruption.  And my girls obliged.  But only with being quiet.  They were wreaking havoc out there.

When I finally go out to do my morning chores, I find that Lulu Lemon has slept under big Coco, and she's a mess.  I mean a hot mess.  She's tried to dust bath or something to get it off of her but she's covered in cecal poo all over one side of her.   And Lulu is my one hen who does not want to be touched or held.  I've been dreading this day.

Somehow I think she knew that she had a problem and that I am their problem solver.  So believe it or not, she let me pick her up.  She did fuss and squirm but let me give her a quick bath and blow dry.  And while she's not spotless, she's mostly clean.

Next issue, Ginger.  Ginger had the beginning of Bumblefoot for a while now.  Honey had the same thing and the vet gave me some topical medicine which successfully treated Honey.  But Ginger was responding more slowly.  And earlier this week, I noticed it was getting a bit red and a tad swollen.  Not a good sign.

Here you can see that after a good long soaking, I was able to get the scab off.  And we don't see a kernal or anything else that needs to be removed so the vet opted to just leave it be.  I know her foot looks swollen here but it really isn't.  Well, maybe a tad.  But just a little red and irritated.

And here she is after I cleaned up her foot again and put more antibacterial ointment on it.  The wrap is to help keep it both padded and clean.

And here's her foot all clean and wrapped.  She walks and even scratches just fine with the wrap.  She can roost just fine too.  She will nibble at it for a minute or two after I wrap it.  But so far, she's not been able to open it up. 

This is Ginger's antibiotic pill.  It's quite large.

So I cut it up into quarters.

Split raisons open and slip in the quarters.  She gobbles these up like they were candy.  Easiest way in the world to give a chicken pills.

Scrambled or hardboiled egg is surprisingly absorbant.  Here I've mixed in Ginger's pain and anti-inflamatory meds which come in liquid form so I can give her just the right amount based on her weight.

And Honey is broody AGAIN!!!  Her third time in 8 weeks.  I'm really hoping this is just a Spring Thing and that we're not going to have to put her in broody time out every 3-4 weeks.  I know people say to put broodies in a wire bottom cage but I have just as good luck keeping her out of the nest box so I prefer this method so she can be in with her sisters.  The alternative is to put her in a dog crate in the garage but the garage can get warm this time of the year so I'd prefer to keep her outdoors.

So that was my drama today.  Here's hoping for a nice quiet day tomorrow.