Fatty Liver Disease

This is so important that I feel compelled to blog about this; fatty liver disease in backyard chickens.

Here in California, we have a wonderful service in that we can send a deceased chicken from a backyard flock to UC Davis for a free necropsy.  It give the students a wonderful opportunity to put practice what they learn.  It gives the bird owner insight into what caused their bird to parish.  And gives the state valuable data as chickens are considered sentinel birds.

I'm a member of a local chat group and have seen a number of these necropsy reports over the past few years and was amazed at how many came back showing the chicken had fatty liver disease.  And I will be honest, I scoffed at how these chicken owners could be so negligent in letting their hens get fat.  I was horrified when my first UC Davis report came back detailing that my 1 year old hen had fatty liver disease.

I am totally guilty of tossing out handfuls of sunflower seeds and other fatty seeds to my hens.  I rationalized that they would eat these things in the wild.  Which, while true, isn't exactly correct.  In the wild or even in a farm/pasture situation, hens have to work for their food.  They walk and run, scratch and dig and in the process, burn calories as they hunt for seeds and treats.

Backyard chickens by nature, already live a sedentary lifestyle.  Even if they are let out of their run, chances are, they are limited to a small backyard and just don't get the same exercise that wild chickens do or chickens that have access to a large pasture environment.

About a month ago, I noticed Coco just not being herself and when I picked her up, felt a large bulge under her.  I thought that isn't right.  My fear was that it was fat and the vet confirmed my fear.  I felt awful but he was quick to say that it wasn't 100% my fault.  And went on to explain that backyard chickens are prone to this, especially the larger breeds such as my Jersey Giant.

He sent me home with a bottle of SAMe, an herbal supplement that is known to help jump start the liver.  I was skeptical.  But the pills easily tuck inside a split raisin and she had no trouble taking it each morning.

Two weeks later, the difference in her is simply AMAZING!!!  She's much more active, and back to her chatty old self.  The difference is so amazing that I went off to the vet this morning to pick up a bottle for my other two older hens.  They were raised in the same manner so I am suspicious that they too could have fatty liver disease.  And if an herbal supplement can help improve their liver function and keep them alive longer, then I'm all for it.

It is highly suggested that you toss eggs from hens who are on any medication as they really don't know what passes through to the egg.  Although, the vet did confide in me that if you were accidentally to eat an egg, it probably wouldn't hurt you.  But we'll toss eggs for the next month or so.  The hens will each be on SAMe for two weeks and then we'll give them two weeks to flush it from their systems.

And no more fatty sunflower seeds for my girls.  Not by the fist full anyway.  If I do dole out seed treats, it's no more than once a week.  I like to stand on the patio and toss them one at a time out into the garden and let them run and find it.  I do still put some veggie scraps out for them such as spinach a few times a week.  Hens do love and need their greens.  Especially, in the winter months when many ares of the country are under snow and hens don't have access to weeds and other greens.

Watch your hens.  You know their personality and behaviors best.  If you notice a change, don't hesitate to take action.  Be aware of over treating and don't do it.  Offering a few seeds to each hen every few days probably won't hurt them.  But it is possible to over treat and none of us want to kill our beloved pets with love.

I hope you are all well and your hens are happy this holiday season.

T.T.F.N.

Yes, Ta Ta For Now.  I've had the worst two weeks of my life with chickens and I'm going to go silent for a while while I ponder this.

For those who don't follow me regularly, some history.  Last December I picked up 4 baby BO chicks.  We lost one after a week.  But the other three grew up healthy and strong.  Or so I thought.  At 6 months, Sugar developed a respiratory issue that was so bad, she was simply gasping for air.  We put down but did not necropsy her.

Several days later, Spice showed the same symptoms but not as severe.  And she never seemed in pain so we just let her be.  She continued to eat, drink and lay eggs.  But she was not right.  And she became a bully.  I could tell she didn't feel well and was acting out from her condition.  I tried trimming her beak, I put a pinless peeper on her and even tried giving her Prozac to mellow her out.  Nothing worked.

A came home from work a few weeks back to a blood bath.  Spice had gone after Honey Bear and it was awful.  I still can't believe that one bird could lose that much blood and still be alive.  It took me three hours to clean up Honey Bear and blow her dry, wipe the blood off the other hens, scrub all the blood off their waterers, feeders and their hen houses.  The fence and ramps up into their houses are still covered and serve as a constant reminder of what happened that day.

I removed Spice to a dog crate for the evening and took her to the vet the following day to be euthanized.  This time, I sent her to UC Davis for a necropsy.  The results simply stunned me.  She was suffering from moderate to severe fatty liver disease and pneumoconiosis.  She was clearly bullying the other hens for the sunflower seeds and eating way too many of them.  And inhaled DE which damaged her lungs.  Why just Sugar and Spice and not the other birds?  I'll never know.  Was it a one time incident or did this happen over a long period of time.  Again, I just don't know.  I've reached out to some people for answer but they either don't know.  Or want a fee to tell me. 

What I'm left with is my sweet Honey Bear who cries.  She is terrified to go to bed and stands outside and cries at night.  It breaks my heart.  She knew she was in for a good pecking by Spice when she went to bed and she can't get over that.  It's been more than two weeks.

I've tried to put her to bed in with the babies but she just comes right back outside.  Not sure if she knows I'm still out there or if she wants nothing to do with them.  I suspect it's a little of both.

Before I got chickens and even once I had them, I read books and plowed through the web for information.  I follow other blogs and grasped at any information I could find.  I desperately wanted to be the best chicken mama I could possibly be.  And yet, I've experienced a number of issues that no one every said were even remote possibilities.

I've learned a ton over the past two years and would do it very different if I could go back and do it all over again.  And then I have moments like I'm having this week where I wish I had never got chickens to begin with.  I'm just not sure the overwhelming heart ache is worth the bits of joy.

So with that, I'm signing off for a while, maybe for good.  My heart is just not in the right place to continue.

A little garden time

I think Coco might be starting to molt.  She's lost the feathers just under her wattles.  I don't see her losing any other feathers.  Maybe she's rubbed them off on something.

Coco LOVES a good dust bath.  She kicks up LOTS of dirt so she usually bathes alone while the others look on.  They wait for her to finish and then they all pile into the HUGE hole she makes and dust bath together in there.

Ginger loves her greens.  Their favorite is spinach.  These are the stems rough chopped to make it easier for them to eat. 

Their latest new toy.  A ladder my friend Sandy found on a corner with a free sign on it.  I sanded all of the rungs and they love to perch on it.

Sugar and Pumpkin.   The babies are still a pretty tight bunch and hang together in the garden.

Poppy has golden brown eyes.  Pumpkin has black eyes.  That's how I can tell these two blue's apart from one another.  This is Poppy.

I never cease to be amazed at how Sugar can roll around in the dirt and still be as white as snow.

This is Pumpkin.  The babies not only stay close to one another but also stick close to Auntie Ginger.  She looks like she's close to Coco too but she's not.

Big Coco with mash all over her beak.  Coco is part goat and eats like there is no tomorrow and frequently gets treats stuck all over her face.

Is it just me...

Or does Ginger look like she was the model for those hen purses they sell all over the internet?

She's blond and the purse is blond.  She has a red comb and ear lobs and so does the purse.

She has the thousand yard stare with her golden eyes and so does the purse.

Okay, it's really tough to see, but she's got some back on the tip of her tail feathers and that's called "pepper" on BO's.  The purse also has a black tail.  Hmmm, I'm not so sure that was a coincidence.

Girls Gone Wild

My babies are babies no more.  They are wild teenagers.

They had been refusing to sleep in their coop.  Instead, they have decided that roosting in the Camellia tree in their run is more desirable.  They are still inside their predator safe run.  But they are right up at the top of the tree which is super close to the welded wire that covers their run.  A raccoon could probably reach through and nab one.

And not only do I not one to lose one to a raccoon.  I REALLY don't want a raccoon discovering that I have a run full of fat, tasty hens and to stalk it at night.

I have Solar Nite Eyes all around my run.  For those not familiar with these, they are small black boxes that charge up in the sun all day long and at night, there are two red lights that blink on the front of the box.  Predators think they are being watched by another predator when they see these blinking red lights and it can deter them.  And I believe that they work.

When I first got the hens, I would find evidence of raccoon spending time around my run.  I was also finding evidence of rats.  Which nobody wants.  But after putting up several Solar Nite Eyes around my run, not only have I not seen evidence of raccoons, but no more rats either.  So I'm totally sold on these little black boxes.

You can order them on Amazon.com if your local feed stores don't sell them.

Last night I trimmed the little one's wings to see if I could ground them, so to speak.  They are so small and nimble, that I'm not sure it will have any effect.  But I figure it can't hurt.

I tucked them back into their house after trimming their wings.  As our nights get colder, maybe they'll decide that sleeping all snuggled together inside their cozy little house isn't so bad after all.  And once it start to rain, sleeping in that tree is going to be, well, cold and wet and not at all desirable.

And tonight, they are all tucked into their little house all on their own.  Thank goodness.  I hated going out there after dark and trying to snag them out of the tree.  And they hated it too.  I was afraid the neighbors were going to think I was butchering chickens, the way they screamed.

So I'm very pleased with our progress.  It's a baby step.  But it's huge for me.

Sorry for not having photos.  I hate to take flash photos of them when they are sleeping.  I know I hate it.  And I've been tearing up my garden as we get ready to do some landscaping.  Which I SUPER excited about.  It will rock their world for a bit while they tear out our old, ugly cement patio.  But we're putting in some things that I think will make them very happy so stay tuned...