Thursday, February 27, 2014

Nutmeg - defies the path lab with her lumps

First I took Nutmeg to my local vet who prescribed Tylan (antibiotic) as I expected. When this had no effect, we then added metacam (anti-inflamatory) but still no change. I decided I would have to seek out a poultry specialist and went to The Scott Veterinary Clinic who have a nice vet, Natalie, who specialises in exotic animals. I hadn't realised that chickens were classed as exotic but its rather nice.

She had a good feel and observed that some of the lumps were quite fleshy. She didn't think it was respiratory - so she took samples from each of the four lumps and sent them to the path lab.

Took longer than expected to get back to me because the path lab were so stumped they did the tests twice. There is "reactive lymphocites" in each of the four samples, but different ones. We discussed at length, but I decided that since Nutmeg is very happy in herself - she is even still laying eggs occasionally, and since she is already nearly 6 which is a good age for a chicken, I'm going to leave her and see how things go. If she deteriorates fast (as may happen) and is in distress I'll take her to be put to sleep. If she dies overnight, which may also happen, I've also promised to take her corpse along because the vet and the path lab are really keen to do a post-mortem to find out what this mysterious problem is.

Of course she could just recover :)

You never know.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Nutmeg - still no change

Phoned the Vet friday as no change in Nutmeg (other than a slightly runny bottom which is probably due to the antibiotic). The vet had spoken to her vet pal who was a poultry specialist in Nottingham who said she used Aivlosin and also that Metacam (anti-inflammatory) might help.

I'm getting concerned that in addition to the bulging face, Nutmeg has a distinct lump on the top left of her head and also down on the left side of her neck.

I'm now giving 3 more days Tylan plus metacam. So far (day 2) there has still been no change. May need to research Aivlosin.





Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Nutmeg's swollen face worsens

Really quite worried about Nutmeg. Her face is swollen on both sides, but unevenly. There seems to be a bump on top of her head, to her left side and she also appears to have a slight bump on the left side of her neck (from her perspective, if looking at her front on it is to the right).

I took her to the vet on Friday 7th. I don't have a poultry specialist vet and my vet practice had just, this week, been taken over by a new couple of vets. What the vet said matched what I'd read. Poss Myco and prescribed Tylan.

However today is day 4 and still no improvement. What could it be?



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Excuse for more chicken pics 😊




I love letting my chickens out at the weekend as I clean their runs. I've been experimenting with different groupings since I still don't dare leave my newbies with Maud Nutmeg and Amber in case they do them damage since they are even tinier than my beautiful Wyandottes. So I just let them wreck my garden, awe bless






Spot 9 chickens 😃🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔