I have a rooster who lives in my backyard. i live in a place where the temperatures reach 114 and above daily. my rooster, Gibblets, keeps on standing in his water bowl all the time. his legs have begun to crack and his feet are looking sore. is there anything i can put to make his legs not hurt? it's getting bad and he can only sleep in a standing position since i think it hurts to bend his legs. Please help me!!!
also, i have kittens and a puppy in the yard with Gibblets and the naughty rooster eats the cat food and dog food as well as his own. will it hurt him? he also prefers a cold bowl of milk in the morning and will continue to crow at my windows until he gets it. is this bad for him?
Beating the heat...
LOL what a sweet roo!
milk is fine. you need to feed the cats and dogs separately, and only put down what they will eat, don't leave any out for Giblets.
you didn't mention his age, but he could have leg problems due to his diet..... there are some different human vitamins that oculd help, but give us more info first..
does he have shade? a roost? what do you feed him? how old is he? what kind of water do you use? and waterer?
you may get some kind of natural beeswax/lanolin blend and see if that helps. i am guessing he stands in the dogs water dish and everyone drinks out of it too? see if you can get him a separate water/food area where the puppies and kittens can't get.
and the milk would be better at room temp...
welcome to Dave's, hope you stick around, you will get lots of answers soon...
tf
bumping this up to get attention...
anyone else have suggestions? i know i am not the only CHICKEN HEAD around here...
hehe.. I thought you just wanted attention all to yourself.. so I was letting you glow in the limelight... alone..
About the chicken feet/legs.. I would be wondering what else besides the water he is walking in and is he standing in the water because it gives him relief.. kind of like if I was to walk on hot coals.. I would run to a puddle of water and soak my feet.. I might experiment with another bucket/bowl and see if he soaks his feet in that too, then I might look further..
wondering here if you could use that lotion called "something gloves" you get at the pharmacy.. chickens don't lick their feet do they? will he let you rub his feet.. maybe you could rub it on till its rubbed in and dry.. OR.. bagbalm???
i put a bunch of water dishes around the yard so that the wild cats and birds can also get water. they are all in the shade and i put a frozen water bottle (without the lid) in each one when it is really hot outside.
i tried to put mineral oil on his legs, but he got mad and pouted for the rest of the day.
Gibblets is about 3 or 4 years old. i got him when he was only 3 days old. he has lived in my backyard almost the entire time except when i sent him to my parents so i could spray my yard for weeds (that was about 2 years ago and he was accidently sent to some people in the desert and it took my about 3 months to get him back home).
he has had a lot of different friends (cats, kittens, ducks, a rabbit, and a puppy), so he's used to all their food and being with them. i haven't changed anything so it's not a food allergy. the only thing is that it is so hot down here, he spends the day in his water bowl. the same thing happened last year, but not this bad.
i gave him some oatmeal with sugar water today and he wasn't thrilled about it. the kittens like it. i'm going to pick up the stuff you suggested and i'll see if it works.
as for rubbing his feet, he's a manly rooster who hates to be cuddled, yet likes to be carried around and he plays hide-n-seek. it's a funny thing to see a huge red rooster trying to hide behind a rake, a small pole, or a bucket while making the funniest noises until you run up and tell him, "tag you're it". needless to say, when you hear the chicken "laughing" all you have to do is scan the yard for a huge red tail sticking out and ta-da, you've found him.
he sleeps by the back door on a towel or carpet. i had a box and other things, but he likes to be by the back door. i live in the city so i like that he's hidden in back. i don't want a big dog to dig under my fence and eat him although he has a bad habit of terrorizing medium sized dogs when i let him out front.
i gave him warm milk a long time ago and he spilled it on purpose. i know he did it on purpose because i gave it to him 3 times and he stepped on the bowl. i gave him cold milk and he drank it fine. talk about a spoiled brat.
he has been getting bored since the ducks he was raised with had to go to my parents (one kept on finding things to choke on like balloons in the trash, a screw in the wall, etc.) but the kittens have been playing with him. i think he wants them to go away and he steps on their tails when they run up and play with his tail. but can you blame them? it flows in the wind and looks like a ribbon the play with.
i can send someone a pic to their email if you want, for some reason this forum won't let me load a pic. thank you so much for all your help. most people don't write me back and you guys are cool. thanks again!!!
Oh gosh that is just to funny. I hope the lil guy will be ok. I know nothing about them as of yet so I can not even offer any advise. He does sound like a charmer. I would give just about anything to see him playing hide and seek. Good luck
Tia
yes, he is quite an entertaining animal. he loves to get into trouble. his latest habit is standing on a plastic tub full of my daughter's outside toys and leaning until the entire thing falls over along with him. he keeps on doing it.
my family all thought i was nuts since i kept telling them my rooster was hiding and i had to go find him, but after i filmed him, they don't make fun of me anymore.
his other thing is to put his foot on the kittens tails if they bug him. they hate it, so he does it to keep them away. he's huge so they like to run and fluff his tail, then run away. it's funny.
I am wondering if Giblets has scaley leg mites and/or bumblefoot.
For the legmites, when he has been standing in water long enough to soften up the gunk built up around the scales on his legs, scrub off as much as you can with a toothbrush. Then coat his legs with bath oil . Repeat the oiling every couple of days until his legs are completely healed. You can also put ivermectin pour-on on his legs to kill the mites.
For bumblefoot, check the bottoms of his feet for sores. If you find any, once again, when he has been standing in water and the scabs are softened up, you need to remove the scab and any pus (it will be hard, not soft and liquidy as in other animals). Clean with a disinfectant and fill with an antibiotic such as neosporin. Bandage and clean daily. Oral meds or prescription topicals may be needed. Bumblefoot is generally a staph infection, so use care in discarding any infectious materials.
Misters will framatically cool down hot dry areas. A fan and shade help. You can also bring him inside (use either a diaper of a cage as necessary). Some folks freeze water bottles abd place them in the areas their animals hang out. Others run hte hose and create water/mudholes for their birds to stand in. A very shallow wading pool would probably be better than a water dish (that other animals drink from).
A bit of dog or cat food is okay, but it should be considered a treat or supplement, not a major portion of his diet. Birds don't have the enzymes necessary to adequately digest dairy products, so you need to limit the amount of milk he gets. Yogurt or cheese would be easier to digest, but still should be limited in amount.
Another possibility is that his leg/feet problems are caused by a nutritional deficiency or excess since his primary diet isn't ideal for a chicken. You may want to restrict his food to a quality poultry ration (starter or grower) and whatever bugs and plants he hunts down. You can supplement with your own leftovers, expecially veggies and fruits, and you might want to add bird vitamins to his water or food.
If you post a photo of his legs/feet, I'll tell you if it looks like scaley leg mites. For bumblefoot, if there is a scab on the bottom of his foot or toes, that is what it is.
Suze
great info Suze, gald you popped in! still hot there? LOL
it's raining here! wish i was out in it. hope those asst bantam tarp stays on...finally it will only be in the 80s tomorrow...
I was just reading some of questions and answers, about swamp coolers, chickens in the heat and such. when I saw some of the temps, I could only think, I'm so fortunate. I live in northern Washington State, the temps here are running around 68-73 this time of the year with highs of about 88 in august. I have forty chickens and they are so easy to care for due to the temps we have. I did however live in Baytown, Texas. Texas City, and also Temple, Texas for a period of seven years. I loved Texas and the people, but I had to relent because of the humidity, and torrential down pours when they came. I have throughly enjoyed some of the questions and answers. It also thrills me to see so many nice persons helping others with their poultry questions. I'm new to this forum and hope you'll forgive me for any awkwardness, I'm also new to the computer world, I am however not new to this world. seventy-five. And loving every minute of it. Thanks . Haystack
Hi, Haystack, welcome to Dave's. Like you, I am not a "spring" chicken. But you were probably in kindergarten when I was born. (70)
GG
hey there haystack! love that name, and welcome! pop in any time. we even have a special thread just for chatting... look for the picture of the frizzled cochin, looks like a chicken with a bad hair day LOL..
yep, no greater poultry place then right here! but don't spread the word too fast...
tf
Thanks Granny & TF for the welcome mat. And by the way I just saw one of those frizzled cochins yesterday for the first time, it really did make me LOL. P.S. have either of you heard of the magazine back yard poultry? If so are either of you subscribers? It's one of the best resources for info on chickens, and is always filled with little gems of ideas for beginners especially. Thanks again for the welcome mat. It feels warm and fuzzy. LOL. Haystack.
i have heard of it, wish i could subscribe. maybe when i start getting eggs to sell... i got the first issue back a few years ago, for free, when they featured guineas and the book Gardening with Guineas...
make sure you get lots of threads read here in your SPARE time ^_^
Hey, TF, what is "spare time"? I wouldn't know that if it hit me in the face. BTW, I ate the "ooh-ah" egg this morning...was a double yolker. First one from this flock.
GG
i was hoping you could expalin spare to me. a spare tire is something extra you carry with you in case you have a flat. but if i am FLAT out of time, or energy, where is my spare? can't find one anywhere!
Your sons are your spares, tf. They just don't know it yet.....
OK, so i found them, now they need to be inflated LOL
when Peter was out helping the other day he said, Mom i'll learn everything from you so i can run this farm when you die". i have higher hopes for him than that LOL...
is this heat ever gonna end???
We have had a couple of cooler days, thank goodness. About 3 days before that though, it was so hot and humid I was sweating IN the shower. ugggghhh! The weather has been crazy this year!
Christy
We got the day off of rain but the weatherboob says rain tomorrow afternoon and same for Sunday. They said Rochester got 6" of rain this past week. We know we had more than they did so it's scary to think about. Temps have been comfortable during the day and very cool at night (low 60's into high 50's)
MollyD
I hope we don't get any more rain! I think we got 6" between yesterday and last night. It could have been even more, I'm not sure. We lost power for about 15 hours. The repair crews had a hard time getting to us.....all but one road is covered in water. I've never seen anything like it. The one I got to see covered looked like a river.....the water was running through the trees, over the farm ground and up over the road. The one road that was still open was just about covered this morning....someone told me that the water reached right up to the white line on the road. On that road I saw beefers trying to wade through the water trying to get to the feeders. It's pretty awful!
Christy
it's TOO HOT HERE!
Christy that is how it was for us last year, we had 60+ days from may, that it rained somewhere in oklahoma, i have 2 ways out of our property, 1 was totally washed out and the other was real close but to get out it was on a upward slope, we had to take the 4 wheel drive just to get out. It would rain for about 5 days straight then we would get a day off and then that evening I was able to mow or I would have been living in a jungle.
Now this year we are begging for rain. And temps at about 97-99 and feels like 103-105.
Christy I hope it stops for you. We had yesterday off but just got some more a short while ago though it looks to be a light one. Fingers crossed that's it for today.
Muggy now.
MollyD
I live in central missouri and it has been soooo humid here the past 2 days. Rained last night about 1/2 inch, but we have had so much rain here. Not like the people in northern missouri, but still a lot for us. It is 94 today with a heat index of 105 to 110. Was trying to mow the yard, but after about 45 minutes it was just to hot.
SHeila
oh dad gum hunny dont mow in this heat, do early morning or late evening, i know I gotta mow, but we will see tonight. Heat index here is about 102 right now.
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
say that 3 times
3x's heck.. 25 years ago my dd had to memorize it for kindergarden play.. how bout 500 times in a row.. AGH!
oh no. never mind lol
Haven't heard that one in over a half-century.
GG
tf--Don't say it is "too hot" in Fritch--I'm still working on my DH! Really you meant to say "I am very tired, but so grateful that it is NOT TOO HOT!" Right?
Sorry Cat, It is TOO HOT. Only about 6 or 7 more weeks of it and it will start to be real nice.
knslwilliams,
In the summer we don't have to mow so much since the grass gets a bit burned and I don't water it too much. The mowing takes less than 30 minutes but we just do a section or so a week. I swear with 1.5 acres + of grass I can push mow 2000 sq ft in about 30 minutes. So maybe we mow twice a week and get it done in 2-3 weeks and start over. We're not trying to impress anyone with how pretty it is just need to keep it short so we can walk through it.
Kelly in Moxee
Sounds like we have about the same size yards. Usually our grass in usually burned by now, but we have been getting so much rain that it just keeps growing. I mowed for about 4 hours Monday night and got about half of it done. Had to do some chicken shuffling last night and it was so humid. And I sweat like Niagara Falls..... We got everything moved and then today it rained the whole day. I'm like you Kelly, I don't try to impress but it was getting a little hard to walk through...... Plus we have so much white clover now that the bees are stinging the kids feet when they are playing...... (Can't ever get them to keep their shoes on)......
Supposed to be around 95 tommorrow with a heat index or 105 to 110......
Sheila
95 during the days and 55 at night - this high desert thing is pretty schizo (this is normal, although last year we averaged about 5 degrees higher both during the day and night). My 5 week old chicks seem to be doing ok outside during the day - they have shade and they've made some small dust bath craters, lots of water. I hose the ground off when I get home about 3 pm. Right now I've been bringing them out right before sunrise and bringing them back in the house at sunset when they all start settling. They are sleeping in the laundry room in the bottom half of a large dog crate that's been extended out 3 feet with card board. Since it's dark the whole time they are in there, they seem to not be running around, just sleeping. The 27 babies are getting heavy, though - I currently make two trips with a plastic tub of 13 or 14 chickens in it to bring them in and out of the house. The palacial coop that my husband is building is almost done, but has no roof. (Hang in there with me, I DO have a question here...) It is 16 x 16 with no windows and a people door that locks right now. My question is - can I keep them out over night? I was thinking of putting half in one large dog crate (held a 100 lb dog stretched out in its former life) and half in another, lock them in with a water cup attached to the metal grate door, and keep the dog crates in the half done coop. When it's time to wake up, bring everyone outside the coop and lock the coop door. With the temps that low at night, and considering the girls are only 5 weeks old, will they be warm enough? I don't have electricity out there yet, so they would not get any supplimental heat. I could put about 4" of bedding in the bottom of each crate. Anyway, any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated. Thank you. - Karla