Poultry Problems and Tortoise Trouble

A brief blog about animal care and the problems we've had so far this year!

We keep a range of animals, mostly for fun. If they make eggs or honey that's a bonus! Our menagerie consists of 3 chickens, 2 ducks, 1 budgie, 2 rabbits, 1 tortoise, assorted fish, wildlife and of course our bees. Most of our animals are free to wander around our garden which I think makes for a very happy life.

Earlier this year though our tortoise, whose name is Alfie, was losing weight and being very inactive. He'd stay burried in his sleeping box all day and wouldn't eat at all, even when offered his favourite, dandylions, and treats that he wouldn't normally have, such as strawberries. We took him to the vet who told us to keep him warm and give him plenty of baths in nice warm water, but this didn't seem to make any difference. We trimmed his beak (it overgrows) to make sure that he actually was able to eat, and fussed over him daily, to no avail. It looked like he was going to die.

However, for a few months now, Alfie has perked up. The reason is, I believe, simple: tortoises just aren't designed to weather our cold climate here in the UK. The weather just wasn't warm enough to induce him to move around or eat, and his heat lamp could only do so much. My advice, if you find yourself in a similar situation, is to take your tortoise to the vet, and if nothing seems to be the problem, give him baths at least twice a day in hand hot water, leave food out for him just in case, and just give him all the love and care you can. Hibernate him well in the winter as this keeps his body clock ticking over, and keep an eye on his weight just in case. But apart from that, just make sure he rebuilds his strength over the summer and keep him otherwise healthy. Alfie perked up as soon as the sun started shining. He now eats every day and is often allowed out in the garden where he chases the chickens.

Now then, this week I spotted something really concerning. One of our ducks seemed to have broken a toe. She was sitting very still and determined to keep her foot off the floor, but when the chickens came a bullied her and she had to move off, she was limping really badly. Pops and I examined her closer and it seemed that one of her toes had broken - it was bent out of shape. The picture doesn't really show it, but it was pretty clearly snapped.

We had no idea how she'd done it or what to do, so Mum emailed the breeder, Nicki Janaway from the Warrawee Duck Farm, for advice. Nicki said that as long as she was eating, drinking and preening we shouldn't worry and should just leave her. Sure enough, within a day, she was on the mend, and limping much less. I think just the act of walking clicked the bone back into place. So, if your duck has a similar problem, just make sure she's taking care of herself, keep an eye on her, but don't worry too much.

And finally a problem with one of our chickens (yes, we named them. The chook in question is Cleopatra). Cleo, unlike her sisters, has two stumps on her legs which we assume are the remains of the spurs that I guess her ancestors had. For a while now she's had a lump on her leg. We think she may have damaged her spur stump and it may have got infected. At any rate, it looks as if it went haywire when it tried to heal herself as she now has a large lump on her leg. It doesn't seem to affect her very much - she's still top of the pecking order and bullies the other two a fair bit! But obviously we are concerned that it may get worse and seriously damage her health and happiness, so we've been trying to make her better.

I expect that other people (with more sense and money, I expect) would have killed her or got the vet to chop it off but unfortunately we can't bring ourselves to do the former and we can't afford to do the latter. We've been treated her leg therefore with surgical spirit and antiseptics. They seem to do the trick . We treat her every day and the lump began to crack off and the skin began to start healing not long ago. Thankfully because we've been doing it every day for a while she seems to get quite comfy and stays absolutely calm throughout her treatment.

Last night however we went outside to treat her and discovered that she was pouring blood. The lump must have ruptured, got snagged on something or just cracked off a bit more. Anyway, we bandaged it up (and no, we didn't pull the lump off. It was pretty loose and she was healing in some places, but I think we would have just made it worse doing that). We managed to stem the flow it seemed, and she still seemed completely unflustered! However we were worried that her health might have declined and that she might be dead by morning.

I'm pleased to report that Cleo seems fine so far. She's been limping a bit today - whether that's because of the lump or having a huge bandage round her leg I don't know, but she's still been bullying the other two and seemed well enough to try and eat my courgette plants! We're not out of the woods yet, but our plan is to keep the bandage on for a few days to give her time to heal. Eventually the lump will break off and the skin will heal. We'll keep treating to make sure the infection doesn't come back. So she seems to be doing OK, so far, I'll post again to let you know how she progresses.