Monday, February 13, 2017

Update on Luti

This morning Luti was still lying in her little house and not very interested in nursing Petal.  Her eyes
were still squinty and she looked very tired.  She did, however, seem happy to get some hay, though she didn't eat it with gusto.  I gave her her shot of antibiotics and pain killer.  I'll be glad when I don't have to poke her anymore.

Late this afternoon she was standing in her shed and looking much better, doting more on Petal.   Petal begged for her bottle, which she's become accustomed to.  I offered Luti some baking soda (I don't know why I didn't have it out there before.  I guess I just forgot) and she attacked it.  She ate quite a bit of it so maybe all this time it's been something in her stomach or rumen that's causing the problem.  Maybe she was bloated from eating the afterbirth or something else.  I don't see how that would cause a fever though.   Hopefully this will settle things down.  She may not be back to normal but she's so much better than yesterday.  It took some coaxing but I finally got Petal reacquainted with Luti's teat and once she remembered what to do she gorged herself.  Luti seemed happy about it.  What a relief.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog some other new arrivals.  About a week ago I looked out our bedroom window and saw 3 chickens.

We haven't had chickens since last April.  Someone must have dropped them in our yard while we were still in bed, figuring "what's 3 more animals on a farm?"  They seem to be nice chickens but we're not sure how many are roosters.  Only one of them crows, but we haven't seen him mounting the other two.  He has an obvious rooster tail.  One of the others looks like a hen but the other is questionable.  He/she has one or two tail feathers that seem rooster-like.  We haven't seen any eggs anywhere.  Most of the time they hang out in the front yard.  They're not very adventurous at all.  We can't convince them to sleep in a chicken coop.  I've moved them there after they've roosted in a bush or tree for the night but they never go back to the coop.  They prefer trees.  We're enjoying watching them.  It doesn't make me want to get more chickens though.  While we've missed the eggs, it's kind of nice not having to close them up at night or let them out in the mornings.  I definitely don't miss cleaning up after them.

No comments:

Post a Comment