What's in Your First Aid Box

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What's in Your First Aid Box
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Gertie

Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 8:14 am Post subject: What's in Your First Aid Box
We already have a really good first aid kit for our horse (God forbid we don't need it). With getting the hens soon want to be prepared for those little things which might (BUT HOPEFULLY WON'T!!) go amiss. Just wondered - what do you keep in your livestock/poultry first aid box.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 10:33 am Post subject:

We don't have a first aid box just for the hens but have used a few bits from the house.

For a compacted crop we use vegetable oil. When one lost a claw I bathed the foot in some warm salty water just to clean it up and help sterilise it. I also got some Vaseline for them (

) as you can use that to protect their combs if it's very cold or if it gets cut.

The only specific thing we have is the worming powder.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 10:42 am Post subject:
We did buy some cider vinegar but have yet to use it for anything apart from in the kitchen. I think you are supposed to add small quantities to water, but they've got on all right without it so far. Keep some plastic straws or something like that, or a syringe/baster, in case you do need to put oil down their throat.

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 12:34 pm Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

Keep some plastic straws or something like that, or a syringe/baster, in case you do need to put oil down their throat.

You'r supposed to baste them on the outside

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 3:34 pm Post subject:
I'm a vegetarian, I can't be expected to know this kind of thing

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 8:31 pm Post subject:
So far with ours we have used brandy with a medicine spoon, flavulet wormer, vasalin, cider vinegar and sudacreme (nappy cream) Most the time we use nothing, just clean water and food.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 8:35 pm Post subject:
Alison, really sorry to keep asking questions (but you know, "fool for five minutes" etc)...what is the sudacreme for? I assume the brandy is as you might use for humans??

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 9:08 pm Post subject:
We had two cockerels who fought to the death, and the one on deaths door had 1 1/2 minatures of brandy and the wounds were cleaned and then plastered with sudacreme. Not sure how vetty that is, but it heals babies bums so quickly it did the trick. It is good for wounds and sores. We have used it on combs and wattles too with success.

Marigold123

Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 1:09 am Post subject:

Hypercal tincture is excellent for healing just about anything sore, itchy or damaged skin. It's basically a mother tincture of hypericum (St John's Wort - Rockrose?) and Calendula (English Marigold), preserved in a mixture of water and brandy. You use a few drops in a small glass of water, like Bach remedies or Rescue Remedy, and dab it on/bathe wherever it is required. It comes as a cream as well, which is sometimes more appropriate.

Rescue remedy (or Five Flower Remedy - generic) is useful for reviving people and animals in physical or emotional shock, and arnica cream or arnica tablets (homeopathic) dissolved in water are fabulous for soft tissue damage, (cuts, bruising, internal or external). It heals things in half the time, and is also good for shock.

Lavender essential oil is also amazing for burns and bruises in people. I don't know if there's any reason why you wouldn't use it on poultry. It's one of the few oils that is completely safe for use on the skin, and shouldn't hurt them if they peck at it.

Also, Bugs, I wanted to ask how you do the straw thing with chickens. Is there a particular technique to getting the straw in? I'd read that you could drown birds if you try to pour liquid directly into their beaks, (or is that just fledgelings?) People obviously do it with oil for blockages and suchlike, but I was wondering how you know you've got it in the right place?

Oh, and what does the cider vinegar do?

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 1:23 am Post subject:

[quote="Bugs"]Alison, really sorry to keep asking questions (but you know, "fool for five minutes" etc)...what is the sudacreme for?

quote]

In the Army, I found Sudacreme was used extensively for rapid healing of any soft tissue damage, such as the "burgen burns", caused by long distance running with a heavy rucksack, also to heal blistered feet, as well as for sweat rash in the groin, or just about any skin condition!

Gertie

Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 2:50 pm Post subject:

Hey there are some good suggestions here - we've always got plenty of brandy in the house - will have to tell Lundy not to drink it all.

We have Sudacreme in our horse first aid box. We've got syringes (without needles!) for flushing out wounds that our vet let us have. Have got some vegetable oil, only thing missing is on Marigold's list, but I do have some rescue remedy somewhere.

Our horse first aid box used to get a few laughs - always had a bag of disposable nappies (foot abcesses), gaffer tape and cloth money bags from the bank amongst the usual stuff.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 3:19 pm Post subject:

Marigold123 wrote:

Also, Bugs, I wanted to ask how you do the straw thing with chickens. Is there a particular technique to getting the straw in? I'd read that you could drown birds if you try to pour liquid directly into their beaks, (or is that just fledgelings?) People obviously do it with oil for blockages and suchlike, but I was wondering how you know you've got it in the right place?

When our Treacle had a compacted crop there were a few things suggested. One was to try and make her sick but apparently they can choke to death! We decided to feed her some sunflower oil and massage her crop over a few days. She wasn't force fed, the secret it to get the oil into her beak and she happily swallows it. The easiest way is with a small plastic pipette or a straw.

Pick up chicken and hold firm in one hand. Suck up oil in a straw and put finger over the top end to stop oil draining out. Gently hold wattles under beak and hopefully the beak opens. Place straw at the side of beak at take finger off the end and a little oil enters the mouth and hen swallows. Carry on a few times and then massage crop gently for a few minutes.

Of course hen flaps a fair bit, oil goes everywhere so wear old clothes, but she recovered from quite a solid crop after a week of this and passed some very fibrous droppings.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 6:07 pm Post subject:

Marigold123 wrote:

I've read that about drowning too

As far as I know it's a question of getting the liquid far back enough - perhaps DarrenG or someone else with lots of chicken knowledge can help with more details.

Apart from what Treacodactyl said, if it doesn't open its beak when you *gently* tug the wattles, you might be able to squeeze the sides of the beak (again quite gently) to encourage it to open. Then you need to get in quick.

It all sounds quite cruel and it is very distressing (not half as distressing as it is for the chicken though

); but in an emergency, well. And in the end I'm glad we did it and I don't begrudge the scratches, multiple changes of clothes or nasty looks from Treacle

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 8:28 pm Post subject:
How did you get so scratched. When we have to treat a chicken one person sits, holding the chicken firmly around the middle, pinning the feet onto the lap, and the wings to the side, while the other holds the head with one hand and does the necessary with the other.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 05 8:41 pm Post subject:

Out of our three hens, one's just grumpy but can be held and one will happily jump on my lap and sit on my shoulder. One, who is very large for her breed and exceptionally strong, is the one who gets ill! When she scratches around the garden she easily shoves bricks to one side.

Even a vet who only deals with birds had to resort to the Vulcan hen grip.

If you pick her up, place her on your lap and take care with her wings she can be held ok. It's also funny how she grips your fingers just like a baby grabs them.

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