I purchased both Honey and Daisy this year as day-old-chicks. Honey is a Dominique and Daisy is a Speckled Sussex. They joined their sisters and were remarkably easy to raise. Of course, they were my third batch of diddles this year, so my knowledge curve has increased quite a bit. They grew well, had little in the way of serious issues, and were adorable little babies. They were released with the other chicks into the pen with Randy the Rooster and his harem at 9 weeks. Randy accepted them quickly and kept them safe and sound. They were doing great - no problems.
One week later, I was checking the checks for signs of the hateful hen's pecking order games. Everyone was doing great, except for Daisy. She was bloody on the tops of her wings and was missing several feathers. This was something that the hateful hen may or may not have been responsible for as I have baby Muscovy ducks.
Something I didn't know about Muscovy ducks is that baby ducks LOVE to pick feathers off any other bird - or at least my baby Muscovy do. Even Charlie the peacock has had a tail feather removed by force via a baby Muscovy drake. I picked up Daisy and cradled her in my arms and brought her to the chicken hospital. No longer in the basement, the chicken hospital does double-duty as a brooder on the back porch. I have quit even thinking about how absolutely red-neck I am and continue to become. Once there, I slathered her wings with neosporin. I knew she would be okay - that she just needed some time.
One week passed and Daisy's feathers were coming in nicely. After checking on her, I walked down to the chicken yard to see my babies. I brought down a few loaves of bread to treat the birds. As I was picking through the pieces and making them into little bits, I noticed Honey sort of fall over. I checked the other birds and they seemed fine. I picked up Honey and noticed that her head sort of fell over - like if she wore shoes, she would be looking at her shoelaces. I moved her head around gently with my hands and it was as limber as a rubber band. I rushed her to the chicken hospital and placed her gently inside with Daisy.
Daisy immediately pecked the newcomer and I had to swat her away. My darling hubby made an antibiotic water trough and we placed it inside. After checking over Daisy and noticing that she had a perfect daisy on her shoulder where her feathers grew back, we took her down to rejoin her sisters. However, the little Dominique was not getting any better. Although she could still eat, she was having trouble keeping her head up. After the course of the next few hours, she couldn't hold it up at all.After two days of this, holding her head to eat and drink, I was beginning to think that she was not going to make it. I talked to my folks about her problem and they didn't have any advice to offer. I reconciled that my little Dominique would die.
Then about an hour later, my mom called me from my grandma's house. Mamaw had told her that my chicken had limberneck and to give it a dose of honey. I was ready to try anything - so I raced to my medical supplies, pulled out a syringe, removed the needle and poured some honey into a small jar. I slurped up the sticky goodness with the syringe and went outside to dose the little Dominique. My darling hubby held her and I opened her mouth and pushed the plunger on the syringe. She perked up at the taste of the honey. And we placed her inside the hospital. And waited.
Within an hour, she was moving much better and was able to hold her head up for a little while on her own. I, much like my late grandfather, was of the opinion that if a little dose was good another would be better. So, I dosed her again. After this dose, she was up, zipping around, and holding her head up high. I let her sleep in the brooder, and then gave her one more dose the next morning. She was completely recovered. I was a happy, happy camper!
Because I am a natural researcher, I naturally looked up the whole honey-limberneck connection. And surprise, there isn't one! Limberneck is apparently akin to a chicken type of botulism. Most chickens die without the anti-toxin. The toxin is apparently easy for chickens to come into contact with. They can catch it from a fly that's been exposed. Usually, limberneck affects about 40 percent of a flock, I'm counting myself extremely lucky that only two birds were affected - Honey and a little Silkie that didn't make it because I didn't know about the Honey. Everyone else is subjected to daily looks and they're getting used to it. I want to make sure I catch it before it kills.
After my research, I called my Mamaw to tell her that the little chicken, now named Honey, was doing great! She told me her grandma would pick up chickens and dose them with honey for limberneck all the time. After I hung up the phone, laughing that Mamaw said she was going to start charging me for this type of advice, I watched Honey for a few more hours and then brought her back down to meet her sisters. She walked out of my hands and promptly started eating scratch. I was amazed.
Both Daisy and Honey are doing fine now. Both rush to meet me when I bring food in the mornings and both will mill around my feet if I am sitting down there watching the birds. They know they're well cared for - and Honey, especially, seems to want to be extra special friends. People say that chickens are stupid and do not have the same soul and personality that other animals do. Well, I beg to differ. Honey is special - she hitches rides on the feed cans while I walk to the feeders, climbing up my arm to see what I'm doing almost everyday. I place her on the feed can and she sits there, pecking away at pellets, happy as a little clam. While I do love a Daisy, nothing is sweeter than Honey!
Honey, now who would have thought!
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