Tonight, Olly Astro hung out in the bedroom with the whole crew for a while.
She is doing really well post-surgery, and getting pretty bored in her kennel.
Hanging out in the bedroom was a nice change of pace, and she enjoyed exploring the room.
Then she finally settled down in the very corner of the bed, and declared that her “nest.”
Let’s recap the current in-the-house situation, shall we?
Simon is taking the madness in stride, as long as he can perch right on top of me, a safe distance from any feathered family.
In other news, I work in a short building between two tall buildings. Right now the two tall buildings are having a post-it war of sorts. On Monday, I plan to join in with a colorful display of Space Invaders.
Lastly, we’re rescuing two muscovy ducks on Saturday, if all goes well. There were three muscovies dumped at a park and one has already been killed by a predator. Another is injured but both are apparently friendly and hopefully easy to catch. So we’ll have some new kids around here for a bit, if we can catch them.
That should add a little more fun to the madness here, don’t you think?
Olly Astro is doing really well tonight. She is eating and drinking and talking like a champ.
Here’s a little video of Olly tonight just before bed time. You can see her little chicken butt is naked, but I haven’t looked close enough to see the surgery staples. She has been really good about letting me gingerly pick her up and give her shots for her antibiotics and pain/anti-inflammatories. And she’s so LIGHT now! I can’t believe how light she is. In the video, when she sees herself in the video she tells herself to “go away, chicken!” That growl is a complaint about having another strange chicken around. Pretty funny that even when she’s not feeling her best, she still makes time to tell the “stranger chicken” in the video to go away.
That’s our update for tonight. Time to get Lester Leroy and Flapper in the bath.
OH! We have a date to deliver George to his forever sanctuary now. George will travel to his forever home on Saturday, March 12th. They even agreed to let him bring his girlfriend, “Ms. Atra Turf,” along with him. Hee hee. He’s going to be so happy there. I just know it. I can’t wait until he is back with other geese. Nothing against Ms. Astra Turf, but I hope he meets a nice goose girl and settles down. Or maybe just a great wingman to enjoy the bachelor’s life together.
Flapper had some fun today, playing outside in the pool and splashing Petunia. George has decided the pool is HIS now, and he protects his AstroTurf, so he followed Flapper into the pool. Luckily he is a good goose, but Flapper was not about to share. So I had to kick George out until Flapper was done. Flapper is just about to start his 3rd month of heart medicine, and he seems to be feeling good. He definitely tires easily, but he is happy and stable and sweet as ever.
Flapper had a good time splashing, and then Lester Leroy came out for a quick swim as well.
Then George had his pool back, and spent some quality time with his AstroTurf.
On Tuesday, our chickie Olly Astro will have surgery. Also, Lester Leroy will go to the vet as well, for a recheck on his bone infection. Please send good thoughts for Olly. We hope the surgery goes smoothly. Fingers crossed!
It was a busy weekend here at Flapper’s house. Poor Olly Astro, who just got over another respiratory infection, now has yolk coelomytosis. That is the same illness that killed Phoebe Kay years ago. Luckily I think we caught Olly’s illness sooner, and she was on antibiotics for the respiratory infection, so hopefully she will have a better recovery. She will have surgery on Tuesday. Yolk coelomytosis is a common problem in egg-laying hens and ducks. It is an infection that causes egg yolks to form without shells, and to build up inside along with fluid. I hope she does well on Tuesday. She sure deserves to be healthy and happy for awhile after her rough start in life. NOTE: Her care is paid for, so no donations are needed.
Speaking of rough starts, Lester Leroy came outside with Flapper today to hang out in the aviary and swim in the baby pool.
They took turns in the pool and ate some lettuces while soaking up the sunshine.
Lester allowed me to take a few photos of his amazing hairdo. Lester is a crested cayuga domestic duck. His crest is not very big, but it is pretty cute.
Isn’t it fancy? It even blows in the wind.
I think George has a little bit of hairdo envy.
In other news, we found a new place in Seattle that sells good quality chicken feed and supplies. Portage Bay Grange. They also sell duck and rabbit food, and are looking into getting us Mazuri food.
We heard about them at the vet’s office and went to take a look. While we don’t really like to see any place selling baby chicks, they are doing it as responsibly as it can be done. For people who are going to eat eggs, this is a better way to get them than from a factory farm. The bad part is that 1/2 of these little chicks are likely male, and there isn’t any use for roosters on an urban farm. Roosters are even illegal in Seattle. Next time you eat eggs, ask yourself “what happened to the baby boy chicks?”
Still, they’re awfully cute little babies. Adorable even. The ones with the puffy heads are silkies, like our rescued fluffy muppet Racquel L’Oreal who passed away last June.
It was a beautiful Sunday in Seattle, and we enjoyed it to the fullest.
Ducks are not really that fond of dogs, but we received this adorable photo from our neighbor whose co-worker is fostering an old dog named Buster Posey.
Buster is an older dog who needs a forever home. He is in Seattle. Buster Posey is about 8-years-old and a parti-colored cocker spaniel. You can read more about his love of pillows and his prancing talents at: http://www.olddoghaven.org/adoptable.htm#fosters
We had an adopted older dog a few years ago and she was the best dog ever. Taking a chance on an older dog is a great way to make a difference. See the other pups looking for forever homes at Old Dog Haven, and pass it on.
George’s foot has taken a long time to heal, but it’s getting really close. It will never be completely healed, because he has a broken dislocated arthritic toe bone that is an old injury. But the bottom pad of his foot started out with infected tissue and a scab that was well over an inch in diameter with a smaller scab area (left). After surgery to clean it up, it started to improve. In early December the foot was much flatter and the remaining scab was down to under an inch (right).
Here George shows off one of the many bandages he had on his foot while it was healing.
Now the bottom scab is less than a centimeter long. In this new photo the scab is covered with Nolvalsan cream.
Every night and every morning since George arrived we have put chlorhexadine spray and Nolvalsan cream on his foot. That’s how long it takes to treat a foot injury in a bird. It’s great to see his foot is finally, finally almost healed. But it’s so tough to be patient for that last little bit of scab to finally be gone. C’mon scab, be gone!
As you can see, a bum foot doesn’t slow George down. He has been making these test flights for weeks now. I don’t have the heart to tell him that he’s too fat to fly. Oops… it’s called “high wing load” not fat.
Little Lester Leroy is a little bit of a biter. I don’t blame him a bit as he has been through a lot in his life.
I’m pretty concerned that he may not be “fix-able.” His right leg is bent and stuck at an odd angle. I looked at his x-rays today and it isn’t broken or dislocated, so it’s just weird.
It’s constantly sticking up at an odd angle, and it can’t feel comfortable like that. I guess I’m still hoping that the antibiotics treating the bone marrow infection can help him, but that leg looks bad to me. I didn’t want to bend it or try any physical therapy until after I’d seen the x-rays, and tonight I tried to maneuver the leg a little bit. It doesn’t seem extremely painful but it’s not comfortable. I bent and held it down in a normal position for a bit, but it just pops back up when you let it go.
Whichever way you look at him, that right leg is always sticking up funny. Our friend Peggy said, “Maybe he just always has a question to ask.” Ha ha… “Waiter? Excuse me, waiter!? More lettuces please. Hello!? Waiter!”
He really is a cute kid. It’s unfortunate that he has been through so much. He’s missing chunks of feathers and has a few nodules on his neck that are probably old wounds. I was hoping that at the very least he could recover and live a happy life from here on out. But if he can’t get to the point of walking or even sitting normal… I’m not sure what his prognosis will be. He’s not super friendly like Flapper is, so it’s not likely he will enjoy being around me. He does enjoy Flapper’s company for now though. Right now he just needs to take his antibiotics and eat and be good, and he’s doing that really well. So for now, he’s doing his best.
In other news, George went to the vet today for a check-up. I wasn’t sure he was feeling 100%, and we needed to have his blood tested anyway before he can go to his forever sanctuary, so we took him for a check-up today. I think he’s fine, I just worry too much. George is as sweet as ever and a very good goose. His foot is still improving and the scab is down to a very shallow tiny scab of less than 1cm long. In a few more weeks it should finally finally finally be healed. Whew!
Olly Astro has yet another respiratory infection. When it rains, it pours! This is Seattle, after all. If you remember, she came to us as a rescue after being treated for eight weeks for pneumonia. She has had two more infections since then, and this week she got another one. It looks like she’ll always be susceptible to respiratory infections since she had a really bad one. Maybe she has some lung damage, I don’t know. But she is responding to antibiotics and doing well. Her latest trick is running right into the house when I open the door, like she owns the place.
Lastly, Flapper was extra sweet tonight. He must have missed me today, because I sat down with him and he snuggled for over an hour.
I hate to share photos of myself, but you just have to see this teddy bear snuggler. He cannot be contained.
He loves to be as close as he can be, and to tuck his beak and snooze and chat.
Introducing Lester Leroy. That is his full, formal name. You may call him Lester.
He takes himself pretty seriously, so it is important that you not make fun of his hairdo. It is a very serious hairdo.
Lester Leroy is eating well and sleeping soundly in his playpen. He and Flapper can see each other and chat as well. I thought they might stay up late chattering, but they have dozed off and are mostly quiet except for the occasional call and response.
Flapper: Boop bop?
Lester: Boop, yes.
Here is a short video of the new kid chatting away. Flapper’s voice is slightly louder and deeper. Can you tell the difference? I sure can. Lester Leroy is much smaller than Flapper, so it makes sense that his voice is smaller too.
Thanks for choosing a great name, Lester. Bah bah bop.
The new rescue kid is here. He is a he, and he is a domestic crested cayuga duck. He has osteomyelitis — a bone infection — from not being treated for nearly 2 weeks after being attacked by a dog. So his owners let him suffer without treatment for at least 10-days and then they dumped him at the Seattle Animal Shelter. Nice job, jerks!
I was hoping he could be outside, so I set up a space next to George for him. But when I saw him, I realized he would need to be in the house for awhile. He can’t walk, and his legs don’t bend right. He’s in pain and sits off to one side kind of funny. But if the antibiotics help, he might re-gain use of his legs and do okay. We hope he improves. He is eating and drinking well, and talking with Flapper, so that’s good. He also has pain meds.
Here you can see how his leg sticks out funny. The other one doesn’t work well either. We sure hope they improve as the antibiotics fight off the infection.
I didn’t think my bedroom needed another duck, but this guy disagreed. He is SUPER afraid of Simon though, so we put up some towels around two sides of his playpen so he can’t see the furry beast. We don’t blame him for being afraid after he was attacked by a dog. Hopefully he’ll come around in time.
He’s a sweetheart with a super fashionable hairdo. He’s fairly friendly but that might just be because he isn’t feeling well. We’ll see how he does over time. He does talk to me, and also to Flapper, so it’s possible he’s human friendly and has been with other ducks before. He is strongly anti-cat.
For now, we welcome him to the family. We’ll name him tomorrow after he tells us what he wants to be called.
George was having a pretty good day today, but then he realized everything was frozen.
He really wanted to take a swim in the pool, but the pool would not cooperate.
So George had to improvise and pretend to swim. He was pretty good at it.
Good boy, George. It should warm up tomorrow and hopefully your pool will thaw.
After his pretend swim, George had a nice nap on my lap. He is not very much of a lap goose, and you have to catch him to get him to sit with you. But if you’re nice about it, he settles right down and will have a good conversation with you before napping.
