Bumblefoot bumbling

One of our chickens, Snowflake (also known as Crazy White Girl) has developed a mild case of bumblefoot. It's our first case, and we want to do the right thing. Step One: research! It's amazing - there are a LOT of tried and true ways to deal with this, and they are all right, and they are all different.

This is a place for me to keep my notes, and hopefully to share them with anyone else who is seeking more information on bumblefoot.

About Bumblefoot

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/07/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning.html
"Bumblefoot,  also known as “plantar pododermatitis,” is an infection that is found on the bottom of the feet and sometimes between the toes of chickens. Left untreated, serious cases can be fatal."

Causes:
"Bumblefoot can be caused by a cut, scrape or injury to the foot pad, commonly occurring from a splintered roost or repetitive, heavy landings from heights or poor litter management (dirty shavings). The compromised skin allows an entry point for bacteria (eg: staphylococcus), which can then lead to a pus-filled abscess.  A less common cause of bumblefoot is a vitamin A deficiency. Failure to treat bumblefoot timely can result in the spread of the infection to the bones and tendons and even death" -Kathy Shea Mormino aka The Chicken Chick

TRICIDE-Neo

Add contents of one package to a gallon of DISTILLED water.

https://www.pondrx.com/products/16165.html
https://www.pondrx.com/pages.php?pageid=13
http://www.koiacres.com/koi-acres-products/tricide-neo/faq.html
http://www.koiacres.com/Koi-Acres-Products/tricide-neo/dosing.html
http://www.koiacres.com/
ordered: 9/15/13

(warning - gross pix)
http://www.moleculartpharma.com/www.moleculartpharma.com/Home.html

"We rinse their feet before the dip, clean with a paper towel if necessary.  Rinse again after the 7 minute dip.  No wrap or bandages. We mix a small batch of one half gallon and use it for one week as directed in the instructions.  Then we'll mix another batch for the second week."

Oxine

"I order Oxine from Revival animal health by the case and store bottles inside my storage room in house. My spray bottles are kept in my feed shed next to layer house ouut of direct sunlight and are opaque.. I use 1oz for my 500gallon molded duck pond as I fill it. 1/4oz  in a tall spray bottle for disinfection and cleaning food and water containers before rinsing. 1/4 oz in tall spray bottle for cleaning inside poultry houses and shoes . I use Oxine only as preventive during wet weather periods in water (1oz to gallon then half eye dropper for each gallon jug). I use ac vinegar in the drinking water.I got. All my information on Oxine from EPA website, a couple of university websites, shagbark bantams etc.,. I've been incredibly lucky that I. Have not had ny mite or lice in any of my birds in 7 years. No loss of birds to  disease in 5 years of using it. I have never bathed a bird with oxine in water but my ducks do their own thing."

"1/8tsp per gallon for drinking water and duck water"

http://www.amazon.com/Bio-Cide-International-Oxine-AH-Gallon/dp/B000HT7H8W

Duramycin

From: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/386187/duramycin-to-treat-bumble-foot-couple-of-questions
foot has to be soaked in the solution for 5-7 minutes a day(mixed w/ distilled water only), some BYC'ers were soaking twice a day

"Duramycin is nowhere near strong enough to touch a staph infection like bumblefoot. I never give antibiotics for it. Treating it topically works better."

Tylan

Three weeks later, my Cream Brabanter is showing signs of what may be cellutitis in his feet, as well, meaning it's going systemic. I just mixed my Tricide-Neo, but I'm thinking it's Tylan time for him. :< I've never used Tylan, but I just gave him .5 cc down the throat of Tylan 50 Injectable. I did look it up, and Tylan is indeed effective against Staph.

Vetericyn

Traumeel

?
http://www.amazon.com/Heel-Inc-HEEL-USA227009-Traumeel/dp/B0006MQ47A

Poultrypedia

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
Powdered forms of Penicillin in food or water are less difficult to administer but are more designed for digestive tract infections, and are not likely to be as effective for Bumblefoot as injections. Penicillin is much better than almost any other antibiotic for Bumblefoot, though Baytril is another powerful option.

Back Yard Chickens

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/303829/vet-suggestion-for-non-invasive-bumblefoot-cure/40

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/322241/bumblefoot-surgery-link-with-pics

regular Neosporin

So avoid lidocaine and other -caine ointments
"I would NOT recommend triple antibiotic because a lot them contain a "..cain" ingredient and it seems that is toxic to chickens"

Bandaging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yik1PtRgaU8
Vet Wrap
also,

Chicken Shoe

https://www.etsy.com/listing/106158021/1-neoprene-chicken-shoe?ref=listing-shop-header-0
About The Chicken Shoe:
Aspects of the Shoe:
-Made out of Neoprene (wet suit material).
-Closed-cell rubber material helps keep out moisture
-Provides cushioning
-Has a rubber grip bottom to prevent slips
-Helps keep bandages and medicine against the foot

Encouragement:

"the ones that i treated with tri cide neo that went away were so small. Like the kind if you pick the scab off, nothing is really there but a tiny hole. no plug or anything really. yes, I have done the surgery many times with a great success rate. Just from experience i can tell which one is to do which. Hey, try the tri cide neo and if it doesnt work then do the surgery. what else do you have to lose? I have also soaked off the scab and not found a plug because it was small like that. I squeezed neosporin into the little hole and gauzed and wrapped it and they have healed fine too."

Treating Snowflake's Foot

Our white Leghorn chicken, Snowflake, seems to have a mild case of bumblefoot. I'm trying here to keep track of what I've done. My research and notes are in another blog entry.

Update so far: Snowflake's foot seems to be doing better. I have been soaking it in epsom salts, and massaging it with olive oil. The pad continues to stay soft with no hard core.

Snowflake, chillaxin' in the bucket of Epsom salt soak

We discovered the bumblefoot because Snowflake was just dirty. We'd noticed that everyone else had nice clean fluffy butts, yet hers is just dirty. We also noticed that the fluffs underneath her wings were getting dirty too. So we caught her, and checked her out, and examined her feet, and yikes. There it was, like a cursed pirate... The Spot.

Day One

Found the dreaded black spot
Washed and soaked her foot.
Actually, we washed and soaked the entire chicken. She seemed to really enjoy it. She was one dirty bird.
Removed dot with sterilized exacto knife.
Poked a bit, but did understand how deep to poke, and decided to err on the side of caution
Let her run around outside to dry.
Did research

That evening, re-soaked her foot in epsom salts.
Wrapped with gauze pad, triple anti-biotic ointment, and medical tape
Did research

Day 2

The pad was warm and swollen, and I was worried.

This is Day two, after soaking and rubbing off the medical tape glue-residue

Removed the medical tape. The glue from the tape and dirt made her toes look really black and gross.
Washed her feet in soapy water in a bucket
Soaked her feet in epsom salts in the bucket (she likes this)
I used olive oil to rub the rest of the tape-glue off (didn't have vet-wrap on hand - now I do)
Did more research


It was also recommended that her feathers might like some olive oil rubbed on, to help with the dirty-bird thing she had going on. I also rubbed down her big floppy Foghorn-leghorn comb. She liked that, too.
No wrap.

Day 3

The pad is MUCH less warm, still slightly swollen.

This is Day Three with the reduced swelling

Soaked her feet in soapy water.
Soaked her feet in epsom salts for about 12 minutes.
Massaged her foot with olive oil, rubbed the rest on her comb and on her under-butt-feathers (I'm sure there is a technical term for them).

She really gets relaxed with all this spa-treatment stuff!

To be continued...........

Despicable Purple Minion in the Bakery Costume: The Faux Cupcakes

So the work continues on the Despicable Me Purple Minion costume for DragonCon 2013. My idea for the costume is to be a not-so-evil Purple Minion that works in the bakery. I'll have my big purple google-eyed minion head, an apron, and a cupcake bandolier (that was Quinn's idea).

I'll also have a Jam-gun that shoots the Jam-antidote (but not actually shoots jam - that would be messy). One of the cupcakes will go on the end of my Jam-gun. My dear hubby, Ken, is working on these wee little electronics that boggle my brain, but will make the Jam-gun light up and make noise. Crazy!

Let me preface this part with SAFETY FIRST! Work Outside if you can!!! Wear nitrile gloves. The components of this part of the project SMELL and emit FUMES. Don't get the stuff on your skin.

On to the Cupcakes!

I found this article on Instructables about making fake cupcakes. But I had my concerns about using spackle for the icing. The costume will probably get some knocking-aound, and I think of spackle as heavier, more fragile, and prone to crack.

The Wrappers

Serendipitously, I found these plastic gift-holder-cups being sold off at our local gaming shop in Burlington NC (:::waves "Hello" to HyperMind!:::). The "wrappers" are huge, but they so absolutely say "Cupcake wrapper!!!" The tags on the bottoms said they were from Michael's Craft Store.

The Cake

The first thing we did is filled the wrappers with "Great Stuff" foam. Basically, Great Stuff is foam in a can, you spray it thru the included tube, it expands, and then hardens. You use it to seal odd-shaped holes, or around plumbing.

We filled the cupcakes about 2/3 full, since from previous experience we knew there would be some expansion. We let them cure for a week or so - basically because I was too chicken to get to the "icing" without Ken helping me.

The Icing

We decided to use white silicone caulk for the icing. 
Our first attempt at icing was based on some mold-making info Ken had researched. Caulk has such a long dry-time, and we read that if you add cornstarch to the caulk, it would decrease dry-time. You can color the caulk with food coloring or acrylic paint. You can use paint thinner to thin the caulk.

Here is some more info for you on working with silicone from Make Magazine and from Instructables.

Ken carving the top of the cupcakes to reshape them a bit.

We gathered everything we thought we'd need to "ice" the foam cupcakes with silicone caulk outside on the back table. We had piping bags at the ready, with duct-tape-reinforced icing tips (NOT to be reused for food afterwards!!). We had cornstarch, acrylic paint for color, paint thinner for thinning the caulk, baggies to mix in, duct tape, a newspaper-covered cardboard surface. We wore nitrile gloves (two by two, hands of blue).

Cupcakes, ready to get iced!

Attempt #1, the FAIL

Working on the principle that less air = slower drying time, we were going to mix acrylic craft paint for color into the caulk in the baggie, then transfer it to the waiting icing bag with a star-tip already set up, and reinforced with duct tape.

We added some paint in with the caulk in the baggie. I started adding pink, but we bumped that up to red to get the right pink color.

And.... dang. The caulk started to harden and solidify IN the bag. We added some paint thinner to the baggie to try to thin the caulk some, and that did NOT work. We had a big pink squishy gob of bubblegum in a baggie, leaking paint thinner. There was NO WAY this stuff would go thru a piping tip. Fail.

Attempt #2: The Success

With the silicone caulk in the caulk-gun, we put a plastic star-tip on the nose of the caulk, and reinforced that with duct-tape. And just iced with white icing. It looks like whipped cream. DON'T lick it!

Take note: although the "drying time" with caulk is something like 12 hours, the "working time" is pretty quick!!! Ice one cupcake at a time, then decorate it, or the stuff will NOT stick.

The decorations on my cupcakes are plastic fruit I got off eBay. Some of the strawberries were cut in half. The "sprinkles"  are bits cut from some random craft foamie sheet.

One tube of caulk was enough for 3 giant cupcakes plus the fiasco-in-the-baggie. I need to hop out and get another tube of caulk for the rest of the cupcakes.

Wendy's "Heroes of Cosplay" Rant

With DragonCon 2013 looming close, and the final push to finish a new costume and brush up my old ones, I was looking forward to SyFy channel's new show called "Heroes of Cosplay."

Several days ago, my friend Todd B Lacey had asked on Facebook if we thought he could be a Hero of Cosplay. I read his question when he first wrote it, knowing he must be referencing the show, and I thought "He sure does a LOT of really good creative cosplay - Maybe so!"

Then I thought - gee, I sure know a LOT of Cosplayers who are really awesome at what they do.

Like Red Dragon Lord & Red Dragoness
http://red-dragon-lord.deviantart.com/
Like The Chainmail Chick.
http://thechainmailchick.deviantart.com/
Like Marzipan Cosplay
http://www.cosplay.com/member/105827/costumes/

There is a whole slew of others - mostly of the people I go to conventions with, and that is the only place I get to see them. I'm lucky that my job as a Henna Artist brings me to these places. I love it so much, I even go to DragonCon even when I'm not working there. My youngest has discovered cosplay, and recently won junior division 1st Place at ConTemporal 2013 as a Steampunk Minion, crossing the Minions from Despicable Me with the Steampunk genre.

We do it because it's FUN. We do it because we enjoy the creativity. And who doesn't get a buzz when you make someone smile? My biggest cosplay buzz is wearing my Faerie costumes, and that 3 year old little girl who is absolutely enchanted when I sprinkle her with Faerie Dust glitter.

I saw several posts, and one particular post by the The 501st Legion and others about the REAL Heroes of cosplay - the ones that wear costumes, portray characters, and use that power for GOOD - like cheering up the kids in children's hospitals.


Then I saw the show (finally) and came to my conclusion.


If the show was about actual construction, design, and resourcefulness, I would enjoy it. If it was about creating the character, about taking the time to understand the history of the character, about inventing the character, about learning new skills to create the things you need for the character's costume? It could be a good show.

But what I saw was pettiness and that typical TV "drama" crap that is everywhere it doesn't belong. It's on everything from landscaping shows to cooking shows to the freakin' Weather Channel. It's not necessary, it's not "Real Life", and it's certainly not MY reality. I hope it's not yours.

In the first show I saw more than one reference to how fitting to the female "model" of slenderness and BOOBS is the only way to do cosplay as a girl (WTF? Don't get me started.) Are you telling me that people above a certain size can't cosplay? Well, at least Totoro won a prize in the contest covered on the show. Ha.

One segment showed how they were going to created a full bust model of a girl in order to make horns that went on her forehead. Really? Overkill much?

Over and over I heard references to how much money people spent, and how you spend MONEY to do this, and how much MONEY you could win (like, wow, a $1000 grand prize!) Sure the money would be nice, but they made it sound like it was going to equal The Price Is Right of old.

Some of the funnest costumes I see at conventions are the least expensive - there is an entire group of costumes made from painted cardboard boxes.

Speaking of money spent (or in this case, not spent)... my cosplay focus is on Creativity. And Thrift. And Fun. My best Faerie dresses are made from clothing from the thrift store re-sewn and cobbled together. The teeth for my Purple Minion costume are made from a Mr. Clean sponge, glue, and paint.

I will admit to spending money on the Faerie Wings I wear. They are handmade by another artist who makes wings so skillfully I'd rather give her the money to encourage her wing-making behavior, because she is AWESOME at making wings. Allyson Barlow of Little Wing Faerie Art is amazing.


So overall? They sure have a lot to live up to for this show.
Hate it already? There's even a petition on Change.org entitled "Heroes of Cosplay: Either change the show to represent Cosplayers well or get rid of it entirely." I signed it.

The article on the SyFy network's page is a good read: http://www.syfy.com/heroesofcosplay/episodes

I hope it gets better. There is so much COOL stuff about cosplay that should be shared. 

Things I Learned From My Trip to the Beach

My unfiltered well water is better than your filtered tap water. Like, so much better, that I drank so much I had to pee all night my first night home.

There really is a fish called the Sarcastic Fringehead, and no, I don't think he just watches back episodes of Fringe and holds up a "Sarcasm" sign, but I'm not 100% on that.

Ancient tribal people did really mean things - just go to Ripley's Believe it or Not and see all the freaky ways people made scary tools to make bad juju for each other. I'm not sure if they are still doing mean things, or if Ripley put a stop to that by taking away all their mean tools.

When you walk through the Spinning Tunnel of Doom, keep your eyes on your kids - you'll be a whole lot less affected by the vertigo.

Why get a pedicure before you go to the beach? Walking in the sand sloughs off all that freaky dead skin off your feet for FREE. And any nail polish you happened to still have on.

Wet shells are heavier than dry shells. A bucket of shells is heavy. Several buckets of shells is very heavy. But hey, I'm going to make a really cool mosaic walkway for my chicken house out of the metric ton of big shell pieces I hauled home.

Don't ever assume that the condo you are renting comes with a blender. After drawing her a picture, I learned from the really sweet Housekeeping lady that this is called a "licuadora". (I guess because when you fill it with fruit and liquor you adore it.) And also that you can be pretty sure that taped-shut box with a blender in it at the Wal-Mart was only used once or twice. We did the noble thing and instead of returning ours to join the others abandoned, we proudly brought it home like a trophy.

If you don't do the thingies in order at MagiQuest, it doesn't count, and you have to go back and do them again. Some magical creature probably told me that, several times, but that place is so cacophonous it's hard to tell. It makes me feel like I'm in an interstellar bar in an episode of "Firefly" and people are shouting at me in Mandarin.

Always ask the dudes at the front desk where to eat. We did, and they both gave us the same name of a restaurant. It was an expensive buffet (a family of 2 adults and 2 children was right around $100), but everything we put in our mouths was divine.
http://www.originalbenjamins.com/

Freyr the Roo has an Insecure Morning

Freyr the grey Silkie-roo has learned to crow in the morning. When he first started doing this, he clearly didn't have his roo-voice yet. He sounded like a cross between a teenager with a voice-change happening, and goose playing a party-tooter, badly. Some mornings he gets through the whole rooster theme-song, sometimes not. Some days I don't think he gets the sheet music in time, so he just makes something up. Some days he likes to mix things up and transposes the middle notes. Today's performance sounded sad and insecure. It sounded like he was saying "I'm just not that suuuuuuuure" over and over. I hope he has a better day and all those girls are nice to him.

Freyr the Persian-Kittenosaur Rooster

Nothing like playing around in iPod-land to make me feel dumb. For some stupid reason, recent pix are no longer transferring magically to my computer. So here I am in iTunes, trying to remember how it works. Wish me luck. (I need an Apple-smart person to hold my hand, is what I really need)

One of my favorite memories of being at the beach with my boys was the time that the sky opened up and POURED. Everyone else packed up their gear and fled the beach (as if they weren't already WET!) but we stayed and played in the water in the rain - it was glorious!

Dear All The People That I Know That Have My Cell Phone Number,

Please stop sending me photo texts and asking if I got them. I don't actually *have* a texting plan, so there really is no telling where those pix go. I think the pixels may actually end up in some distant picture-purgatory where they are partying with retired 8-bit characters.

Maybe in the future I will find my way to a phone that can play like that, but for now, it's Desktop, iPod, and the Verizon Dinosaur phone for me (but it's purple!!). This phone is from before 2007, with the cheapest plan you could imagine - so cheap, they don't even offer it anymore; so ancient, it confuses the guys at the Verizon store.

I only text when I'm at DragonCon, because you can't hear a freakin' thing there, and it's the only way to locate my other freaky friends who like to do the same freaky stuff I do. And even then, I pay an extra chunk of change for that special texting privilege. But it's so worth it.

So until my life changes to where it becomes worth it to shell out more bucks for more phone plan, please just Facebook me. Or email me.

Thank you, this has been a Public Service Announcement.

Bleuets Sauvages

This year we have so many blueberries!

The original people who built our house planted them and they grow bigger every year. I'm so glad the deer just walk right by 'em! And I could tell they do - there is a sapling right behind the patch where you could tell a stag was rubbing his horns.

The rainy conditions we had for so long this Spring were right for a monster crop. It came about 3 weeks late because of all the rain. So far we've picked about a gallon I think? Two full quart bags for the freezer, one monster cobbler, and another batch in the fridge. And in a couple days they'll be another haul. I'm guessing 2 or 3 more gallons still to come. That is a LOT of blueberries!

I love that "wild blueberries" is "bleuets sauvages" in French. When I lived in Canada, I learned a lot of what I called "grocery store French". My pronunciation was laughable, but my visual vocabulary got quite good. "Bleuets Sauvages" cracked me up so much because... savage blueberries! 

Thanks, Terry for helping me pick yesterday - and you'll have to try the cobbler when it's fresh next time!

Despicable Purple Minion in the Bakery Costume

Working on my Despicable Purple Minion in the Bakery Costume for Dragon*Con. I cut the brim off the hard plastic NY Yankees batters cap (yay thrift store!) and drilled holes for airflow. Over this will fit the purple wig and the goggles/eyes. That way I don't have to worry about wig & goggles & the cupcake fascinator - it will all be a single hat I can put on.

Took apart the cheapo water-blaster, sanded all the parts for painting. (Found out that as an actual water-pistol it would have been a fail - it was damaged inside!) But add the faux jelly-jar and LED lights and the cupcakes... oh yeah!

We have Great Stuff and Silicone and giant plastic cupcake muffin-papers... I suspect I really need to take up Quinn's idea and have a Cupcake Bandolier.

The question is: Sew up the frou-frou apron, or buy one from someone on Etsy who loves to sew up frou-frou aprons? By the time I hunt and find the right fabric, and sew it, and frustrate over it, I'm sure the price would be the same. And I saw one I think I love... I really do love to make my own costumes, but buying a piece pre-made from another artist can't be so bad, can it?

Besides I can always wear it when I'm making WAFFLES!!!! (Last night I made potato-pancake waffles! OMG sour creme & applesauce, where are you?!?)

Treehouse Style & a Chicken Coop Door

Woke up this morning, started worrying about finishing hanging the door to the baby-chicken coop, got tired of worrying about worrying about it again, so I did it, before coffee. And I did some other chicken-chores. Of course it was only going to take a little time. Boy was I wrong. I came in for a shower and lunch after 2pm. But I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

I grew up with a dad who did some pretty awesome furniture and fine woodworking. When you think of that style of furniture crafting, think how precise and pretty that needs to be. You measure stuff. Precisely. And allow for the kerf. I took woodshop twice in Art school, and also worked Set Design & Construction in college. I know how to do all that stuff. Half the fun of treehouse style is breaking the rules.

When we were kids, we built this awesome treehouse back in the woods from construction scraps. You see, that's "treehouse style"... a lot more eyeballing, guesswork, making it up as you go, and using the scrap that fits. Back then, we used nails, because that’s what we picked up off the ground around the construction sites. Nowadays I’m armed with 2 cordless drills - one for pilot holes and one for screws. And I’m loving this cordless circular saw!

The baby-coop is much more treehouse style, with its mash-up of old bunk-bed and swimming-pool pieces. The door is made from scraps from the bed-slats, wood scraps, and scraps of hardware cloth from the big coop. The frame of the bed is the roof, the corners are uprights from the pool, and the whole thing is wrapped in chicken wire. (I do plan to add some hardware cloth for better security).

It's all painted purple now, and it looks more cohesive!

Chainmail Chick and her gang of chicks came by several times to inspect. I think they approve? Freyr kept ducking into the baby coop to snack at the baby-chick feeder, bringing his women around one at a time, like it was some verboten date-night hang-out. (Shh... they actually serve the same food as the big house in there.)

Yesterday Freyr charmed us with some of his crowing antics. I actually had time to run in the house and get the kids to come out and see him perform. He really has improved. I hope he gets the hang of it soon. He sure has been busy pursuing the ladies. I think he’s forming a special bond with Mocha - and she seems to like him, too. But that doesn’t stop him from chasing the rest of the girls around, too.

So tonight the babies sleep in the baby coop, with a door that closes on hinges. Which I built and installed. Myself.

Key Lime Waffles? Oh yes I did.

Ingredients: 

One Box of Pillsbury Key Lime Premium Cookie Mix (I think this is a Seasonal item from Target stores)
One cup all-purpose White Flour
One cup Ground Almonds (I get this at Trader Joe’s)
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
One cup full-fat Ricotta Cheese
1 stick of Butter, softened
1 tablespoon Coconut Oil
2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 fresh Eggs
2 ½ cups Water

Directions:

Step 1: Mix dry ingredients:

1 box Key Lime Cookie Mix
One cup all-purpose White Flour
One cup Ground Almonds
1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Step 2: Add wet ingredients:
Add Butter, Ricotta, Coconut oil, vanilla, and eggs

Slowly add the water, ½ cup at a time, or your mixer may kick it all out of the bowl.

Step 3: Cook on a waffle iron!