Friday, August 28, 2009

Olive's first few nights...

We've named our new little Silver Wyandotte "Olive" like a little black olive. She's tiny and sweet, terrified of us human monsters until we're holding her, whereupon she nestles into a calm napping state.
In order to 'sneak her into the roost' with the others the first night, I brought her in and held her in my lap til the others were good and sleepy. They settled nicely on the roost together, but by morning were pecking at her again. So, she's ostracized in her rabbit cage for a few more days - separate from, but close enough to get familiar with the other pullets.

Unfortunately last night I noticed a problem: while holding her I noticed that she breathes with her mouth open slightly, and i could hear a popping clogged sound - stuffy nose. Olive has a cold or some other ailment. I gave her bird vitamins and will do the same to the big girls - now i have to hope it's not anything serious, that she'll get better, and that she won't get the others sick. I may have to give her antibiotics to be safe, but holding out on that.
Such a pain, cuz i just want to start getting them together already, don't want to keep them separated any longer than necessary - especially since we're going camping next weekend!

*UPDATE*
Purchased some antibiotic today - 1 teaspoon per gallon of water for all the girls. Tomorrow we'll try some socializing in a 'neutral' location and hopefully we can get them to hang out together.

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