Chicken Drama

So I am having chicken issues.  I have a drafty, crapola backyard dog breeding shed that I have converted to use temporarily for my chickens.  However, even with a major heat light, I am still having problems with the birds getting too cold?

How cold, you ask?  Cold enough to have to think about prosthetic chicken feet. 

I have 3 house chickens.  All are Belgian Bearded D'Uccles, which is an abominably cute breed with no tolerance to cold.  The rooster gets sniffles if he gets in any kind of a draft or if the house temp drops below 50 degrees. 

Needless to say, the bf is not thrilled about another house chicken.  Much less a house chicken that will grow up to be a full size chicken in less than a year.  Right now, she is about the size of a full grown bantam.  That will change soon.

How did this happen?!---let me fill you in.  I have been losing toenails off of my birds because of the ridiculous cold.  I have taken to locking the girls up 24/7 to keep them out of the snow.  This works most of the time.  Then I feel sorry for them and let them out for an afternoon and someone always gets cold.  The older hens that have made it through a winter do not have problems with anything--they step outside and then come right back in.  It is the babies, like this one, that just do not have the experience to know when too much is too much. 

I think this particular baby got herself wet in the water dish and did not think to get herself dry.  So perhaps she went out and played in the snow while she was wet.  Or stood in the water (despite single digit temps outside) and pecked bits of corn or something out of it.  I don't know.  All I know is that her feet are totally frozen, totally zombie-fied, up to an including about a half inch of her actual LEG. 

Now...if I was not a sucker for chickens, I would just take the machete and end this particular pullet's problems.  If I cannot think of a reasonable solution that will keep her comfortable, I will make the bf do so anyway.  To note: the bf and the dad say chopping block.  I say that the hen is still eating comfortably, drinking water, and has no signs of not wanting to live anymore. 

I have rehabbed a hen from serious, should have ended her life soft tissue injuries to her legs (she has squashed by a dog and could not stand).  I was almost through rehabbing a chick from a seizure injury to her leg when she was eaten by something (GR!!).  So rehab is really not an issue in my mind. 

This is the question: do I want another house chicken? 
A: Not really, but if it necessary fine.  She will HAVE to have a diaper though. 

In my mind, there are a couple of things to consider when trying to make prosthetic feet for a chicken.  First is that the surface area really does not need to be THAT big...just stable. 
1. ease of putting on and removal--means fabric or something soft, like a pencil grip
2. ease of cleaning--nuff said
3.interface with leg--the replacement has to be soft to ensure the comfort of the bird.
With that, I am brainstorming with a super smart mechanical engineering undergrad I know in a couple of hours. 

Picture of prosthetic 1 would NOT upload.  GR x 2.

alyson1derland: One Day...

One day, I shall utter the words, "I am cured!"

The Pause

I finished the week of awfulness today, passing the OPP checkout with a 10/12.  I was beyond gleeful when my head to toe practical yesterday was rescheduled to the weather forecast of snowzilla (which didn't happen, double yay).  I think my physio test went ok but the neuro was definitely *not good*.  The grades are out, but I honestly have not checked and am not in the mood to do so right now.  I know the neuro is going to make me want to curl up in bed and not get out.  Ever.

This week really made me wonder why I am doing this to myself. Medical school is not cool.  It is not fun.  It is a variety of torture in which you cram insane amounts of information into your brain and hopefully spit it out again correctly.  This is difficult enough when your brain works right, much less when your brain is like mine and does not. 

So I am really upset because I am thinking that I will have to remediate neuroanatomy this summer.  There are only two exams in the class, and if I really blew up this one, then there is just no way to recover.  That thought has been really depressing me this week, and it carried over into my clinical skills written.  Just yuck. 

The only slightly good news is that the recovery period from this exam round was really a lot shorter than the previous ones.  I only had one day of having to sleep 20 hours, and albeit grumpy today, was able to pass the last exam ok.  I got my calendar and planner sorted out for the next exam, and touched base with a different (and better) learning advisor to help me work on strategy and whatnot.  (I was having definite issues with the other one!!)

Tomorrow, homework.

The Day

A 6 hour exam today.  Two exams tomorrow.  One on Wednesday and one on Thursday.  My week is crammed full of things that I don't practicularly like. 

I am waffling between fear and quiet determination for the exam this morning.  I am kind of reeling from all the personal drama that has exploded onto my life in the past month, and it is definitely making my Lyme flare, which of course is making school nearly impossible.

I realized the other day that I just do not give up.  Period.  Sometimes I think that habit of stubborness is the only thing that is really getting me through this illness. Oh well. 

Since I need a lot of time before the 8 am exam to get my brain in order, I think I am just going to stay up (that is really, really bad for a lot of reasons...) but f it.  I am not stressed about the rest of the exams, and if I can spend the next six hours combing through my notebooks, I know I will feel better about taking that beast at 8. 

Send me your good thoughts this week.  I so need them.  And as a favor, I will be posting a picture of my hand with the duct tape and Star wars custom cushioning bandages to prevent pen owies for your review.  Sometime.  Hopefully.

Chipping Away

That pretty much describes my day.  I woke up, fed the girls, met my mom as she had some of my meds.  Went to WalMart (and spent way too much money, haha), to my mailbox at school, the bank and then home.  Picked stalls (yay) and fed girls again.  Ate dinner with mom and then she had to leave.  Fooled around on the internet and then finally got cracking on physio.

Winning Weirdness of the Day:
realized I LIKE physio because it reminds of me of physics. :)

Tomorrow may bring a more grammatically correct entry. 

Current Rx

I forgot to post my current Rx:

• 3 shots of 1.2 million units of Bicillin LA per week
• 3 pulses of 400 mg of doxycycline per week
• 3 days of Flagyl (1 continual pulse) once a month (forget exact dose...I <3 Lyme brain!)

Anywho, exam schedule:

• Monday: physio and neuro
• Tuesday: clin skills
• clin skill practical and head to toe practical are also sometime next week, but not up yet :(

You would think that with so much upcoming fun, I would be glued to my homework.  But nooooooo!!! I am suffering from buzy-ness on steroids.  I can't get my brain to *just* chill and think about getting stuff done.  GR.

Lyme Roulette

I spent the weekend curled up in a ball on the couch with my neck and my shoulders on fire.  It was literally everywhere I have my trapezius muscle.  Everywhere. 

I <3 Wikipedia 24/7 bc they always have what I need!

It hurt insanely.  I took otc pain pill after pill, trying to just get the edge of it off.  The amount of pain would not change.  I felt as if there were hooks inserted under my skin and were pulling chunks of tissue off of my back.  I yawned when I took my Bicillin shot because it didn't even come close to how my back felt.  (That, FYI, is insanity.)

I thought about going to the local clinic for some better pain meds.  Then I thought about how it was going to be a total PITA to try and get soemone to believe me.  I thought about calling my regular doctor.  To do so I could have to rotate my head...no.  I would NOT do that. 

So I spent 48 hours with my head and neck swathed in a heating pad, heating blanket, or ice pack, depending on the time.  And then, just as mysteriously as it started, the pain slipped away.  This morning it had dialed itself down from a 15 (in a scale of 1-10) to about a 4.  As I got up and carefully drank coffee and ate some pistachios and a banana, it eased back a bit more.  Now, there is still an occasional twinge, but that inability to move anywhere is gone.

That is the fun of Lyme.  You never know when or where or how it will hit.  As it has been quite some time since I had my last attack like that, I really am wondering about its oh so convenient onset after my doxycycline pulse.  Oh yes. 

As I have four exams coming up next week, I am not even going to consider pulsing doxy again until they are damn well over with.  I honestly cannot be waking up with that magnitude of pain out of the blue.  I can manage if I don't have something absolutely necessary to do, but yick, I am not playing Lyme Roulette! 

Possessiveness

Possession is 9/10 of the law, according to the old saying.  Today, according to my two male dogs, possession of me is most important.  I have a McKenzie Husky and a young Maremma.  The Maremma was supposed to be guarding sheep but liked to follow other dogs home.  His owners dropped him off at their vet with orders to euthanize or whatever.  He is a good guy.  They just both want me, and don't want to share.

Initially I thought it was just a question of dominance quibbling.  My bf pointed out my error....after the yelping, growling, blood spattering (no serious injuries) fight, as I approached the door to the kitchen, the husky got extremely upset.  Keep in mind that the Maremma had used him to mop the floor just a few minutes previously.

I know the husky is very possessive of me in particular...when I had him over visiting some friends, he nipped the little girl on the arm for jumping on me and trying to wrestle.  He had been lying quietly on the floor as I requested both before and after the incident. Another example is putting him to bed.  I have a bed for him at the foot of my bed, and clip him to a tie there for the night.  If I am not in bed, he will not settle down and be quiet.  He will yowl, pace and generally make a total nuisance of himself.  He likes to lie in my study room while I am working, and has made a pest of himself after the fight until I settled down in here (and of course, he flopped himself down on his pad and is sulking).

The Maremma would love to do all of the same things.  But I don't let him.  He is really big.  As in small pony size.  And my study room is just too stinkin little. 

I wasn't aware of how intensely the Maremma is feeling his hormones.  He is going to get an appointment to be snipped this upcoming week.  The husky has been snipped for years, but with all the drama of school, I haven't had time to deal with him.

I am feeling rather annoyed, especially since I have a 6 hour exam on Monday afternoon and this took up an hour of my valuable time.  Lesson learned....drama boys need to be separated. 

And we are going to the vet in a few hours, since it is 3 am.  SIGH.