by Guest on Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:14 pm
Right now before I say anything about the birds I would like to give my appologies for lack of updates but things were very hectic due to my friend Linda suffering a heart attack and having but me to take care of here till she was up and running again plus having to look after my mother who is also not in the best of health while having to run two homes nearly single handed didn't leave much time for the computer but with some excelent treatment and care from the specialists in Birminghams Queen Elizabeth Hospital Linda has now returned to work and is in pretty good health so she can sod off and leave me in peace with my birds
. Right now to the bit your really interested in. The Birds! Well there have been a few scares with half the kit disapeering for an hour or two due to being dragged off by large kits but all have safely returned on every occasion that has happened. They had been flying well and hard for at least an hour morning and evening but on letting them out saturday evening noticed that 6 did not want to trap after flying for an hour and 20 minutes and on closer inspection noticed full crops.....Humm. I put this down to John, who had fed them for me that lunch time while he was waiting for his old birds to return from a race and on his addmission had over fed them! well in they finally went and put to bed for the night but on sunday morning on opening up was met with the sight of sicked up corn all over the floor. Yes folks you guessed it YB sickness!! Well it looks like one of the strays that has been hanging round the loft on occasions last week must have been
on the loft roof and my little darlings had eaten it as they have had no other contact with birds infected or otherwise. Any other ideas how this could have come about, remembering these birds fly and dont sit about out of the loft ever? My way of dealing with the problem to some might be a bit harsh or strange but its my way of dealing with it and it works! Birds had been confined to the section, no corn that had been sicked up was removed by me but the birds were fed only once a day a half measure so they ate the infected corn as well so it went through all the birds quickly. Parastop has been added to the water since sunday but will be back to clear water and garlic cloves tomorrow as the bug has now past and birds have been let out this morning and evening and have flown well witout flagging for 40 minutes each time till they were called down which I felt was plenty after the week they have had. from tomorrow natural live yoghurt will be put on the corn for a week to get their digestion back right after not only the bug but the parastop also, might not be for the full week as they are already getting back to marbles on the perches as it is which is a good sign in itself. I hope to get some pics of the birds tomorrow so you can see they are not looking down in anyway and are still looking good. Fingers crossed this will be the only set back they have but come what may I will battle through it in the hope you all get some, if not all races and a bit of fun and excitement/interest out of this.
Cheers till next time,
Mark.
: :Very Funny: :Very Funny: :Very Funny: :Very Funny: phew!!!
