After the last update here on Strider, I let him stay in the bathroom cabinet and just checked on him frequently and tried to get him interested in food.
Well, I was able to force him to eat some hamburger, but HE didn’t do it unless it was in his mouth and if I didn’t let him drop it out. So he didn’t eat much more than a few tidbits for days. No drinking either.
A few days ago, on Saturday, we were out and got home from the errands, and I went up to see Strider and immediately just decided on the spur of the moment to take him downstairs. I fished him out of the cabinet, he had moved to a harder to reach place since the last time I saw him, the first time since he’d moved to the easier to reach him place.
Oh my poor kitty was lightweight as I carried him downstairs. I put him down after re-assuring him it was alright, and …. he stayed put. He didn’t run. Since then he has stayed in the downstairs, never venturing upstairs at all. But he’s not hiding at all.
That first time he was down, I tempted him with some sour cream, and he wanted it. So I gave him some in a dish, and he gently lapped some up, stopped, then went back for more, and so on.
I then got a dish for water for him, and he wanted that, lapping it up like crazy. What a remarkable change! From refusing everything … to wanting some things.
I tried hamburger then, and he was fully UN-interested. Hmm.
Well the next day he was in the kitchen when I went downstairs. After church I went to see if he’d be tempted by the hamburger, and guess what … he begged for it when he saw me going into the fridge, and kept begging for it even when he knew what it was. He ate it.
So he’s still recovering, but eating, and drinking, hanging around us, not shying away at all. He is thin, very thin, but strong. This has been so odd, and I’m glad he’s on a major upswing.
My sweet kitty is not quite back to his normal attitude, but only by a thread. He’s grooming himself, lying in the sun if it’s out, sitting by the fireplace if there is a fire going, and just hanging out on the sofa futon, or in the kitchen, or under something or other, as any other cat would do.
I am very thankful that God saw fit to keep Strider safe thus far. He’s such a nice cat, a definite, usually, stress reducing machine, organic though.
6 responses to “Strider is doing better”
Hello, Marysue! I found the link to your journal from Tamara’s blog and thought I’d stop by! I too am new at farming but am loving it immensely! We just got 17 chickens and so far all is well! SO far!! LOL!! Life is certainly more interesting with animals, isn’t it?? I’ll have to stop by and see how you’re doing! God bless!
So glad to hear Strider is doing better! 🙂 Hmm, makes you wonder a little more about his 2weeks+ escapade doesn’t it… Sounds like he’s getting over the whole ordeal though. Good for him…and YOU!
(Hi Rebekah! :-))
Hi Rebekah! Thank you for visiting my site. I noticed your site listed on Tamara’s blog and didn’t visit it though until the very day you posted here. Kind of funny!
Do you have more photos of your chickens yet? I have tons of chicken photos, more than I ever have loaded onto my photo areas. I love taking pictures, and chickens are facinating subjects, to me at least.
We had 14 hens, but lost one in the last couple of weeks. 🙁 It was our first hen loss. We are hoping to get a few more hens this Spring, and more land. If we get a large plot we can rent, we are going to move all our chickens to that place, and see about a cow or two.
Our eyes are always opened for a nice existing farm or acreage that’d do fine for converting, but financially we are stuck in our subdivision for now, but it’s plenty big enough for our hens. We have two puppies now too. And cats, of course. I’m looking forward to more liberal use of land and getting MORE animals! It’s a great way to raise a family.
Nice to “meet” you!
Hi Tamara! Yes, Strider’s condition is mysterious, and wonder has affected me continuously indeed! I am so thankful he’s so much better. He has some weight to gain, then he’ll be more like his old cuddly self.
Thank you for the lovely sentiments. I surely appreciate it when folks care about others. Who says the internet is cold and unfriendly. 🙂
Just so you know too, my hens aren’t laying at all of late. We actually had to go buy eggs last week, ugh. I’m looking SO forward to Springtime! \O/
It’s not so far away though, this is the South! We are looking at mild temperatures the next week or so, with a few bitter days forcasted after that, which will be the coldest we’ve had if it comes. No snow, no ice yet though. So mild. But still, no eggs. 🙁
My Leghorns are molting still, so when they do begin to lay again, they should lay really big eggs. It will be interesting to see, since they molted early for their age, due to being hatched in the Autumn. My Wyandottes aren’t molting, from appearances, and I hope they aren’t going to start, they are younger even, and I am hoping they will lay some more eggs soon. It’s been over a week since we’ve had any. We last had two brown eggs one day, and another brown egg a few days before that. That’s it. Slacking off, but eating heartily. That’s life! We are trying to move them closer to the house. Their pen needs reinforced, but we haven’t had time to do it, so we can’t move it much at a time. Once by the house, I’ll get some light out to them so they are warmer and might get enough light for laying to begin again, before it’s Spring.
nak… how long is molting supposed to last (generally)?
Molting — what a subject! It’s subjective, depends on the bird, the season, the age of the bird, the temperature of the season, is it a natural molt, how is the bird cared for once molt starts …
Just some of the possible questions.
Basically speaking, maybe 2-3 months. Maybe less. Hens tend to slow down in laying when it’s A. Cold B. Less than 14 hours of light a day.
Some folks give their birds extra light via a lightbulb in their pen, hen house, where ever they are kept at night, timing it to give them the right amount. This keeps birds laying, apparently.
My birds were hatched in the Autumn, which isn’t as usual as most hatched layers … Spring is usual, so it’s mostly that my birds are Molting because of their hatch date, and the weather, light, etc. Combining to this dastardly molt.
Molting is when the birds lose their feathers and grow new ones simultaneously. They slow way down or stop all together in egg production until done molting.
Some people force their birds to molt. I won’t go into how that goes on, it’s just icky.
Some people separate their molting birds from their non-molting birds and feed them special, i.e. Catfood for higher protein intake than usual layer feed has for egg production. Higher intake of protein to get them into and out of their molt fast.
We are just doing it au naturel this year. Perhaps we’ll give them some extra light later on, and in the coming years I’m sure I’ll revise molting regulations for my Hennypennies.
We are “pasturing” the hens, so it’s hard to get a light out to them. I’m wanting to move them to one spot by the house for the rest of winter, just to make it easier on us for getting to them if it’s raining, or freezing rain, etc. and it’s warmer right by the house, for them, wind protection. It’ll be an icky spot come spring, but oh well. Normalcy of the pattern of moving them means for no muddy or dirt-only large areas where they were, once they are moved. This is why it’s different to house hens in a permanent structure or a movable one. Our hens have their “run” and their “roost” and their “nesting area” in the same movable structure. It’s not meant to be parked for long periods of time, but this is something that we’ll adapt for in other times, getting better movable pens built, making it easier to work with them through the different seasons, to get them moved and get them enough light year round.
From what I’ve read, I’ve learned that hens are born with a predermined amount of eggs, just like human females are. If hens are left to natural circumstances, they will take time off each year from laying, and resume again. After the first stoppage, the eggs upon resuming will be larger and less frequent, supposedly.
You can force a hen to lay more frequently by giving her the right feed and light year round. How far one goes in this is up to each hen keeper.
In essence, the hen that is forced will eventually reach the place where she has nothing more to lay, which is sooner than a hen left to her natural way of laying. Also, in production birds, the commercial variety of egg houses, they do push those birds hard, and discard them when they are worn out … it’s just against my particular beliefs that we should tax anything so much as that. So a moderate light treatment is as far as I’ll like to go in keeping birds laying … at some point they HAVE to molt, and forcing a molt is cruel and unnecessary … so moderate or natural is how I am treating them.
Future hens, we’ll have more sometime, and more pens, and birds of different ages to keep things going more than not most of the year, if that makes any sense.
Most of my molting birds are back to almost looking pretty again. They are White Leghorns, and were really ratty looking by October, no longer white all over, some feathers looking frayed. Just plain dull. When they aren’t laying, their comb and wattles get duller too, so when those redden up and look waxy, it’s time to get excited about eggs coming soon! Most of the hens are just needing their tail feathers to come back in, I think. So they just might be ready to lay sometime in January or February … they really slowed way down and started molting, some of them, in November, … so we’ll see.