Mad City Chickens

Mad City Chickens was the documentary I watched about eight months ago that really made me want to get chickens. Now, as I am researching an article about raising chickens in Madison, I have found that it is also the name of the group made up of Madison area chicken owners.

I first stumbled upon the group’s website (madcitychickens.com) when my chicken McNugget was ill and I was not able to find resources for treating my sick bird. Not only did the website direct me to a good veterinarian, but it also made me realize that there is a whole community of chicken owners that can be used as a resource while raising chickens in the city. I read that the group was having a pot luck at “Joan the Chicken Lady’s” house in Verona so I called and volunteered to bring fruit salad.

The meeting was very informal, and consisted of about 20 chicken owners from Madison and neighboring communities. We all mingled, and talked chicken talk. We asked each other questions, and I found some people had been raising chickens their whole lives, and some (like myself) were still relatively new to the chicken game. There were also two attendees who were merely thinking about getting backyard chickens, and decided to talk to the group before delving into chicken ownership.

The meeting also had two guests. Twain Lockhart is a feed consultant for Cargill and not only was he a great resource for meeting goers in regards to chicken nutrition, but he also brought along a few 50lb bags of chicken feed for raffle prizes. Before Twain was a Cargill consultant he ran his own feed store in California for 17 years and his wife (who was also at the meeting) raised show chickens.

Also in attendance (and guest speaker for the evening) was Ron Kean , the Poultry Extension Specialist for the UW system. Ron was basically there to answer questions and he certainly got enough of them. A big discussion amongst new chicken owners was the proper way to provide water for chickens during a cold Wisconsin winter. While most people used different strategies, two common solutions were purchasing some sort of heated dish to dispense water or just giving the chickens fresh water a few times a day.

I strongly recommend to anyone raising chickens who wants to learn more and be a part of the chicken community to keep their eyes on the Mad City Chicken’s website and attend the next pot luck whenever and wherever that might be. They really do have a club for everything.

A Sick Hen

I have had the girls for almost three months and they have appeared to be entirely healthy since they first arrived in the mail. Suddenly things have changed.

My roommate Matt, who was watching the girls over the weekend while I was gone noticed that McNugget, the largest of my four hens, was looking very lethargic and puffy Sunday afternoon. We were immediately concerned, but not sure what to do. We also later found some runny chicken feces that appeared to have blood in it, which added to our concerns that whatever was wrong with McNugget was really serious.

Knowing I don’t have a lot of money (especially not the kind of money to spend on an emergency weekend vet trip), Matt went to Google while I called around to see if I could find advice from anyone.

I first tried Peckatonica Valley Farms because I recently wrote a story about their chicken operations and I remembered owner Todd Carr sounding like he really knew his chickens. Plus, I was hoping that in addition to possibly helping me diagnose McNugget, he might also be a cheap source of medicine (if any were required). Unfortunately I got no answer.

I then recalled seeing phone numbers for veterinarians who specialized in chickens on the Mad City Chickens’ (a documentary about raising chickens in Madison) website. And sure enough, they had contact information for two local vets.

While I was leaving my phone number with County View Vets in Oregon, WI (right outside of Madison), Matt had narrowed down the possibilities through a Google search and came up with
Coccidiosis as the most likely diagnosis, mostly because of it’s intestinal ramifications which lead can to bloody stool. A doctor from County View soon called me back and suggested that as the likely diagnosis as well.

I was then left with a two options: I could leave McNugget alone and hope she could fight off the virus, or I could get some medicine and put it in the water. Being a concerned parent, I opted to get the medicine (Slufadimethoxine) and am giving it to all of the chickens by dissolving it in their only water supply. McNugget will have to be encouraged to drink if she is not doing so on her own because she is most likely to suffer from dehydration as a result of her diarrhea.

Right now I can only hope that the medicine works and that McNugget will keep drinking the water.