Dispatches from the bedroom and sick room

The lowest point of the bedroom makeover for me - dodgy electrics, terrible plumbing above the floorboards instead of under, blown paster and rubble everywhere.

Well hello there. It's a bit of a misreable wet morning here and instead of lying in on one of the two days I'm not in the office I was up at 6am bleary-eyed supping tea.

The last few days of my life has only been about two topics - the impending wallpapering session due to commence in the back bedroom and Georgia-belle being hideously unwell again.

Let's talk about the nice stuff first.

Rather than do a load of freelance work over the next four days I have decided to get as much done on the back bedroom as I can. A couple of days ago I found six rolls of Graham and Brown Wall Doctor lining paper (specifically for walls that have minor plaster issues) stuffed in the back of a cupboard. I don't even remember buying it, but it must have been over five years ago as that was the last time we were wallpapering anything! I worked out the dimensions of the room and amazingly it needs 6.3 rolls. Now, I didn't bother subtracting the area of paper that covers the window and door, just factored in straight drops, so I may not have to buy any paper at all. If I do, it will be just the one roll. Wall Doctor paper is paste the wall, so that will speed up everything, and it's paintable.So a bit of a win for me.

All I have to do today is give the ceiling its second coat of paint, take off two more small pieces of skirting, knock holes in the plasterwork to recess the two plug sockets and I'm ready for papering.

Result!

I've decided that I'm going to buy a Farrow and Ball estate emulsion for the room, probably Parma Grey, in the hope that the chalky finish will help disguise any areas of imperfect plaster that the lining paper does not.

Source: Farrow and Ball

Now granted, it doesn't look like the most exciting colour in the world, but because I will be having red and green in the room I don't want a strong colour on the walls.

So that's where we are so far. I still have to source a curtain pole, the overbed lights, and the flooring, and do a makeover on a pine wardrobe, chest of drawers and blanket box for the end of the bed, but I'm really liking the way this is starting to come together. I can now see clearly how all that hard work, which seemed so thankless and boring over the last year, will produce a room that will look fantastic.

And which I will want to transfer to sleep in immediately!

Now, the chickens. I mentioned sickness again. This time Infectious Bronchitis. The chickens have managed to pick up Infectious Bronchitis (IB), presumably from wild birds as now new chickens have been added to my flock, and have gone off the lay. Georgia-belle in particular has suffered badly. She's swollen up to enormous proportions, possible from peritonitis or perhaps cysts on her oviducts, and has swung from having an impacted crop due to a huge volume of body fluid preventing anything going through her digestive system, to sour crop which is now poisening her.

IB is a virus that just has to sort of work it's way out, but in the meantime it can cause secondary infections so the chickens have had antibiotic injections all week to make sure. While Geogia has had hers - and a lot more than the others - she was quite far gone when we realised and went downhill quickly. However, she was still very bright, peeping a lot and showing interest. After a week in my bathroom on medication, the swollen abdomen is recceding but she's come down with sour crop. She's so sick, very weak, eyes closed all the time and is battling horribly.

I'm keeping her warm, getting as much of the fluid and rubbish out of her crop as possible without distressing her too much and getting some anti-fungal medication and nutrient solution into her. It's all I can do until she either recovers or it's clear I have to step in and stop the pain and euthanise her.

Comments

[Alex]

Crikey, your poor chickens and poor you. I do admire for the care and attention you lavish on them. One of my chooks died a couple of weeks ago and I have no idea why - all the others are ok though, I wonder if it was because an alpaca kicked her. Anyway - good luck with the rest of the chickens, hope they all recover.
Alex x

[Steel]

Thanks Alex, and sorry to hear about your chook. She might have got a kick, but sometimes chickens do just go suddenly for no apparent reason. They keep up the appearance of being well for so long that by the time you find them they're usually too far gone.

I'm very lucky that I have a vet who knows about chickens, having bred them for 35 years. I couldn't do it without his help in accurately diagnosing everything. Rather than the chickens just being hit with a shot of standard gloop as a starter, he is able to pick the exact right type of medication - anitbiotic, ani-fungal, anti-microbial etc. It makes all the diffence to get it right first time and really only avian vets or those who keep chickens themselves seem to be able to do it. I've never had much success with a normal small animal vet.