chrismahon
Well-known member
I know this appears unlikely to happen but it did. Most common with gas brooder lamps it actually happened to our pet Buff Orpington cock whilst ill in the house. The tolerance of chickens is similar to humans, which surprised me as I thought they would react a bit like Canaries and just keel over. The French have done studies after the Broiler Industry was hit by several cases affecting workers in the sheds.
Packing and moving him to new surroundings caused an ILT flareup again. This was severe so he stopped eating and drinking and talking. He lost all interest in life and then developed an internal infection. We kept him in all the time, hand feeding him and with a second strong dose of Baytril he appeared to be getting better.
The cold weather arrived so we kept the wood burner well lit to keep him warm as he had lost so much weight -just feather and bones. No matter what we did he didn't get any better and we were just keeping him alive really and hoping he would keep going to the warm weather. His symptoms were loss of appetite, unable to get warm, very pale face almost white at times, loss of balance, poor eyesight, generally very weak and a spell of crowing would knock him back for days. All he wanted all the time was a cuddle. The wood burner was leaking air so we couldn't control the burn rate very well. Decided to repair it in Spring then we had a cold and wet spell which kept me in all day for several days. I then felt rather ill and couldn't work out why. Very different symptoms to anything I've had before. A sort of 'detached' feeling, nausea and loss of energy.
I don't know what triggered the thought but I researched Carbon Monoxide poisoning and found we both (Bottom and myself) had symptoms. Apparently it affects pets first and a sudden death should raise suspicions. We let the fire die down and got a CO detector, but it didn't trigger and I later found out why. They are set above the 'low level' long term poisoning figure of 30ppm at between 50 -100ppm. This is because opening the fire to load it will cause a temporary increase in CO levels and having the alarm go off every time would be a pain. A proper meter could set us back £250 so that was ruled out.
So the fire was sealed with a specially thin sealant which can be forced into the cast iron section joints. A seal was fitted to the large front door. The transformation to the fire's performance was amazing -so hot and using half the wood!
What was more amazing was that next day Bottom started eating, following us around and talking a lot. Yesterday he saw me eating a piece of sponge cake and fell off the settee in his rush to get to it. The transformation in him is staggering in just a week. His crop is bulging every night. It just remains for him to start crowing again but at the moment we are enjoying the peace in the morning!
Packing and moving him to new surroundings caused an ILT flareup again. This was severe so he stopped eating and drinking and talking. He lost all interest in life and then developed an internal infection. We kept him in all the time, hand feeding him and with a second strong dose of Baytril he appeared to be getting better.
The cold weather arrived so we kept the wood burner well lit to keep him warm as he had lost so much weight -just feather and bones. No matter what we did he didn't get any better and we were just keeping him alive really and hoping he would keep going to the warm weather. His symptoms were loss of appetite, unable to get warm, very pale face almost white at times, loss of balance, poor eyesight, generally very weak and a spell of crowing would knock him back for days. All he wanted all the time was a cuddle. The wood burner was leaking air so we couldn't control the burn rate very well. Decided to repair it in Spring then we had a cold and wet spell which kept me in all day for several days. I then felt rather ill and couldn't work out why. Very different symptoms to anything I've had before. A sort of 'detached' feeling, nausea and loss of energy.
I don't know what triggered the thought but I researched Carbon Monoxide poisoning and found we both (Bottom and myself) had symptoms. Apparently it affects pets first and a sudden death should raise suspicions. We let the fire die down and got a CO detector, but it didn't trigger and I later found out why. They are set above the 'low level' long term poisoning figure of 30ppm at between 50 -100ppm. This is because opening the fire to load it will cause a temporary increase in CO levels and having the alarm go off every time would be a pain. A proper meter could set us back £250 so that was ruled out.
So the fire was sealed with a specially thin sealant which can be forced into the cast iron section joints. A seal was fitted to the large front door. The transformation to the fire's performance was amazing -so hot and using half the wood!
What was more amazing was that next day Bottom started eating, following us around and talking a lot. Yesterday he saw me eating a piece of sponge cake and fell off the settee in his rush to get to it. The transformation in him is staggering in just a week. His crop is bulging every night. It just remains for him to start crowing again but at the moment we are enjoying the peace in the morning!