FINCHforum

So I was going to build a couple hospital cages by follow the plan from JavaFinch web site, I know it will come in handy in the future, they were partially finished. Yesterday I found my Yellow Gouldian hen on the cage bottom, she barely moving with her eyes shut, I picked her up, she was 90% dead. I temporary put her in a bird carrier with a lamp on top for for while, then I was in a hurry to finish one of the hospital cages. I didn't have much time left to make it looks nice, but functional enough to put the bird in. I mixed some 4-in-1, put her mouth in the 4-in-1 water, she drank a little of it, I placed her in the hospital cage with some millet spray, seeds, water, and a half of an egg shell, she was barely alive on the bottom. This morning she was eath millet and then jump on a perch, then I saw her jump to the other perch, so doing better. I changed out the 4-in-1 with some S76. This afternoon when I got home from work, I found a broken egg on the hospital cage floor. She might have eggbound.

10 days ago I separated her 6 healthy juveniles to the outdoor grow out flight, they were about 2 months old, she laid 6 more eggs by the time I separated her younster, I cleaned everything in the cage, she stopped sitting on the eggs, so I placed the eggs under foster Society pair. My yellow hen and mate look normal and healthy till yesterday. It too early to tell, but is much better now. I hope she will recover well, she and her mate are very good parents. This hospital cage save her life.

Paradise Aviary wrote:Don I'm very glad that she made it fine if it wasn't for your quick actions she would have past away ... That hospital cage is amazing!!!

I had a similar thing happen to my BB Gould hen one morning I found her half dead on the cage floor I quickly took her out put her in a hospital cage and gave her heat and also a drop of liquid calcium to the beak about half and hour later she passed the egg and was up going like her normal self.

Thanks Rancel. These hospital cages are life saver, it works better than a regular cage because is keep the heat in, and the bird doesn't have to use much energy to move around. I'm going to finish the other hospital cage. I'm glad your BB Gould make it though. Goodd job.

Can you post a link to the place you got the design from? Also approximately how much did it cost for you to make it? I really like how the design looks.

It looks amazing. Please do tell us about it and furnish the link if you will... I really like the design.

That hospital cage turned out really well! Was it hard to regulate the temperature so it's not to hot?

Here's the link for others:
http://javafinch.com/buildhospital/hospitalndx.html

That looks amazing - and just in time for your hen - Great job!

Great job and nice saving of the hen - she looks great now!!

If someone has a small regular cage and can't build this type of hospital cage - simply placing a towel over the top and around the sides of the small regular cage will help keep the warmth of the heatlamp inside too.

Well done on a timely save. Plus great handiwork.

I'm definately going to ask one of the men in my family to make one for me. I don't think I'm handy enough to do it myself.

I've also used a smallish cage and towel scenario in the past, but I want to move my hospital set up out my house now and into the aviary shed (which can be a bit draughty). I think the hospital cage would do nicely and keep a more constant heat than the towel in my setup.

A towel over a regular cage is definitely better than nothing. For this hospital cage I used left over plywood just need to cut into sizes and assemble. I spent about $10 for everything, it just time consuming for finishing touches. It's recommended to use a 40 watts light bulb, at first I didn't have a 40w, I used a 60w, I saw the bird breath heavily, so now i'm using a low energy bulb, the main thing is keep it warm enough and limitted the space so the bird does have to move around too much. Thanks everyone for your kind words.