Life with Emus
and why it is hard to get work done around here.
OK -the saga of the emus.
Baby emus love bright shiny objects. If they glitter and gleam, all the better! Eyes look like little shiny orbs, maybe even grapes or running water. No matter, they need to be investigated. Which means pecks.
The little white emu, who we named Ivory, has bright blue eyes. Those eyes are like candy grapes to the other emu chicks. She came to us with an infected eye due to other emu chicks pecking at it, plus she was underweight. I don’t think she was ever eating very well - Emus have to be taught to eat and drink. We cured the eye with antibiotic ointment and Jill worked hard to get her eating and drinking. Papa emus teach the babies to eat and drink, so Jill did likewise. Slowly she began to perk up.
Then a week later, Max -the older emu appears to have pecked at the eye again. This time, the eye itself was severely damaged. It swelled up like a grape (yeh, I know - bad joke). She wouldn’t eat. Jill began phoning vets. It turns out that no local animal doctor felt qualified to treat an emu chick, and a long distance car ride would probably cause her too much stress. It was touch and go. Jill said the eye was blown. It needed to be removed.
So, we treated with antibiotic eye ointment, kept her stable, got her eating and gaining weight. Yesterday, after about twenty calls - we found an avian vet over an hour away willing to treat her. The end result is just as Jill predicted, the eye is a goner. So, today she will get sedated, a needle put in the eye - and the remains of the eye sucked out as much as possible. Some sort of agent will be put in to help shrink the eye back down to normal. It sounds horrible and will take a few weeks for the socket to shrink down, but basically she probably will be ok - sans one eye. She has had it rough though. I don’t know when she will be able to live with Max again. She is sweet, soft, shy and likes things quiet. The fact that she has been living with pain on and off her whole life probably has greatly affected her personality. But we think once the pain is gone, things will turn around for her.
As for Max - what can I say? He has a personality that is bigger than his body can hold. Max is outgoing, rowdy, smart, tenacious and affectionate. He runs faster than the Aussies and bounces off the walls.
Lots of internet advice that we needed get two emus to keep each other company.
Whelp, not with Max. Max has been thrown into the mix of our household and came out on top. He basically likes to pretend he is a dog, runs after sticks, plays, and has quickly become the clown of the farm. The guinea fowl used to scream at him, so he got right into their faces and made himself bigger. So now they pretend he doesn’t exist and he pretends they don’t exist. Your basic Mexican standoff.
Jill is definitely his papa and he runs when she calls him. If she isn’t around, and he notices -he will sadly walk around peeping until she peeps back at him.
A little homemade video to show how much Max enjoys his life.
One unexpected bonus in having Ivory be in sickbay continually is that Oso (our one year old Aussie boy dog) and Max have become playmates. They chase, tag team each other, pick up and run after sticks. Max is into everything - that means everything is pecked at, tasted and assessed. His beak is his tool to explore the world. Various weeds have become favorite snacks and he remembers the good food choices. Once a good weed has been discovered, he will sit down on his back legs and go at a plant for a hearty meal of greens. If something is determined inedible; he never goes back to try again.
But there is so much to explore in the world. Oso and Max are exploring it all!
Bella our blue-eyed “killer rabbit”, does finds him a nuisance. Mostly because he steals her toys and acts like he might peck at her eyes (smart dog). Just to say it, after being hissed at by Jill and I for even thinking about pecking eyes and tongues - he has pretty much gotten over that idea. Yeh, we hiss. I hiss ‘cause the stinker once pecked my eye when I was under the truck working on it. ‘Cause we read online that a daddy emu will hiss at his offspring when they are naughty. Turns out it works.
Each farm needs a guard dog and Bella is ours. She will take out a 30 pound groundhog in seconds flat. Her technique is grab the groundhog behind the head and shake. She chases off foxes and other predators and growls at all newcomers - particularly men. But she also knows that farm animals are her wards. She never touches chickens, poultry, horses and now emu are also on her protection list. Good dog, Bella.
As I wind down writing for today, I am hearing a noise coming from the guest bedroom. It turns out we have another problem… the baby guinea fowl have escaped their box and now are sitting on the guest bedroom bed. I think I need to call in re-enforcements…
”Jill, we have a problem!”
I love this farm life that you both enjoy and share with us. I’m a first time chicken owner and the 6 laying hens I ordered and picked up a week before Easter continue to grow and flourish we now have 5 hens and One rooster whose morning crowing sounds as smooth as a teenage boy’s voice changing. It is good exercise for me and our 208lb English Mastiff approves.
Thank you Dr Malone! You brought a huge smile to my face! I love your personal farm stories! I guess we can all live vicariously through you! Such fun and craziness!