What started as a single mom's simple desire for her kids to be away from the city and to be surrounded by more trees has turned into the drive to have a more self sufficient life-style
Big Red had been looking worse over the last week. She'd gone back to being swollen and walking a little more upright, but now the swelling was all over her body. I found her laying behind the feed trash can one night, which is the complete opposite of the corner she normally sleeps in. I knew she wasn't doing well, but I guess part of me hoped she would get better.
Then I came home and the oldest immediately came running out to tell me he'd found Big Red laying on her side in the chicken ran when he got home. He had thought she was dead but when he picked her up, she was still breathing so he brought her into the mud room.
She was sitting in a box, not moving, but still breathing. I wrapped a towel around her and picked her up, she didn't even attempt to fight me and instead just closed her eyes. I knew she was dying and I felt horrible that she might be in pain or suffering.
I called the vet and took her down.
They put her to sleep for me because I know I am not able to put an animal down myself, and we brought her home to be buried. The oldest dug the hole for me and I set her down. We've now lost a few birds and I knew that Big Red was older and sick so it wasn't unexpected, but I still feel horribly about it all.
Clyde showed some signs of wry neck a few days ago. Wry neck is when a bird basically loses control of their neck and it twitches, jerks, and twists in strange ways. They can also end up flipping over backwards or walking backwards. The first day it was just twitching and twisting once in awhile. I followed the advice I read online and bought Vitamin E and Selenium to give him, but within two days I found him on the coop floor.
I thought he was dead and immediately started screaming for the oldest to come outside. I finally saw him move slightly and when we went into the coop to get him I realized that he was on the ground with his head twisted backward and on the floor.
I held him while the oldest ran to the neighbors to borrow a large crate to put him in. He ate and drank what we gave him but it was clear he had no real control over his own body.
The next morning I called a vet and made an appointment to take him and BigRed in. After work I raced home with the boys, wrapped the birds up in towels, handed one to each boy, and turned around to head back to town.
(I will skip the part of the story where I blew a tire and had to call someone to come get us and take us the rest of the way. No, I'm not kidding.)
The youngest and BigRed
The oldest and Clyde
The vet visit was almost two hours long.
The vet said that chicken feed often has particles of metal in them, and if a chicken digests it, they can have issues like these. He said it could be another issue too. He offered to do an x-ray to see if there was metal, or start antibiotics and see how things went, or put him to sleep.
Clyde had lost a bit of weight and was only 6 pounds, but was alert and eating with a little help and these were good signs.
I turned to the oldest and asked him what he wanted to do. We'd already talked about he would be paying the vet bill since this was his chicken (even though I didn't really plan on making him pay the whole thing.) He said he wanted to use his first paycheck to pay for the x-ray, so they took Clyde back.
Not a good picture, but there was metal in there
There was indeed a piece of metal in his stomach. They said if we follow the treatment, the prognosis was fairly good. He has to get a shot of medicine twice a day, take a half of a large pill twice a day, and get an oral medication twice a day. Basically the three medicines would help the metal work it's way out of him and he would be on antibiotics to keep him healthy until he was cleared again.
BigRed is a bigger concern in terms of her prognosis. The vet thinks that a follicle from an egg was basically lost inside her body and her body was reacting to it by building up a lot of fluid. She also was a little underweight, but was 7 pounds (a pound heavier than Clyde, probably because of the fluid.) He said he could put her to sleep or we could try some medicine to see if that improved anything. Her medicine is a half of a pill and some oral medication that is a mix of antibiotics and pain killers in the hopes that the fluid will decrease and she'll get back to normal. He said she only had a 50/50 chance of getting better and he wanted to see her again in two weeks to see if there was any improvement.
Waiting for the vet is tiring
I made it very clear that I was not capable of giving anyone a shot so I made sure that the vet taught the oldest how to do it.
I paid the hefty vet bill, we wrapped the chickens back up and headed home. This morning, the oldest woke up earlier than normal so that we'd have time to give out all of the medicine. Clyde got his shot and they both got all of the oral medication before I had to leave for work. This evening we did it all over again.
So far there is no sign of improvement in either of them, but I am still hopeful since it has only been 24 hours.
I'm shocked to hear about metal being in the feed and now I'm researching what we can do to get it out, I may be investing in a big magnet to stir through the feed every day.
