The road to recovery

Well it's been a long couple of days but Darby is on the road to recovery. Although she is not back to her normal wild child self. I wish if she could only tell me what she is feeling. I was not able to take her to her recheck appointment. I just didn't have the extra money. My PGE bill will not be getting paid this paycheck. I just hope it doesn't get shut off.

I have started to put her back outside with Crystal and Honey during the day. I can only hope it will pull her out of what I can only describe as chicken depression. Gosh! I hope Darby doesn't have the feathered version of Bipolar Disorder. The pain medicine seems to have helped get her through the worst of whatever she has. She has been off the medicine for a few days now.

She takes naps in the day which I don't remember her ever doing before. She doesn't fly out of the indoor condo anymore. I miss her company when I'm at the computer. She used to fly out of the condo and perch there to watch me type. She doesn't call out and "hen crow" when Crystal and Honey lay their eggs which she used to do so loudly I could hear her down the street. And she herself has not laid an egg in almost two weeks. But she is a fighter and seems like death is no longer knocking at her door. I guess only time will tell. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for you support.

Oh No! Darby is Sick

Tuesday morning I watched my chickens in their indoor condo and I noticed that my Polish was hunched down in a corner. I just thought she waslaying an egg and I went about setting up their outdoor run. It ahd been raining for a few days and they have been inside since Thursday night.I put them all outside at 11 am. I checked on them at 12:30 and she was hunched down in the grass. I looked at 1 PM and she was in the sameplace. I went out at that time picked her up and brought her inside. I held her on my lap and she just settled right in and flew asleep.Normally she'd want to get down or struggle a bit but she did nothing.I put her on a blanket and covered her with a towel and she stayed likethat for 30 mins. She layed and egg in the morning, ate mealworms, oystershells and her crumbles. She did have a yellowishgreen and white watery poop.

By Thursday she wasn't getting any better. I couldn't take it anymore. I may not have money to pay the cable bill but I took her to the vet anyway. I brought her to the Medical Center for Birds in Oakley California. They say they treat chickens all the time and Darby was their third chicken of the day. A man even brought in a Hawk, an Owl and a Falcon and we got tosee them. I really liked their facility too. Everything for birds and no wet dog and pee smell as in other animal vets. Even a scale with a perch. Nice people too.

And three hundred dollars later she got X-rays, fluid, pain meds anda recheck visit next week for a reproductive track problem. Oh my god what have I done! Yes I love my chickens and I have always been more fawned of Darby but $300! And I don't have that kind of money rightnow. I did use the money I was saving for their diapers but that was only $50 of it. I am going to be putting my old jeep on Craig's list. I hope it sales fast. On the brighter side Darby seems to be feeling better with her fluids and pain meds. I got her home after an hour in traffic and she started eating a bit. She even was laying down and eating. I'm going to give her some food mixed with yogurt tonight after the kids go tobed.

She still looks a bit uncomfortable but she is eating and the vet said I needed to get her to eat in the next 24 hours or she may not make it. Dr. Olsen explained that she has some soft tissue abnormalities in her reproductive track that maybe the cause of her troubles. Darby's first two eggs were soft shelled eggs but I didn't remember to tell him that until after I saw the X-rays. If she gets better maybe she'll start laying gold eggs for me. LOL well it would help!

Happy Halloween!

I have found yet another cool point to having chickens in the house. With two small kids, a just as messy husband and four pumpkins to crave my kitchen floor looked like a pumpkin had been murdered. I looked at all the wet and sticky seeds and strings and thought sweeping this up is going to suck. Then "BING" and light went off in my head. Let out the chickens! I opened their condo door and they went crazy. I didn't even have to sweep until the next morning. I did have to pick up three piles of chicken doodles but that is easier then sweeping up pumpkin guts. They didn't eat the big seeds but they dried out over night and were easily swept up. I read somewhere that pumpkin seeds are a natural de-wormer for chickens. I also took some pumpkin guts, seeds and flesh and put it the fridge. I will be grinding it up and freeze it for the chickens as treats during the rainy winter days where they are stuck in the house for a few days. Maybe next year I'll dress as a farmer and go to my kid's school with a chicken on my shoulder. Now that would be a hoot.