Stinkerpants

Chicken Update

April 8, 2009 in Urban Hippies • Backyard Chickens

Hi Everybody–thanks so much for your support about Petunia.  I really, really appreciate all of your kind words.

Y and I were both feeling pretty depressed yesterday. Mostly we were sad that Petunia had died, and had likely suffered.  But we were also really worried that whatever she had was contagious.  I absolutely adore Violet and Rosebud, and if anything happened to them (or Rosarita), I would  be heartbroken.

Luckily, we have an awesome vet who offered to do an autopsy on Petunia for free.  As it turns out, she had a tumor in her intestinal tract.  This is probably why she never laid any eggs, even though Rosa’s been laying for almost a month.  So, like Lily, this definitely wasn’t our fault, and there was nothing we could have done about it.  Pretty sad though.  These were our first two chickens, and within two months, they’ve both died.

I was further discouraged this morning when I went to check on the chicks and noticed three problems:

1. One chick was standing on the counter, cheeping bloody murder.
2. Inside their metal bucket, there was blood everywhere.
3. Our little runt chick was looking kind of crippled.

The first problem was obviously easy to fix.  Pick up Tulip and put her back in the bucket, then put a lid on the bucket.

The second problem was the blood, which admittedly totally freaked me out.  Dahlia was the chicken bleeding.  As it turns out, she had a cut on her butt, and her bloodthirsty friends were pecking at her!  I separated her, wiped her tuchas and quarantined her.

Marigold, the our little crippled chicken, has always been small.  This morning, though, she looked like she was doing the horizontal splits, and she couldn’t walk.  Great.  After much googling and a visit to Backyard Chickens, I realized that she has “spraddle” or splayed legs.  Basically, it looks like she’s doing the splits and can’t stand up.

I used this guide and taped her legs together with a band-aid (photo at the top).  Unfortunately she won’t even attempt to walk.  I’m hoping that she’ll give it a try later this afternoon, or maybe her legs will start to “stick” in the right position and I can take the band-aid off.  Sigh.

I’ve been intending to draw a family portrait, with me, Y, the dog, the four cats and all the chickens.  Unfortunately the chickens are dropping like flies (I’m beginning to think this phrase should be “dropping like chickens,” as flies never seem to die), and having to delete them out of our drawing would be really depressing.

Anyway, we’re still trucking.  We’re hoping it’s a case of bad beginner’s luck and that things will not always be like this!