After a cold, dark winter our 10 hens are out free-ranging again. Unfortunately so are the predators. Heidi took the dogs for a walk Monday (June 10) and came home to find feathers in the driveway and most of the hens missing. Nine of them were under the house, leaving Buffy (the Buff Orpington) missing. Back to the attack site, which was a mess of white and gray feathers, and just a few of Buffy's yellow ones.
Buffy was about 50 feet away under a tree, with fairly large open wound near the base of her neck. It was off to the vet in a hurry! Dr. Neville gave her some antibiotics and an optimistic outlook. Back at home she could still walk, eat some bugs, and drink a little, she just looked pretty gory.
The next day, however, she was no longer eating, seemed to have trouble holding up her head, and was just getting more lethargic. As she continued to decline, she got more trips to the vet, for subcutaneous fluid injections. After coming home Thursday, she really seems like her neck is broken. She's only drinking when water is placed in her beak with a syringe, and hasn't eaten at all since Monday. The doctor thinks she has a sinus infection, so now she's getting a different antibiotic every 12 hours, injected into the breast muscle. I start force-feeding her with a syringe, basically injecting food down the esophagus, as well as water.
Friday, she seems a tad stronger. Her head is still hanging off to the side. One eye is still always closed. An important difference though, is that she will make an initial move herself to drink when presented with a capful of water. She's not good at it (no real neck control) but the desire is finally back. I feed her and water her a lot more.
Saturday morning - today. She's more feisty at fighting back when I try to feed her or open her beak to take a little water. I measured out how much water she's supposed to get according to the vet - about 5 ounces for the day. That's about 50 syringes. Yikes. Thankfully that's just a goal; even 2/3 that would just about make up for normal fluid usage by the bird. So it's about noon, she's had some water, a couple syringes of mashed wet food, and lots of sleep. The snot seems to be clearing out of her nostrils. Her head is still floppy, but she's making more efforts to stand up, stretch out her neck, and then getting scared because her head flops around, and she has no balance.
Hopefully she starts to show more marked improvement. We've already done more for her than 99.9% of the population would. I've been the butt of chicken jokes at work, and honestly I've been surprised that she's alive each morning since Tuesday. If it weren't for my other half, this girl would have been culled and in the freezer Monday. I'm not heartless or cruel, but the hen has been so close to death for most of the week, I still don't know if she'll pull through, and wonder at what point would it be kinder to end her suffering. The increase in strength last night is giving me hope though.
