Pet Vet

We had a rough couple of days when it comes to animal care around the Acre. Graysen came running down the hill and burst through the door saying, "Marshmallow is covered with blood!" So, I dropped my dinner prep and ran up the hill to the coop. Sure enough (of course it's the white bird), Marshmallow was stained red all the way down her neck, with a splatted back, and blood all over her legs and . . . toes? What are those things called? 

Anyway . . . I quickly determined the blood was coming from her comb. Generally birds who are injured get picked on and at by other birds, so there was the concern that leaving her in the coop could lead to her death if the other chickens decided to be bullies.

Well, a short observation showed that wasn't an immediate concern, so down the hill I hurried to get my Chickens for Dummies book (seriously, SO helpful). Their recommendation . . . cut it off. The crop. Ewwwww!!! 

So I sent a kid for sharp scissors, I gathered peroxide and cotton balls, another kid grabbed the Neosporin, Buck got into the mix by watching a video on this situation--he said we needed baking flour to staunch the bleeding--another couple of kids ran up the hill and captured the chicken, who then clawed the carrier and needed to be rounded up again (only this time in a much more vast area for running). We had a watering jar filled with the warm hose water, and then Caelan held the bird while we tried to wash the blood off of her.

Caelan got soaked, and it was really gross when the chicken shook her head and splattered watered-down blood on all of us. Ummm, eww. But we got Marshmallow cleaned off well enough to see the cut on her comb (wherever it came from), was not as bad as we thought. So, hooray! We didn't have to cut off her comb. We antibiotic-ed her, floured her, and put her in isolation until nighttime. The next day (when these photos were taken) she seemed to no longer be bleeding, and the other chickens were still not bugging her, so she's a weird color, but otherwise on the mend!




Then there's Turkey--man, she's huge again! I don't know what the deal is with her digestive system, but she's got more crop issues. We may be making another chicken support apparatus sometime soon.



And then there's this guy--ugh, Gimli's eye was completely swollen shut when the kids went to change his cage bedding this weekend. I got out my plastic gloves and more Neosporin and slimed it across his bad eye. He was opening it later in the day, and today it seems mostly open. He's getting old and shaky though, poor little dude. This pet vet stuff is not for the faint of heart!