Chicken lays egg while Getting Xray!

Found this link while looking up chicken X-rays to see how they look compared to Gaia... Check it out!!!

Gaia Chickens 1st Vet Appointment, Chicken Xrays! & A Surprise visitor at the Vet Clinic!

Today I took Gaia to her 1st vet appointment. She was a good little trooper through all the exams & shots. But I also have to say the Vet and staff are so good with the chickens and kind.. I can't help but smile when I see how well they treat and handle the chickens just like any other animal that has been brought in. And I love that about them! I have been to vets that question treating chickens and ask why I just don't kill her and to have a vet and staff that show respect and love for them it is heart warming and I could never trust anyone else to treat them.. :)
She had lots done and she was a good little trooper all day. First they weighed her and she weighs 4lbs. She is under weight and her keel bone is sticking out. I think she should be around 6lbs. Then we had to wait for a few minutes so she decided to try to fly and land on the chair and fell off so I picked her up and sat her back on her chair... where she stayed till the vet came in and she walked over onto my lap and was trying to peck me in the face while I was talking to our vet...lol ... He examined her and her belly is distended a little bit...Then they took a fecal sample to check for worms... Then swabbed her Crop to check for sour crop which is a fungal infection, while he gave me a mouth & throat anatomy lesson.  Then she got to walk around the room for a while and poop on the floor...lol... Then they came back and got her to get an ultrasound which they didn't find anything on so the did two xrays.

Test results...
Fecal: as far as they can tell she didn't have anything. But they gave her a shot for worms just in case...
Crop Swab: Not sure but she is on sour crop meds now to see if that helps her.
Ultrasound: Inconclusive
X-rays: They showed a few things... One her bone health is not very good. Her bones should be pretty solid in the xray and they are speckled...very speckled! Which means she is not getting enough calcium, or not absorbing it properly, or something is leaching calcium from her.... 2nd her crop is very full. Not as big as it was the other night..and he said that could be the right size for her..maybe.. but it looked pretty full.So he was a little worried about that... It also showed a very white round"something" in her belly/intestine... I am not sure where exactly... he said it could be metal causing metal toxicity or just a dense small rock...

So for now she was given a shot for worms and other parasites.
She was given a shot to slow the diarrhea
She was given meds for fungal infection in her crop (Sour crop)
And she was given an antibiotic just in case she picked something bacterial up...
O yeah and she also had some Sub Q fluids

We are going to watch her. Make sure she is eating and drinking... And hop that she gets better. If not next is blood work to show if something else is going on. He sounded pretty worried about her bones and said if this doesn't work it could end up being something rare like Leukemia! So please keep her in your thoughts a prayers...  He said if she doesn't get better with this that the next step would be blood work, and then exploratory to see what the opaque white round thing is...

So I really hope this works and we don't have to take it that far.

So since she was so great and had such a long day I brought her home and let her free range in my moms front yard for an hour of so. She also had some spinach, blueberries, and strawberries on the way home. Plus the girls gave her 3 grapes and some more blueberries when she was running around in the yard enjoying the sun and grass. She looked very happy and didn't seem bothered by the days events at all!

But I will post Xrays later if the vet will send them to me...

On a brighter note... There was a Bald Eagle (Thunder) (click the link and it will take you to her page)at the vet clinic when I was leaving... Well I was supposed to be leaving ... I stopped and talked to the guy who had brought her in first.  She is gourgous and is part of the West Virginia Raptor Rehab. She was found after being shot when she was 3 or 4 years old. She didn't have her white head yet at that point. Eagles don't get the white till around 5 years of age...  She was shot through the left leg and it caught her wing and her wing had to have part removed at the end so she has lived with the Raptor guy for 20 years now. She weighs 14lbs her wingspan is 7 1/2 feet (if she would still have her wing tip) She can't fly. But she was so gorgeous! It was amazing to see her so up close and it just gives you such respect for them. She is having problems with the muscle in her left leg now so she was going to be xrayed

They also have facebook
And a running list of things needed on a donation list on amazon
I take all our Ferrets and Chickens to The Cheat lake Animal Hospital in Morgantown WV. They are all awesome. The staff is great and answer all my questions. Our chickens normally see Dr. Fallon but can be seen by Dr. Amy too. And our ferrets see Dr. Amy but can see Dr. Fallon too... They are both great!!!

Gaia Chicken Undate & Spanxy Ferret Going to the vet

She is still fluffy... her comb is still not bright red.... She is looking unkempt...  She isn't walking around being a happy chicken... She is standing still, fluffed up, looking miserable.... So I am not sure if she is egg bound again... or if she has an infection from the last time she was bound... Maybe there was something left and it wasn't just a yolk ball... She is still eating... she spends alot of time at the feeder and if I throw the eggs in and bust them she runs over to eat them, all excited!. She even stalks the eggs... If someone has laid one she will stand there beside it till someone comes outside and busts it open for her to get.... But she used to be the chicken that would run over and bust the egg herself. She was the egg destroyer!  But I think it is time to have her spayed! So she can have a good guilty of life..

 We have an appointment Friday with a vet I have never had the chickens to. She is an exotic vet that I guess will see chickens. She is at the same location as my normal avian vet. But he is out for the rest of the week. So I am taking Gaia and Spanx our Ferret to the vet Friday.

Spanxy is the last ferret we have. He is doing well although he lost his cage mate over a month ago. He did seem lost without her for the first few days. But we have been visiting with him more and he has been doing ok. But he is showing more symptoms of Adrenal Gland disease. He is losing muscle around his back hips pretty severely and is what I am going to consider, getting a pot belly. He has minimal hair loss right above his tail that comes and goes and his tail is bare but normally it all grows back after his spring shedding. So I am not sure exactly what is going on with him. But I think I have a good idea and I am trying to decide if he has adrenal gland disease do I have the surgery? The same surgery that we lost Sade having? do we treat him with hormone or tummer killing drugs? do we let him live out his life as happy as possible? I don't want to give up on him... I want to do everything possible for him to have a good guilty of life. I am just not sure what that is right now...

So many hard decisions in a matter of a few days.... I wish everything would just calm done for a while and give me a chance to sit back and breath...

Gaia: Egg bound Chicken #2

Well last year we had to take Big Red to the vet several times because she was egg bound. We ended up having her spayed and she is doing great. She is happy and loves to run up to us faster than all the other chickens looking for treats....

Over the last few months we have noticed Gaia our New Hampsire Red from time to time looked egg bound but would always pass it herself without to much problem. Today I went out to see all the chickens and give them some treats and noticed her all fluffed out and her comb was very pail. Now if her comb wasn't pale I would have given her more of a chance to pass the egg herself before I interveined. But I had my husband catch her and for the first time this year I stuck my finger in and found a whole yolk stuck just inside the rectum at the end of her cloaca. It was at the very end and everytime she would try to pass it her cloaca would particly come out with it. I tried to coax it out a few times but then decided to call our Avian vet. He was leaving in an hour and we live more than an hour away so... He told me to use equal parts mineral oil to water and use a syrunge and put it in around her cloaca to rehydrate the area. He said alot of the time the chicken will be dehydrated and it will just get stuck right there. He said to administer it and then wait to 15 minutes and check on her again. She had not passed it but it would now turn when she would try to push it out. So you could tell it was loss now. So I decided to try a 2nd method of bringing her in the house and soaking her for 20 to 30 minutes in warm water. Remember that a chickens normal body temp is 102F to 103F so remember when you soak her that it needs to be a little warm to you to be warm to her. so about the temp you would comfortably wash dishes in. (Not hot!). we soaked her and she seemed not to mind so much and even sat there for a few extra minutes by herself. We took her out and checked her bottom which was still very protruded. I put a glove on and was able to work it out with her help. I would have left her to push it out herself. But she was visibly in pain, clapping her beak, and making noices when trying to lay. We kept in side for the rest of the night under a heat lamp drying and trying to get her stress level back down. I was worries about shock that evening but she was still eating. We gave her an egg, some apple, a couple grapes, and some lettuce to eat.. and she happily ate them although kind of slowly.

When we let the chickens out the next morning we let her go into the coop so she could walk down like she was never missing. No one seemed to care.. and the only Chicken that really picked at all was Isis and that was just a couple little pecks. She is still fluffy but she is doing ok. I am still waiting on the swelling to finish going down and I am sure she will go back to her normal self considering she is eating and drinking...

Update: She is doing well it has been 5 days now. She is still fluffy from time to time but she runs around with the rest of the chickens, eats, and drinks normally...Her comb has taken time to get a good amount of color back into it but it is looking better as well. I assume by the end of summer we will have her spayed just to make she she has not further problems. If she stops being egg bound and has no further issues then we won't spay her but she has been egg bound several times and has been able to eventually pass it. So I figure it is only a matter of time before she will need spayed. Big red did so well and she is so happy now and has had no problems since her spay so I want Gaia to have that same happy go lucky life! I will update later...

Looking alert wondering whats going on. Her comb was really really pale even though you can't really tell from the pictures.

Taking a trial dip... Seems ok....

Waiting on the tub to fill up a little more

John helping her sit low enough for 20minutes....They were both good little troopers :)

A little wet and annoyed.... egg still stuck....

This is the yolk I helped her pop out....We were all releaved when it came out...

Still wet, under the heat lamp, eating her much needed egg to give her some energy after all the stress. when ever any of my chickens have problems and have been stressed I feed them raw eggs. Its always something they love that I know they will eat and it has fat and protein to help them rebuild there health issues while giving energy.

Chicken Report- Big Reds Surgery, Jasmine & Stewie's Release

Not posted at time of surgery posted months later when I realized I forgot to post it!

Big Red one of our hens was laying internally. Some of you may remember some earlier posts about her
"jelly eggs". While she was in our recovery house I found out she had totally stopped laying eggs and had totally started laying internally. Which is a big problem. If a hen lays her eggs internally she will become infected and will die. So I hunted down an avian vet and started going to see him. He said as soon as most of her wounds heeled she could have surgery. He had done this surgery on many types of birds but never a chicken. I was a little worried but learning some more about his back ground, he works for the national aviary in Pittsburgh and is one of the top guys for the local Raptor Rescue, so I figured with all the animals he had treated he would do a great job.
She did finally heal enough to have the surgery. So I took her and dropped her off. What was supposed to be a 30 minute surgery turned into hours worth. She had laid alot more eggs internally than originally thought. Though she didn't have the muscle trauma which he really thought was part of the problem. The vet was awesome brought her through it great and even charged us way less than the bill would have been. But the bill was still pretty expensive. He said she was the worst case he had ever done surgery on and that he had never seen a distention like that in a living bird. So she was very lucky.

She came home with us that day on pain meds & antibiotics. She wouldn't take the liquid antibiotics that he gave me and it took us 3 doses the first day to get a whole dose into her. The next day I took pictures to send the vet via email to show how great she was doing when I noticed she had pulled out a bunch o stitches. So of course back to the vet. He put in some internal stitches and glued it good were she had pulled it apart. He is only in 3 days a week so I could not see him till the following Tuesday (4 days later). Of course by the time we got home, even though she was half sedated she pulled out the stitches above and below the internal stitches. Luckily he said the holes would be ok. He also has her another injection of Antibiotics so that we wouldn't have to fight with her.

After that we did run back and fourth the 2 hour drive a couple times but luckily it has been smooth sailing. She is doing very well and being very spoiled. I was feeding her Organic raspberries, organic blueberries, organic strawberries, organic grapes, and organic greens with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds every morning. She was loving it. but with the cost I had to slow down after she healed and got all her strength back. But her recover has been pretty fast and she is ready to go. I am just afraid to put her back with the chickens because of the whole getting a new pecking order thing. Mabon, the other hen that lived through being attacked by the raccoon still hasn't made friends with the top of the pecking line again. So she gets picked on alot. I am not really sure how to stop this. I have been thinking about pulling Gaea (Top Hen) out so that Mabon can settle in and so Gaea will have to climb her way back up the pecking order ladder. I am also a little worried about the roosters being frisky with her after all her internal issues. So Big Red is still living on our back porch. Hopefully the inflammation she does still have will go down a little more by mid December so I can reintroduce her to the group.

Mabon almost all healed.

Mabons release

Please if you have any questions about internal laying please ask and I will do my best to answer them or ask my Avian vet. My vet was nice enough to email me the pictures of her surgery so I though I would post them. For some they may be a little gross so beware.

After looking at these pictures I have had several  people say they will never eat eggs again...  :)

Day after surgery. Taking pics for the vet.
Noticed she has ripped out about an inch and a half worth of stitches.
She is also still very swollen. (We ended up getting 3 sets of staples and the stitches & glue. That worked alot better
But we still had to keep her wrapped up to keep her away from the incision.  It took awhile for all the swelling to go down and about 2 more months before I felt safe releasing her with the other chickens. But today 5/14/2011 she is doing awesome! and is super friendly with us, wants all of our attention and is the first to run up and get treats from us. She loves life and I am so happy she made it through all the issues she had. I know we truly made the right decision when I see her happy little face running through the chicken yard! :)   )

another look at the stitches that were ripped out.

We had two chicks hatch this year. Jasmine and Stewie. Jasmine is a small feather footed black Cochin and Stewie, my best guess, is Ivy's egg and Titans Son.... maybe.. I don't know what that makes him. But they both have been released with the other chickens and are doing good.

Stewie has grown alot since the day I watched him hatch.
He is looking more like his daddy every day.

Didn't relise I didn't post this..so I didn't re-read or edit it sorry in advance.... 

Lil Banti has a newly hatched Baby

Tonight around 7:30pm I went to clean out the chicken coop and instead of cleaning I heard a chick! I have been listening for a couple days now trying to hear if any the eggs were hatching so I was very surprised. I really thought the chickens had ate all the eggs and didn't think any of them would hatch. 

He was making the line around the egg and had not fully hatched when we looked under Ivy. Ivy had stolen Lil Banti's nest earlier this week and so Lil Banti was laying on Ivy's eggs soothingly clucking to her baby from afar. I felt awful but was going to let Ivy raise the baby since she was laying on it. 

We had been checking on the hatching egg for about an hour when Ivy got up and stepped right on the egg and busted the rest of the shell open. Then she pecked the baby very hard 3 or 4 times. John snatched her out of the coop and gave the baby time to move a little and then put Ivy back to give her another try at mothering and again she attacked him. So John snatched her up again and I held him/her while John Made a new nest for Lil Banti in the small brooder enclosure. Then he placed her in there with two eggs and then I gave her the baby. I laid the baby beside her and he pulled himself under her like it was nothing. It was nice to see s/he is strong and his/her voice is strong so hopefully the baby makes it.

Check in on him in the morning when s/he should be all dry and fluffy.

Freshly hatched

This is his/her egg. See the veins on the inside of the egg. That is were he grew and flourished before hatching.

"Pilling" A Chicken ( Giving oral medication in pill form)

It is pretty easy to give a chicken a pill. Thought I would tell every one how it can be done easily. The first method is easiest with two people but can be carefully done with one. Wrap the chicken loosely in a towel still sitting upright. First off of course you can loosely hold the chickens head. Carefully slightly open the beak and put the pill in the back of her mouth. Do not throw it down her throat. She will swallow it just from it being in the back of her mouth. Once your chicken is feeling better it isn't always easy to do this. I have to do this on my own normally so I have started doing it a very very easy way.

This Berry Method does not stress them out from being handled and forcefully given pills. But sometimes when they are very sick you will have to use the first method till they are feeling good enough to take their favorite treats.

Our chickens love berries. Strawberries, Blueberries, etc. But blueberries are some of their favorites. They swallow them whole so it is the perfect treat to stick their medication in.

This is the Baytril (antibiotics). I break it into fourths. This is the 22mg pill so she takes 11mg morning and evening.

Here is the blueberry with the fourth of pill stuck inside it. Fits really nice and won't fall out. I have to give her two stuffed berries everytime she gets her antibiotics.

Make sure the right chicken gets the meds. This is Big Red and she is in isolation since she was attacked by a raccoon. So its easy for her to get her pill without the other chickens interfering. But make sure you chicken swallows the whole berry or the pill might fall out and not get taken. So watch her till she is finished. 

Don't know if you can tell by the picture but she has it in the back of her mouth whole swallowing it. These pills go straight down this way and I can't think of an easier way to get them to take their meds. 

Quick shots of our two Recovering Chickens

Big Red in her new Hot Pink Wrap because she was pulling her Dakens gauze through the white shirt so it had to be done.. It doesn't seem to bother her much though so that is good. And this wrap even covers up the staple in her leg and the spot were she had pulled out some of her feathers.

Mabon the day after her vet appointment still doing very good.  You can see her wound is filling in nicely with nice healthy tissue.

Another Vet appointment for the chickens

I was so nervous to see what they would say about how Big Reds wounds. I know they looked clean and not infected but they didn't really tell me what to look for that would tell me it was healing. But to my surprise the Vet said she was doing really good! Her stitches look good, her healthy skin is starting to attach to the side of the wound and that is what it is supposed to do. There is some dead skin ans scar tissue and the vet scrapped the edging again to open the wound up where it hadn't reattached to the surrounding healthy skin. He told me to continue the "Dakens" wraps and I will have to continue them for at least the next month and I am supposed to still fill the pocket where the staples are with neosprine. She is still on the same 1/2 a 22mg Baytril twice a day to end at a week. But I have enough to take me through another week and since I think she has peritonitis I might extend her antibiotics another week to try to clear that up. Then I am going to take her to the Avian vet in Morgantown to see what he thinks about her recovery and if sterilization is right and safe for her.
She is eating better every day. She isn't just eating sunflower seeds and eggs any more. She started eating strawberries and she really started eating her food again. And she just seems like she is in a much better mood . She lays down although most of the time she stays at her food bowl eating on and off. But she has been relaxing more. But with feeling better come her attitude. She tries to peck us to death every time we touch her. She is more vocal. And really doesn't like the Dakens wraps but that is keeping the flies and infection away so they will keep coming. But she is doing GREAT!

I also took Mabon with me because her wound had totally changed its look with in two days and it was kind puffy in the center so I thought it had gotten infected. So I was not looking forward to what he would have to do to the wound to reopen it and clean it out. Luckily I was wrong and he cleaned it with some Betidine and he said it looked great! I was ecstatic! She is eating well, laying eggs, and acting normal. She is doing great. He told me it is good to be kinda ruff with the wound she has because it needs to be opens so it can bleed a little. So I am supposed to take a piece of gauze and rub the wound with Betidine and let it bleed a little to get new tissue growth to come in quicker. He said as soon as it scabs over she is good to go. After he cleaned it her wound looks awesome! She is doing so good!

I am learning alot about wound care with our chickens although I hate to need to use it again. Atleast next time I know some about what needs to happen to certain kinds of wounds. What can be stapled or stitched back and that vets all do different techniques and I love to learn how to take care of our animals to the best of our ability. I am so glad they are pulling through this and I am still praying that they will make a full recovery.

Big Reds trip to the Vet

Today I called every where I could that the vets referred me to that might see chickens. It took a while but I finally tracked down someone who would see and possibly operate on Big Red if needed.

Luckily it was one of the closest vets to us. I have never really been found of her. But today I gave it another go to try to save Big Red.

I had an appointment at 2:30pm. I tried to go back to sleep for a while before the appointment but I never got too. So I drove over there on 2 hours of sleep and of course as soon as I leave the house I start feeling like crap and getting lite headed. Thinking this would be a short trip I had locked Roxie up for the first time since her Heartworm treatment and had my Mom come and check on her ever half hour or so. But the short tripped turned into hours. Big Red panted all the way to the vet worrying me. The waiting room was full when I got there. Its a small waiting room but there was a good number of people ahead of me. About 3:30pm I was still sitting in the waiting room listening to two annoying ladies talking about how wonderful breeding dogs is. They were both dog breeders. One bred Mastiffs and the other bred Great Danes and Staphy Mixes. Can you be more irresponsible? NO .... Big Red did seem to get more comfortable in her crate and finally stopped panting. I wanted..and waited... and waited... some more.... The last case the vet seen was a lady with a very sick puppy. She doesn't think they puppy will make it. But they people are trying to save his life. So they had to leave him there attached to an IV. So I didn't mind waiting while the little puppy got emergency treatment. Finally the vet came and got me. Then poor Big Red got had to go through more pain. The vet cleaned it a little sprayed something on it. Checked her vent to see if she was egg bound. She didn't find anything. Then she sprayed anesthetic spray all over her skinned spot. She said there was alot of dead skin. I told her that the other vet had said she couldn't stitch her up. This vet said she was going to staple what she could. So then she started cutting the dead skin off and scrapping the big part so that the live skin would be showing. Then she stapled two places to the best of her ability and said the skin would have to regrow over the rest. She said she does have alot of infection and gave her a Batryle shot and gave me some pills to start tomorrow. She told me to pack the wound with neosporine where she had stapled it back together. Then she told me to use gauze pads with a mixture of 1 Cup beach to 9 Cups water to keep on her wound so that it will stay clean and moist. I am supposed to change that 2 to 3 times a day. I need to keep it wet at all times and the edges of the wound open. Then they put a little gauze shirt onto her and placed a gauze pad under it. At one point throughout the visit she flipped Red over to look at her belly and she regurgitated some of the liquid from her crop and that scared me... But after they set her back up she seemed ok again. I came home and put the first gauze with Clorox water and packed her wound with neosporine. I have my fingers crossed and I have been praying all day that she will recover from this. But the vet said it is really up to her body being able to fight off the infection and not going into shock. One good thing though is she still eats out of my hands and drinks from the bowl when I pick it up.

Today before we went she was drinking and eating a little. I know she is a strong girl and I know its going to take time. So I am really hoping she will take that spunk she still has a little of and pull through this rough time.

Will post pictures of her wound later.

Update- I just spoke with an Avian vet in Mo-town and he is really nice and answered all my questions. He is like me since the infection is in her abdomn and her belly is swollen it is probably from dropping yolks into her belly. So he said after the infection is treated and she is doing better and her wound is healing to bring her in and he will give her an exam and tell me whats going on. He also said they have a very good success rate with the surgery to take out the oviduct so she will stop laying. He said every once in a while he while a chicken will keep laying internally but most of the time after they remove that the chicken will stop laying eggs all together. He said although birds and anesthetization isn't the best chickens and hardy and stand up pretty well as long as they are healthy when anesthetized. He said that the most important thing is to get her to eat and drink as much as possible. Even if it is just sunflower seeds. He said it is ok to let her have them right now since she is sick and that is her favorite but after that to make sure she only eats small amounts since they are high in fat and calories. He also said the skin that dies normally does in the first 5 to 14 days so hopefully the staple stay put and she heals. O yeah and he said the dose of Batryle with a 4.5 lb chicken at 11mg twice a day is a little low but it should be fine. Just to keep a watch. He made me feel better knowing that he is going to see her as soon as she can make the trip! So Thank Dr. Falllon!!! :) He has worked at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.

Chickens Recovering. Egg bond? Internal Laying? or False Laying? Or my imagination?

Yesterday Big Red didn't seem comfortable or like she was getting any better and the thought keeps running through my mind that she still hasn't laid an egg. I know this can be caused by stress but at the same time I know she gets egg bound and has "jelly" eggs on a normal basis so I am not sure what to this about her not laying. I keep checking her belly to make sure it is not swollen (internal layer or false layer) but so far she hasn't had any change from what we can tell. It has been at least 4 days that I know of since she laid an egg. She is only 15 months old so this is not a normal egg production rate. Last night we treated her wounds again with a warm compress, iodine, and neosporine. This is the first evening we have used neosporine. I also fed her a raw egg. Which took her a while to finish but I think she liked it. After the treatment last night she seems more comfortable today and seems to have more energy. She even tried to walk out of the dog kennel, slowly, but at least she tried. Yesterday she had no interest in walking out. I have even seen her laying down and relaxing a little bit today which I haven't seen her do but once since she was attacked. She is still not eating her regular food. I am still wondering if the bite mark on her neck has something to do with the fact that she only seems to want to take in liquids. I am glad to see her more comfy.

Mabon is still in high spirits. But I noticed yesterday that she either broke her wound open or has been picking at it. It was oozing some blood when we treated her last night. It wasn't fresh it was clotting but it was still more open than what it had been. We fed her an egg and she thoroughly enjoyed it. It was gone within a minute. We put a warm compress on her and some iodine. We didn't put any neosporine on her since we didn't know we could till after we had but her back in the kennel. She is a hard one to catch so I thought we would wait and do it during tonights treatment. But she seems to be doing great and eating an drinking good.

I finally found our Chicken Health Handbook last night. I have been looking for it since the chickens got attacked. Some how we have looked over it the hundred times we have looked at the book shelf because someone had laid it onto on the books backwards... oops... But I love this book because it ha a good bit of information to use. And alot of information to learn for the health of your chickens.

Last night first things I read about was wound care and even though the exotic vet I spoke with said not to put any kind of antibiotic cream on them the book said I could. I think Big Red is doing better today since her skin isn't all stiff and hard. Plus it has a better protected layer than just iodine. Although the book doesn't tell me to use Iodine I think it is a good precaution so we can keep the wounds as clean as possible. It does however say to clean it out with the hydrogen peroxide and I have not brought myself to do this. I hope it doesn't hurt them in the long run that I haven't. I just feel like this would be really painful or them and they have already gone through so much and I am afraid of putting Big Red into shock. So we have been cleaning it with the compresses and iodine.

Next I was paging through to see exactly how the egg process works and how a chicken begins to lay internally or falsely. Next we to the nutritional info so I could see what would help them recovering and things they might be lacking or getting to much of. I found that our chickens are probably eating to much grit since they are fed a commercial all natural diet. Plus that some of our chickens is in taking to much calcium because we are getting calcium ruff spots of our eggs. So Big Red laying jelly eggs should not be just from a lack of calcium but either from a lack of Vitamin D which helps you absorb calcium or from a lack of something else that helps your body work with calcium.

So my thought is if you have chickens.. even if you have the Internet for information you should definitely The Chicken Health Handbook.

Update: Tonight we took care of the chickens at around 11 pm. Big Red was laying comfortably when we got her out to treat her. After treating her she ate some food from a bowl John was holding for her and even ate some more egg. But after she was done we seen her straining and shaking around her rear end. We didn't we didn't feel any eggs but still 2 hours later she still is standing in her kennel shaking and straining it seems like. Wondering if she is egg bound to were we can't feel it or internally laying. I hope its neither and that its our imaginations. I still think her bottom feels fuller than it should. I also seen that she passed a thick green stool tonight. I think this means she is not eating and is passing bile through her stools. Good thing she ate a little tonight. I hope it helps. Fingers crossed that she will pull through this and start laying normal once she has healed some more.

Mabon got her first treatment of neosporine tonight but her wound looked good already and was not picked open any more.

The Chickens are Recovering from the raccoon attack- Graphic Pictures

After the attack a couple nights ago when Prince Charming, Snow White & Splash were all killed and Big Red & Mabon were attacked... I am happy to say right now they seem to be recovering well.

Big red has the worst wounds. She limps and has a big piece of skin that is dieing off. The skin dieing off and not getting infected is one of my biggest concerns right now. Plus she has some bite marks on her neck that could cause an abscess. Which I have to watch for.

Last night we treated her wounds. We put warm compresses on them so that we could get some of the dirt off. We don't want it to get infected. She was ok with the compress until we tried to get some of the dirt off. Then she started putting up a fight. We also covered the spots in Iodine which she didn't seem to like very much either. She kept attacking our q-tip and trying to eat the end off of it. Finally I had to have John hold her so I could get a good coat of Iodine on her biggest wound.

The Neck wounds. These are teeth marks that go pretty deep. You can't tell but there are a good number of teeth marks.

The big side of her wound. At the bottom you can see where the skin is still attached.

The Skin that is dieing.

Warm Compress

After Treatment. You can see she still has blood on her face.

Mabon has on injured spot above her leg. It is into the fat a little deeper than Big Reds but the spot isn't even half as big. She has seemed in good spirits even the first day. she wasn't shocky at all. She ate fine that day and has been a real trooper through being medicated. She is the hardest chicken to handle other than the roosters. So she has been putting up with alot of handling and for that she is doing awesome.

Picture taken of Mabon the day after the attack.

Today we had to separate the girls. We had them both in the same dog kennel. Mabon decided to quietly lay an egg. Well after that I guess Big Red decided she wanted to try to lay one. But she didn't want to be in the kennel with Mabon while she did it. So I go out because Big Red is jumping and squawking and trying to get out and that was making Mabon attack her. So we brought another smaller dog kennel out to put her in. I guess I am going to have to watch for dog kennels to go on sale again. Last Black Friday I bought one at 40% off. So hopefully this Black Friday they will have them on sale again.

Good news is no on seems shocky any more and they have been eating and drinking good. I hope I have enough antibiotics in their water because the dosing instructions really suck. You would think with the popularity of chickens being pets they would have better instructions on the pack. I guess I am going to have to ask our vet to show us how to give them injections on antibiotics that way we can treat them with the exact dose they need.