You'll never believe what I found at Wal Mart! Update #36 *Pics*

The hubby and I were leaving Wal Mart today, and as we turned the corner in the parking lot we saw, of all things, a CHICKEN run out in front of our car!



After the initial shock wore off, I jumped out of the car and we proceeded to run all over the parking lot trying to catch the poor thing.  She was limping a little and was missing a lot of feathers, but she was still able to give us quite a workout trying to corner and grab her!  Finally, she ran under a parked SUV and climbed up into the undercarriage where she crammed herself on top of the rear axle.  At that point it was pretty easy for me to shimmy underneath on my belly and grab her by her legs to pull her out.  Once I had her in my arms she was completely still and calm and sat that way for the entire car ride home.

Not sure what breed she is (mebbe you guys can help with that), or how the heck she got into the Wal Mart parking lot, but she has a much better home now.  Also, just guessing on the 'she' part...



So far, I've given her a bath because she was pretty dirty and oily from the parking lot and then once she was dry I dusted her for mites and put her in a cage to isolate her from my chickens.  The plan is to keep her there until I figure out what, if anything, is wrong and treat it.

What I've noted so far is that her weight seems really good, she's got plenty of meat on her so she's not sickly in that way.  She's missing a LOT of feathers so she might either be molting or else she was in with some nasty roosters or was attacked by some sort of predator (no skin damage, though).  Her nose isn't running, but after the bath I noticed some bubbling in her eyes while drying her off.  It went away while I was drying her and did not come back, so I'm not sure if that might be just from the bath or if I should give her some antibiotics for possible respiratory issues.

The first poo I observed was a watery green and white mess, very bright green.  The ones after that were pretty much normal except that the part that is normally brown was green.  Not sure if this is a sign of illness or if it's just because she's been eating who-knows-what from the parking lot for who-knows-how-long.

Poor girl!

I'd love any advice on what to look for during the quarantine period and what things I might want to go ahead and treat for just in case (should I worm her for example?).

It's hard to tell her true color with all of the missing and shredded feathers, but she seems to have a similar coloring to my light brown leghorns.  BUT, her earlobes are red so she can't be a leghorn.  Her legs are whitish yellow, and her comb is a funny short single comb that flops over to one side.

When she's down on the ground she has one of those really upright tails that look like a young leghorn or a game chicken. 

I'm thinking she might be some sort of game bird mix, as a lot of the illicit chickens around here tend to be some sort of cubalaya mix or something.

Guess I'll have to wait and see what she looks like when she's not half nekkid.

I'll try to get a good pic of her standing up tomorrow.  Her stance and body shape is very much like my leghorn and andalusian  pullets; she's slender and has an upright, fanned out tail.  Her comb is tough to get a good pic of, but it is basically just a small straight comb that flops over to one side.