This is Sunni. She was hatched May 6, 2013. I have owned a lot of chickens in the last three years, and she is by far my favorite. When she was a baby she was very curious, and skittish. I couldn't handle her, but she was such a goof ball and so much fun to watch.
When I would take photos of her, she loved to stretch her neck and look at the camera as if to say, "Ooo! What's that?"
As she got older she became a bit for trust worthy. She started to realize that my hands really weren't so bad, and she and her sister Daffodil would both climb all over my lap. Sunni was always a slow grower. When her sister were all full feathered, She still had big tufts of baby fuzz. But she was oh so cute.
When Sunni was 10 weeks old (July 17,2013), she became very ill, and I almost lost her. (The story of her illness is very long, but if you wish to know more about what happened, you can find her story here. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...mics-wet-fowl-pox-an-important-lesson-learned ) I spent 3 months syringe feeding her three times every day. She loved coming in the house at meal time. Over the course of those three months, she and I became very close. She started following all over the place every chance she got. Because of what she went through at such a young age, she stopped growing at about 4 months of age. Because she became smaller than her other flock mates, she started to get pushed down to the bottom of the pecking order. Due to this, she spent even more time with me. By 5 months she was laying eggs and had started eating on her own. I missed having her in the house, and she missed it too. So I did lots of research and asked my parents if Sunni could come live in the house. It took a lot of persistance on my part, but on October 30,2013, Sunni came to live in the house.
(pictures)
(the day she became ill)
(recovering. Day 3)
(Waiting for her lunch)
(So cute!!)
(Sisters pecked off a piece of her comb.
)
(Being goofy!)
(First egg!!)
Sunni loves her new life in the house. She no longer gets bullied by her old flock mates, and she is the most spoiled young lady ever. Looking at her now, you would never guess that she had such a ruff start. She is Queen Bee of the house, and she loves to remind our cats of that.
On December 17, 2013 something happened that we never would have imagined. We were sitting around the table eating dinner, and Sunni was at my feet begging for table scraps, and our dog was under the table next to her. She must have tried to give him the usual peck or something, and our dog lost it. We aren't sure exactly what he did to her, since they were both under the table, but we think he got his mouth around her head and he broke a good handful of feathers behind her wing. She stumbled out from the table and fell to the ground. I thought she was dead and I lost it too. But she was alive, she was just in severe shock. Within and hour she was on her feet, but she wasn't at all her usual chatty energetic self. She stood in the same spot of her coop wwith her head pulled close to her for hours. I woke up several time that night and gave her pedialyte with a syringe. By 4:00am on December 18th, I knew she was dying. She lost control of her neck, and she kept almost falling over backwards. My parents and I sat on the couch with her in my lap for 4 hours waiting for the veterinary clinic to open. We had intended to take her in to have her put to rest to end her suffering. I have never cried as much as I did in that 4 hours. By 8:00am we knew we couldn't take her to the vet. We decided that if she was going to die, she should die peacefully in my arms where she felt safe.
All that day I sat in a rocking chair with her all bundled in a blanket and tried to keep her as comfortable as I could. I also researched and tried to find out if there was anything that I could possibly do to save her.
Sunni is such a fighter. By that afternoon she was standing. Her pupils were fixed dilated, and she was blind in her left eye. I was told that she was going through shock, and it would most likely be fatal. She had a small puncture on the top of her head that I found early that morning, and she had a large dark greenish blue bruise across most of the top of her head and down behind her left eye. I was told here on BYC that if she was in any pain, we should try giving her baby aspirin. We gave her that mixed in 1cc of water, and within an hour she was walking. She walked all over my room. Her coordination was really off since she couldn't see out of her left eye, but she was trying to peck at things like she normally did.
That night she slept in a soft-sided tote in my bed, and by morning her right eye was dilating and contracting like normal. I just couldn't believe how much she was improving, after I thought she wasn't going to make it.
After a couple days her eyesight came back, she was more active and chatting like she used to, and she was starting to eat small amounts on her own. Seeing her alive on Christmas morning was the best present I ever could've gotten.
For now she still isn't eating much on her own, so we have been tube feeding her. But hopefully she will start eating fully on her own again soon. She just started a molt yesterday (December 29, 2013), so that may also be why she isn't very interested in food.
Sunni is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me.
January 22, 2014 (update)
Sunni is doing great. She has started eating and drinking fully on her own again, and has even started laying eggs again (as of January 12, 2014) We are in the process of moving, so the house is getting pretty bare. Sunni is such a little creature of habit that she follows me around whenever she's out, asking me all kinds of little chicken questions. Probably wondering where the heck all of our stuff is!
I'm looking forward to seeing how she does with the move.
We got about an hour of sunshine yesterday, and she loved it.
In her nest box laying an egg this morning.
Thanks for viewing! I will be updating this periodically with more stories and pictures of Sunni.
-MsChickenMomma (aka Ashley)
When I would take photos of her, she loved to stretch her neck and look at the camera as if to say, "Ooo! What's that?"
As she got older she became a bit for trust worthy. She started to realize that my hands really weren't so bad, and she and her sister Daffodil would both climb all over my lap. Sunni was always a slow grower. When her sister were all full feathered, She still had big tufts of baby fuzz. But she was oh so cute.
When Sunni was 10 weeks old (July 17,2013), she became very ill, and I almost lost her. (The story of her illness is very long, but if you wish to know more about what happened, you can find her story here. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...mics-wet-fowl-pox-an-important-lesson-learned ) I spent 3 months syringe feeding her three times every day. She loved coming in the house at meal time. Over the course of those three months, she and I became very close. She started following all over the place every chance she got. Because of what she went through at such a young age, she stopped growing at about 4 months of age. Because she became smaller than her other flock mates, she started to get pushed down to the bottom of the pecking order. Due to this, she spent even more time with me. By 5 months she was laying eggs and had started eating on her own. I missed having her in the house, and she missed it too. So I did lots of research and asked my parents if Sunni could come live in the house. It took a lot of persistance on my part, but on October 30,2013, Sunni came to live in the house.
(pictures)
(the day she became ill)
(recovering. Day 3)
(Waiting for her lunch)
(So cute!!)
(Sisters pecked off a piece of her comb.
(Being goofy!)
(First egg!!)
Sunni loves her new life in the house. She no longer gets bullied by her old flock mates, and she is the most spoiled young lady ever. Looking at her now, you would never guess that she had such a ruff start. She is Queen Bee of the house, and she loves to remind our cats of that.
On December 17, 2013 something happened that we never would have imagined. We were sitting around the table eating dinner, and Sunni was at my feet begging for table scraps, and our dog was under the table next to her. She must have tried to give him the usual peck or something, and our dog lost it. We aren't sure exactly what he did to her, since they were both under the table, but we think he got his mouth around her head and he broke a good handful of feathers behind her wing. She stumbled out from the table and fell to the ground. I thought she was dead and I lost it too. But she was alive, she was just in severe shock. Within and hour she was on her feet, but she wasn't at all her usual chatty energetic self. She stood in the same spot of her coop wwith her head pulled close to her for hours. I woke up several time that night and gave her pedialyte with a syringe. By 4:00am on December 18th, I knew she was dying. She lost control of her neck, and she kept almost falling over backwards. My parents and I sat on the couch with her in my lap for 4 hours waiting for the veterinary clinic to open. We had intended to take her in to have her put to rest to end her suffering. I have never cried as much as I did in that 4 hours. By 8:00am we knew we couldn't take her to the vet. We decided that if she was going to die, she should die peacefully in my arms where she felt safe.
All that day I sat in a rocking chair with her all bundled in a blanket and tried to keep her as comfortable as I could. I also researched and tried to find out if there was anything that I could possibly do to save her.
Sunni is such a fighter. By that afternoon she was standing. Her pupils were fixed dilated, and she was blind in her left eye. I was told that she was going through shock, and it would most likely be fatal. She had a small puncture on the top of her head that I found early that morning, and she had a large dark greenish blue bruise across most of the top of her head and down behind her left eye. I was told here on BYC that if she was in any pain, we should try giving her baby aspirin. We gave her that mixed in 1cc of water, and within an hour she was walking. She walked all over my room. Her coordination was really off since she couldn't see out of her left eye, but she was trying to peck at things like she normally did.
That night she slept in a soft-sided tote in my bed, and by morning her right eye was dilating and contracting like normal. I just couldn't believe how much she was improving, after I thought she wasn't going to make it.
After a couple days her eyesight came back, she was more active and chatting like she used to, and she was starting to eat small amounts on her own. Seeing her alive on Christmas morning was the best present I ever could've gotten.
For now she still isn't eating much on her own, so we have been tube feeding her. But hopefully she will start eating fully on her own again soon. She just started a molt yesterday (December 29, 2013), so that may also be why she isn't very interested in food.
Sunni is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me.
January 22, 2014 (update)
Sunni is doing great. She has started eating and drinking fully on her own again, and has even started laying eggs again (as of January 12, 2014) We are in the process of moving, so the house is getting pretty bare. Sunni is such a little creature of habit that she follows me around whenever she's out, asking me all kinds of little chicken questions. Probably wondering where the heck all of our stuff is!
We got about an hour of sunshine yesterday, and she loved it.
In her nest box laying an egg this morning.
Thanks for viewing! I will be updating this periodically with more stories and pictures of Sunni.
-MsChickenMomma (aka Ashley)
