Anne Bonny is the toughest chicken I know.
I rescued her from The Great Raccoon Massacre of 2012 in a neighbor's backyard around Thanksgiving. She made it out, but not without some nasty wounds. In particular, she lost two-and-a-half toes on her left foot and her entire right leg up to her hock. She was able to hop around but wasn't able to get in the coop at night. So each night she slept on the floor of her run while raccoons pulled out her feathers and tormented her. My neighbor was just going to kill her and throw her in the trash. I knew I had to give this cluckly little dinosaur another chance.
I took her home with me and posted her up in the guest bedroom to my cat's dismay. She was in a sad state. She was skinny, her feathers were falling out and there was clearly bone exposed on her stump. She was able to hop around quite well but her stump looked terrible. I know I am crazy, but I took her to the vet to see what they could do. They said the best they could do would be to take the leg off further up near the hip, but that she likely wouldn't survive anesthesia. Luckily for me and Annie, the vet was curious to see if surgery would work and they went ahead with it. I called the vet as soon as surgery was over and they said she was already awake and standing around squawking at everyone. I have nothing but good things to say about the doctors and staff at Dublin Animal Hospital.
After I brought her home, she was back to devouring everything in sight and hopping about merrily. Then, after about a week post-surgery, she stopped standing up. I still don't understand what went wrong, but her remaining foot was totally limp. She just flapped her wings and squawked endlessly. It was terrible to hear and to see and, after a week or so, I finally decided it was time for the ax.
Now, I am a vegetarian, I throw my brakes on for squirrels, I carry bugs and spiders out of my house instead of squishing their little heads; I did not want to have to kill this silly, squawky one-legged bird. I decided to do it one Saturday and as I walked in to get her out of her cage in the guest bedroom I saw she was kind of standing up! It was more like she was just balancing on her hock but that was enough for me. Over the next few days she made more progress and eventually did begin hopping around again. What's more, is in late January, she even began laying eggs again!
I am currently in the process of building her a safe and handicap accessible coop next to my other ladies and hoping to find her a fellow hen to keep her company.
