Dhkoenig
Songster
Hello all - my Nelly is sick and I took her to the vet Friday - sadly the only vet for chickens only comes in once a week and she won't be back again til Wednesday to read the Xray and Bloodwork. Meantime she gave me an antibiotic and an anti inflammatory to give twice a day. She suggested I put her in a dog crate or something in my garage so I can more easily catch her for medicine. She is not declining and I opted to put her back with the flock to minimize stress for her and keep her with her buddies. Another thing the doctor recommended was to maybe take one of the buddies with her to the cage in my garage so she isn't alone. I feel like this is terrible too, because now I am stressing out two birds! Her symptom is that she keeps to herself a bit and pulls one leg up or rests a lot. She will eat if I give her her favorites like tomatoes, sprouts, blueberries and meal worms. She is walking around and isn't noticeably sick unless you are observant. Her face does look "off" but anyway, with all that background.. here is my question. It is getting harder and harder to catch her. Maybe the doctor was right about the cage but that seems so bad when she doesn't seem really obviously ill still after 7 days since I first noticed. No signs of declining, just sort-of the same. The first few days I caught her with meal worms, (the one thing she can't resist) but she is on to me now. Does anyone have any advice on this? She is not a lap-chicken. Not cuddly or interactive. She is inquisitive and sweet, just doesn't want to be pet or picked up for sure. How the heck do I catch this girl???
