further Matilda update - went to vet

[patandchickens]

So, Matilda went to the vet today to manually have the egg broken that's been stuck inside her for at least a week. This is a regular ol' small-animal vet that we use for our cats, not a bird specialist, but he was willing to 'go for it' as long as I understood that he was operating more from general principles and textbook advice than from extensive poultry experience, which seemed fair enough to me. He said I could probably do it myself at home, but I figured that with my near-zero knowledge of chicken innards it might be best to have him do it this time.

So now it's wait and see. I know that this is unlikely to solve all her problems long-term but if she can be happy and comfy for more weeks or months or whatever then that's all I really ask for. She's going to have to stay separate from her 'sisters' for the forseeable future, so I can monitor her egg production or lack thereof and so she doesn't get her butt pecked all bloody again... but in a few weeks it's likely to be cold enough that I will shut the tractor down and bring Marigold and Maryanne back into the kennel building (with an outdoor 'porch' for daytime use), at which time I'll arrange things so that Matilda's in an adjacent pen separated only by wire mesh so she can at least sorta have their company.

Assuming Matilda gets better, that is.

Fingers and toes all crossed,

Pat

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Good Luck!

 

[nccatnip]

Wishing you all the best

 

[SpottedCrow]

Good luck with Matilda.

 

[patandchickens]

She seems basically ok today, and has probably passed the broken egg (although I don't see any sign of it having come out) since I can't feel anything like that inside of her. Maybe she ate the bits.

So, hopefully whew.

She does seem to be laying internally and the eggbound thing may recur again as well, so I don't have lots of long term expectations for her, but she is happy for now, so <shrug>.

I'll keep her separate but soon her sisters will be back indoors from the tractor and then she'll at least have through-the-mesh-divider company. Until then I'll try to cobble together an outdoor 'porch' for her quarters I guess.

Thanks again for all your advice and good thoughts for her,

Pat