- Aug 5, 2012
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I think I felt compelled to share this story in hopes that somebody out there has had a similar experience and will comment so I know I’m not completely crazy. Ok so for the past three days I’ve been sharing our spare bedroom with one of my rescue hens, Sarah. She had been showing all the classic symptoms of being egg bound earning her a trip to the human coop/chicken spa where she enjoyed daily baths and round the clock care. As many of you know chickens are not thrilled about someone sticking their finger in their vent, Vaseline or not and Sarah is no exception. Brief as it was, the search revealed no egg but a noticeable tautness to the skin on her abdomen possibly caused by bloating ie something to be monitored. I Got her out of her box yesterday for her daily exercise and she looked good, tail was up, she didn’t lie down like she had the day before and was actually curious, poking and pecking at stuff in the room. I looked out the window and saw that the storm had finally passed, the sun was out and it was a beautiful day… perfect conditions to attempt a re-entry back into the flock. Since she seemed to be feeling better, I wrapped her in a towel and headed to the coop which is about 2 car lengths from the house. The second I got outside with her she started freaking out…it was like someone had flipped a switch or something…In fact, I was having a hard time even hanging on to her. By the time we reached the coop she was dead…I set her down and she just lied there…lifeless….I couldn’t believe it…just like that and she was gone! I was and still am utterly stunned. What the hell happened? Did she break her neck in the struggle? I thought to myself “who are you…Lenny from of mice and men who doesn’t know his own strength and squeezes all his animals to death?” Everyone that knows me calls me the crazy chicken lady mainly because I had a crippled rooster that had to be hand fed so I made a cross-body sling, put him in it and carried him with me EVERYWHERE for THREE years. So as you might imagine, I felt horrible…moped around for about an hour then decided the only way I’d know if I were a monster or not was to do an autopsy. Being an amateur taxidermist this was not a problem for me….however, I was NOT expecting what I found when I cut open this hen….I quit counting at 250…250 cysts/tumors …I don’t know what…but they were everywhere… ranging in size from golf ball to peppercorn…it was like she had two huge bunches of grapes inside her body cavity…which explains the tautness of skin on her abdomen, she literally was ready to explode…also found some fatty tissue attached to her heart and a blood clot inside her heart. I don’t know which thing killed her but I’m confident that although I may be crazy, I am not a monster and I am truly amazed that she lasted as long as she did, poor thing. I’ve changed her name posthumously to…wait for it….Cysta Sarah…sorry , really bad pun...inappropriate humor is how I cope. Rest in peace my fine feathered friend.
So now I’m sitting alone in our spare room wondering if anyone else has experienced anything remotely close to this?
So now I’m sitting alone in our spare room wondering if anyone else has experienced anything remotely close to this?
