So one day I come home around 6 PM, and all but three out of my 14 chickens are dead and cold. I'm walking around looking for survivors when I come across my 4 year old Easter Egger hen, Speckles, walking around with her head dragging on the ground. No external injuries, but this obviously wasn't normal. I brought her inside and put her in a box, thinking she would die sometime in the night. I thought her neck tendons were severed or possibly even a broken neck. The next morning she was still alive, and had laid an egg. This was pretty odd, considering that hens stop laying eggs if they're put through extreme stress, so the only way this could have happened was if she was already in 'labor' when I found her. I saved the egg, thinking I could either bury it with her when she died or hatch it. I gave her some water and then left for school.
When I came home, still alive. She didn't seem to be in any pain so I decided i would try to nurse her back to health. Over the next two days she made miraculous progress. I watered her once every 2 hours and made some liquid food by soaking dog food and adding an egg yolk, then straining the liquid off and having her drink it. She had started to have a little control over her head, like making an effort to pull her head back when she drank or turning to look at something. Still no strength in her neck though.
That weekend I had to leave town to help my Nana move into her new house. Naturally, I brought her with me in a plastic bin that I set on my lap. It was a four hour drive and she did pretty well until the last 20 minutes. She tried to re-position herself like she had done many times before, but her head flipped back over itself. Something must've snapped that was barely holding on. She flipped over onto her back with her head underneath her. I tried to straighten her neck out an get her back on her stomach but she had gone limp. She started her death throes and then her death rattle. The whole thing was over in about 15 seconds. The only other time I had ever heard a death rattle was from my little bantam chick Rocky, which I had gotten from a Tractor Supply for free because he half drowned in his water bowl, died on my chest on Easter Sunday.
I bagged Speckles up once we got to my Nana's and put her in the freezer. Her funeral was today, but I decided I would hatch her last egg in memory of her. So, hopefully 21 days from now I'll have a mini Speckles.
When I came home, still alive. She didn't seem to be in any pain so I decided i would try to nurse her back to health. Over the next two days she made miraculous progress. I watered her once every 2 hours and made some liquid food by soaking dog food and adding an egg yolk, then straining the liquid off and having her drink it. She had started to have a little control over her head, like making an effort to pull her head back when she drank or turning to look at something. Still no strength in her neck though.
That weekend I had to leave town to help my Nana move into her new house. Naturally, I brought her with me in a plastic bin that I set on my lap. It was a four hour drive and she did pretty well until the last 20 minutes. She tried to re-position herself like she had done many times before, but her head flipped back over itself. Something must've snapped that was barely holding on. She flipped over onto her back with her head underneath her. I tried to straighten her neck out an get her back on her stomach but she had gone limp. She started her death throes and then her death rattle. The whole thing was over in about 15 seconds. The only other time I had ever heard a death rattle was from my little bantam chick Rocky, which I had gotten from a Tractor Supply for free because he half drowned in his water bowl, died on my chest on Easter Sunday.
I bagged Speckles up once we got to my Nana's and put her in the freezer. Her funeral was today, but I decided I would hatch her last egg in memory of her. So, hopefully 21 days from now I'll have a mini Speckles.
R.I.P Speckles "Speck-Beck"
April, 2014-April, 2018
April, 2014-April, 2018
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