- Thread starter
- #981
I gave Mary a bath
Mary was recently found to have a round worm burden. The whole flock was wormed (I think - I tried my best and they definitely swallowed a little medicated water but there's still the follow up flotation test on the cards).
Anyway, Mary got poopy buttbutt real bad. And that's not ok with her orpington fluff. There were big clods hanging down and pulling on her fluff. She wasn't joyful.
She needed a bath and after my recent successful foray into chook bathing with Sandy, I was ready to take her on.
A few important differences:
Sandy Mary
Small. Large
Tame. Wild
Poopy bum Poopmageddon
Sweetheart. Bold.
With these constraints in place, I came up with a plan to put Mary in a plastic cat carry box with a folded over towel in the bottom to prevent damage to her claws, then put the whole box in the bathtub (it doesn't fit in the kitchen or laundry sinks).
Good plan.
Except for the first part.
Luckily my brother popped in to provide some kitchen scraps. He was recruited into service. We each took a small panel of fence and crept up on her, eventually cornering her. She wasn't at all happy. After a few failures, I got her wings held down then I picked her up and placed her gently in the cat box.
I'm always very gentle with the hens but Mary still thinks I'm an axe murderer.
Once she was in the box, she calmed right down. I put the box in the tub and started the taps. No problem.
Then she soaked while the poop clods softened. Whenever I could trick her into not poking her head out of the cat box, I sneaked my hand in to check on progress. Eventually 90% of the pooperama was gone. I thought we were really pushing it with her in the water for so long, so I pulled the plug, tipped the box to get the worst of the water out, and placed the box on the floor.
Like many before her, she seemed to really enjoy the hairdryer
After 40 minutes, I carried her out and opened the box.
She didn't even say "it's good to be back in the yard" she just walked away like nothing happened.
Mary was recently found to have a round worm burden. The whole flock was wormed (I think - I tried my best and they definitely swallowed a little medicated water but there's still the follow up flotation test on the cards).
Anyway, Mary got poopy buttbutt real bad. And that's not ok with her orpington fluff. There were big clods hanging down and pulling on her fluff. She wasn't joyful.
She needed a bath and after my recent successful foray into chook bathing with Sandy, I was ready to take her on.
A few important differences:
Sandy Mary
Small. Large
Tame. Wild
Poopy bum Poopmageddon
Sweetheart. Bold.
With these constraints in place, I came up with a plan to put Mary in a plastic cat carry box with a folded over towel in the bottom to prevent damage to her claws, then put the whole box in the bathtub (it doesn't fit in the kitchen or laundry sinks).
Good plan.
Except for the first part.
Luckily my brother popped in to provide some kitchen scraps. He was recruited into service. We each took a small panel of fence and crept up on her, eventually cornering her. She wasn't at all happy. After a few failures, I got her wings held down then I picked her up and placed her gently in the cat box.
I'm always very gentle with the hens but Mary still thinks I'm an axe murderer.
Once she was in the box, she calmed right down. I put the box in the tub and started the taps. No problem.
Then she soaked while the poop clods softened. Whenever I could trick her into not poking her head out of the cat box, I sneaked my hand in to check on progress. Eventually 90% of the pooperama was gone. I thought we were really pushing it with her in the water for so long, so I pulled the plug, tipped the box to get the worst of the water out, and placed the box on the floor.
Like many before her, she seemed to really enjoy the hairdryer
After 40 minutes, I carried her out and opened the box.
She didn't even say "it's good to be back in the yard" she just walked away like nothing happened.
I'm going to have to put some thought into names for my lot once we determine he's and she's... My son wanted to give them Lion King names but he's 4 and has jumbled a lot of the names together so that they all sounded rather similar. Might need some further thought 
I'm looking forward to reading more about your chooks! 
. I've already arranged with mum, who lives on acreage, to sneak one into her pen when dad isn't looking but I might have to do some searching for homes for any extras!
