Positive Recovery Outcomes!

[ANiceKaren]

Ok I’m going through a very rough patch with my favorite girl Margaret. She has been so sick for a few days and I’ve been doing EVERYthing to keep her comfy and alive. I’m getting some amazing help from BYC as far as her care. I’m thinking it’s an egg/abdomen issue. Anyway, in this thread I was hoping a few of you could share some stories where your sick hen DID recover! It’s hard to have hope when you see them so sick... but I’m guessing there are a few happy endings out there! Here is a pic of Margaret and I from today.

 

[kcan2]

So sweet!

 

[Flowerpott]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for..
First of all I hope your girl gets better soon. She is beautiful.
But I have a leghorn hen who is always finding herself in trouble. I've only had her since about sept.
The day after she laid her very first egg. She flew out of her yard and got into it with my dog. When I found her I swore she was dead. Her head was twisted her wings were spread out and limp. I noticed her twitch and thought "please don't make me have to put you out the rest of the way"...my husband was at work. My 3 small kids were right there. It was just a horrible moment.
So I pick her up. Thinking the worst. This girl springs up. A little shocked but otherwise fine. She laid a busted soft shell about 4 hours later. Her breast meat was half missing and flappy.

Fast forward from halloween when this happened. To now.
Yesterday she flies out again (I had made the fence higher. Clipped her wings. And removed anything to give her a boost. But she can get some serious flying going on)
She is attacking my dog (medium black mutt) and bleeding. So I get her inside to check her. Dog has gotten her in the exact same spot. Not as bad. She faught with me with the gauze I was using to clean her up. Tried to eat everything in my hands.
She is my toughest girl. And tiniest. She lays like a champ and is so super sweet to humans. She purrs and loves her cuddles. But for some reason she has it out for my dog.

Yes byw, measures are being taken to prevent anything from happening again.

 

[kcan2]

How is miss Margaret doing today?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Not s chicken, but i always tell stories of my lucky quail who hit her head so hard she started to bleed out of her eye socket. Totally thought she was a goner and just tucked her somewhere quiet in a different pen since she hates being handled. Expected her to not make the night.

She was looking better the next morning to our amazement. Still a bit... off, but not bleeding and able to move around the tiny makeshift icu. Still waiting for her to get worse since we know sometimes we get better and then crash. Months later, the only way you would know is that her head isn't completely identical on both sides when you look closely

 

[B-Goock]

Hi Karen I had a young pullet that got an infection requiring antibiotics. Poor girl had me man handle her everyday to administer the meds. I'm sure it tasted awful but she recovered fully. A year later when I walk out to the run she's one of the first ones to run up to me. She also sometimes will walk right up to me an push her chest up towards me insisting to be scratched.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I also had a drake that lost an eye to our rooster and got along swimmingly for almost 3 years after before being killed by a predator.

My frizzled Ayam cemani pullet and a Phoenix cockerel almost drowned seperate times, and had to be warmed up with a hair dryer.

I have a Belgian quail d'Anvers that has bad legs. She does well though and holds her own. Just can't get through high snow. Hoping she doesn't have issues laying eggs

 

[kcan2]

A year later when I walk out to the run she's one of the first ones to run up to me.

Sounds like she knows who her friend is after all that TLC!

 

[ANiceKaren]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for..
First of all I hope your girl gets better soon. She is beautiful.
But I have a leghorn hen who is always finding herself in trouble. I've only had her since about sept.
The day after she laid her very first egg. She flew out of her yard and got into it with my dog. When I found her I swore she was dead. Her head was twisted her wings were spread out and limp. I noticed her twitch and thought "please don't make me have to put you out the rest of the way"...my husband was at work. My 3 small kids were right there. It was just a horrible moment.
So I pick her up. Thinking the worst. This girl springs up. A little shocked but otherwise fine. She laid a busted soft shell about 4 hours later. Her breast meat was half missing and flappy.

Fast forward from halloween when this happened. To now.
Yesterday she flies out again (I had made the fence higher. Clipped her wings. And removed anything to give her a boost. But she can get some serious flying going on)
She is attacking my dog (medium black mutt) and bleeding. So I get her inside to check her. Dog has gotten her in the exact same spot. Not as bad. She faught with me with the gauze I was using to clean her up. Tried to eat everything in my hands.
She is my toughest girl. And tiniest. She lays like a champ and is so super sweet to humans. She purrs and loves her cuddles. But for some reason she has it out for my dog.

Yes byw, measures are being taken to prevent anything from happening again.

Omg what a tough girl! I think she wanted payback! This is a great story where she makes it and that helps me in my worry for my girl! Today was better than yesterday and that I’m grateful for!

 

[CHlCKEN]

I know I told you about Joy already, but here is her story in a little more depth:

Joy is my 3 year old Speckled Sussex. She means the world to me, and I love her so so much! This July or August, I went out to the run very early in the morning to check on my pullets (who I had fully integrated in the day before) and saw what made my heart feel like it had fallen to the floor. Joy, my beautiful, strong, healthy, amazing, favorite girl, was sitting on a log with her tail dropped down, and egg yo/shell hanging from her vent. The days that week were HOT (and I suspect that was the cause of this) and I immediately rushed her to my screened in porch while I called every vet in town. She was hot, and clearly sick. Her mumbles frightened me. She sounded so very in pain. I wrapped her up in a wet towel to keep her cool, and turned on the fan. I offered her cool water to, but she wouldn’t take it. After 2 hours, I finally remembered how I had taken my canaries to an avian vet several years before. I called up this place, and although upon asking for her I was informed she had retired, the woman at the office gave me directions and told me about a CHICKEN vet I had never heard of! Joy and I were on our way soon. The place was held in a re-purposed barn, and had free-range chickens all over. Joy’s vet came in soon, and Joy took an immid liking to her stethoscope. Anything shiny isJoy’s pecking toy! although I was asked to wait in the hall while they X-Rayed her, I was blue to hear all of her Offended Squabbles and flappings while the vet techs held her down . They told me they had never met a chicken with such a personality. I was given the news as she sat in my lap: Joy definitely had EYP as i had suspected, and the “egg junk” was backed up through her body, and even blocking her airways causing a slight pneumonia. It turns out Joy had been sick a little longer than i had known- but unfortunately birds don’t show it until last minute. The vet sent me and Joy home with a pain killer and another medicine to feed her. I learned how to put the syringe down her throat (and I always had to make sure it was in her crop- that’s definitely the most stressful thing you can do) Joy isn’t want to eat her pellet food though, so despite continuing to look weaker I couldn’t fix it. Until I saw her eating the crumbs out of her food, and it hit me that maybe she Wasn’t strong enough for pellets. I put her feed in the food processor and sure enough, Joy took a feast- and soon after, she started drinking! That night, Joy slept in a cardboard box in the mud room. She passed her first poop in a day that night (on my tile of course- not in her box) and it was deffinirlt the size of a broodie’s! I kept giving her meds, and moved her to a crate (she was passing egg-junk filled poops, and I couldn’t give her free roam of the room because she would ruin the floors) where she was given a roost. I noticed her getting stronger, and especially stronger at meds Time. She flapped and squabbled and fussed when I held her down! She hated it! Soon, I started letting her go outside in the mornings (when it was cool) and I could tell how much Joy really loved life. It was the first day I let her go outside, I was deciding weather or it I needed to let her go, or keep her fighting, when she caught herself a frog in the garden! Not only that, but she was able to keep it away from the other hens in a run-around game of “keep away!” This proved to me that Joy could keep going- and she did! She grew stronger every day, until I was able to wean her off medications and finally, integrate her back into the flock. Joy has since been determined to do anything. She has so much personality and I really love her very much.

I certainly hope Margaret will have a story like this to tell to her a Grand-chicks! I pray and hope that she has many years ahead. Joy and I are sending our love. We’ve been there, and we want you to know that things will get better-no matter how it plays out ❤