I say Chapter 7 because this is the seventh month of the saga. Zane has been having electroshock therapy, sort of; we are applying a TENS unit to his leg to try to stimulate nerves. Unfortunately, there is no improvement that we see. He has no muscle left in that leg, very little in the other one and has developed a callous on the end of his wing from balancing with it and using it as a substitute for the bad leg-see pic below. We are so torn up about the whole thing. He is so intelligent and loving, we wanted to give him every chance to stay part of the flock and this family. He was all I had of Hawkeye when his father passed suddenly-there were eggs, but I wasn't sure they would hatch. Thankfully, we hatched Zane's brother, Mace, and his half-sisters, Zoe and Margaret. We have done so much to try to help and it's no small thing to give him aspirin three times a day and use the TENS unit twice a day, though we just haven't managed to get every single session in, with the other 51 chickens we have to take care of. He is so loved and returns that love every day, but we are torn. As his proxy, what would he want? I go round and round on that question. He seems to get some small pleasure from life and in his limited way, he does watch out for the flock and alarms right along with the other roosters from his pen. Anyway, thought I'd let you all know what was happening with Zane. The pics below are of the wing callous that has formed (He has a smaller one on the other wing as well.) and his sweet face and eyes I look into every day when I hold him for his therapy.
