The continuing tales of life after lock-up - as battery chickens get a chance at life in Milton Keynes...
Ten days after Tellme and Watchitt came home things were going well.
There had been a few squabbles through the wire of the run, mostly between Tellme and Waffle, but that’s to be expected when bringing new hens in. Both birds were getting some colour into their combs and wattles (they had been completely pale and should be red) and seemed to be getting healthy and strong.
Watchitt had what appeared to be a fluid build up at her back end but was picking up and laying an egg every day.
I was in contact with a local vet and had Watchitt booked in to have the fluid drained to make her more comfortable, her appt. was arranged for the following Saturday and after she had been drained, my plan was to put the two new hens in with my existing four overnight so they woke up together and hopefully accepted each other.
However, on the evening of the tenth day, something wasn’t right. Watchitt was suddenly extremely sleepy and not wanting to move around at all and actuary took herself up to bed early. She was so quiet and withdrawn that I expected she would slip away overnight.
The next morning (Weds) she was still holding on but very clearly not a well bird so I called the vet and got her seen as an emergency. Sadly she didn’t come home with me as she was extremely unwell and and suffering and she couldn’t be helped.
The poor bird had a condition called egg yolk peritonitis which on its own can sometimes be treated if caught early enough, but she also had a hernia and fluid build up in her chest cavity that was preventing proper breathing.
While we were with the vet, her newly pink comb started to turn purple due to a lack of oxygen so it was time to let the worn out bird go.
Not old, just used and broken by the egg industry because people want cheap eggs without thinking about how they’re produced.
At first Tellme cried for her friend, but then she settled down and was the calmest she had been since coming home.
There were no more squabbles, no stress at all between Tellme and my existing birds so I took the plunge and put Tellme into the big coop with the other hens while they were all sleeping. I also moved everything around outside the coop to make it look strange an unfamiliar to them.
Amazingly my girls accepted Tellme straight away as their new top hen and they settled happily as a flock of five with no problems at all.
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