Spring Chickens!!

Don’t get me wrong, I love spring. With the longer days I get to see more of my hens (only interrupted by annoying bouts of work) and the girls enjoy the sun’s returning warmth. But there is a less sunny side to spring – the toll it can take on the girls. One dark spring weekend a few years back, we lost three girls in as many days – the demands of nature proving too much for their moult-weakened bodies. Since then I have greeted spring with a mixture of joy and trepidation and gird the girls’ feathery loins as best I can beforehand, getting them into peak physical fitness before spring arrives.

This spring of course has been no different and we have had the usual round of illnesses and dramas. Both Lupin and Dorothy-Kate have suffered from impacted crops. For Lupin, her crop is obviously her weak area – starved in the cage, she understandably ate until it was almost bursting on rehoming – but a few days of pineapple, oil and massages sees her back to her normal cheeky self.

Dorothy’s was a far more serious affair. An older and pretty bolshie ex-batt she is not one to succumb to something as mundane as illness without it being something rather nasty. Indeed, there was a time I thought we were going to lose her. But Dorothy, true to feisty form, rallied and pulled through. She had been having pineapple, oil and massages twice a day for a week but her crop was still not emptying. We asked Uncle Jason for some metroclopramide and bingo! The crop cleared and has been working perfectly ever since. I must admit to really being amazed, I thought we would lose her and had even asked her dad what he wanted regarding her funeral arrangements. Oh me of little faith! Never underestimate the fighting spirit of an ex-batt!

Lemony feeling so much better!!

Our other poorlie area has been prolapses. Lemony bantam had always struggled to lay her eggs, taking most of the morning, so I suppose it was no surprise that she eventually suffered from a prolapse. Uncle Jason kindly performed emergency Saturday morning surgery on her, giving her little vent a purse string suture and gave her the suprelorin implant. After an anxious few days of Prolapse Watch she was back in the loving wings of Effie, untroubled by any more eggs.

Just like children, hens will be ill at the most awkward of times. Moments before we left for a long day in Devon, I discovered Flora had a prolapse. It was impossible to leave her unsupervised so Gary kindly stayed with her whilst Caroline and I headed up to Exeter to see Tom and Amanda. Consequently crowned the Prolapse King of Cornwall, Gary successfully treated her so by the time I checked her the next morning, everything was just where it should be. Unlike the spare bedroom she had been staying in – poo-covered chaos!! But she was booked in to see Uncle Jason on the Monday morning for an implant to avoid any more poppings out.

Flora-Jayne back to looking amazing!

And then there is my Effie. Over the years Eff has had three implants as she has been plagued by soft eggs but I had hoped that now, at over five years old, egg laying was behind her. But after a few days of her jumping onto things, nestling in corners and a definite reddening of her comb, sure enough a pained Effie produced a softie. Two days later the same thing happened so, you guessed it, straight to Uncle Jason for an implant. She is now back to being egg free and naughty!

At £100 a shot for three implants, plus one operation and numerous meds it has certainly not been cheap but, what has proved to be a financially disastrous spring for us humans, has also proved to – so far (I cannot tempt fate) – be a successful one healthwise for the girls. And after all they are the ones that are important!

Spring Chicken Effie!

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