One morning recently I found one of our hens lying on her side and apparently unable to rise. On examination she appeared to be injured but it was hard to tell where or by what as she had been in the clay mud that prevails here and her feathers were very matted.
Eventually Mike held her flat on our picnic table to enable me to examine her properly. She had a strange congealed wound, a swelling and her wing feathers on one side were broken (possibly by attacks from other chickens. They are not kind to the sick or dying.) I cleaned her up, removed what I could and treated the wound area with anti-biotic spray. She is now recuperating in the farm office and I give her physio during the day which means that I hold her up whilst she walks around the grass outside the back door. She falls over if I let go.
I am hoping that it is just a matter of balance and that if and when her wing feathers grow back properly she will return to normal
Obviously if I was a serious chicken farmer it would have been curtains for her straight away as it is not cost effective to treat a hen in this way, but hay ho - they are pets to us and they pay for themselves and provide us with lovely eggs so it does not hurt to give a little extra time occasionally.
The shop is still going well and our lovely colourful alpaca socks are still really popular. We also sell them online, so it is worth a look, even if you cannot make it to the shop.
