Reply To: Cricket Contest

[MisfitCritterCo]

Absolutely, I’m not sure what happened there. I got funky through Facebook of all places, in the chicken groups I always post that I’ll take in any disabled or deformed chicks that they end up with as an alternative to just killing them like most. Those people I do my best not to judge, as many believe chickens/ducks/geese are exclusively miserable if they’re disabled. Someone contacted me on one of those posts because they’d found a feces caked, starving chick in the bottom of a coop that they had been hired to clean. She’d been in the bottom of the coop for at least two weeks, surviving off of what the healthy chickens dropped. The pressure sores she had were intense, she was malnourished, and barely hanging on. Some other rescuers were kind enough to relay her to me, like passing a torch. As I earned her trust, we started working on the leg, trying bracing, wheelchair PT, hydrotherapy, everything we could think of, and she was miserable. She cried constantly, didn’t move around much, it was obvious that she was in pain and it was time to accept that we needed to go to more extreme measures, either surgery or euthanize. I started looking for a surgeon willing to work on “just a chicken” and found one near me. After a detailed consultation, her contacting vets across the country, and a lot of worry she agreed to try and do the surgery. I fund raised through rescues and individuals (considering I’m a broke college kid) and somehow was able to gather the $600 for the complicated procedure. April 18th I handed her over to the avian orthopedic surgeon. The amputation went without complication, that is when she noticed the hip was deformed from injury as well so she pinned and plated it into place. She was happier instantly. We struggled to control her pain, rotating 4 meds around the clock, but got it under control. Day 1 she was standing with the support of her wheelchair, by day 3 she was taking a couple hops, and by a week out she was hopping independently. After examining the amputated leg, the vet determined the deformity was likely from a kick. Now my girl gets around great, she has a bit of a deformed beak from malnutrition, and some scars from the sores, but otherwise is a healthy happy chickie.