Stargazing: a chicken disease

Nothing good came of Friday. I steer away from political commentary in my blog, but, well, there it is. It was a foggy, rainy day at the end of a foggy, rainy week.

The fifth oak in the fog

The maple trees were under water.

Maples in a big puddle

The garden was soggy. I hope the slugs are drowning.

The garden

There was a lake by the willows and fog, fog, fog everywhere.

A shallow lake by the willows

The retreat of the snow revealed a massive network of vole trails and tunnels in the lawn.

Vole tunnels in the lawn

It was also the first week of classes, which for me brings an unwelcome adjustment to rushing around all the time. No more leisurely cups of tea in my recliner every morning.

I nearly always go to Elgin on the weekend. I prefer Friday if I can manage it because Woodman’s is crazy busy on Saturday. Jane makes us lunch, and we do our grocery shopping together.

I was already blue from the weather, feeling old because the damp chill made my shoulder ache, as I set out for Jane’s house. As I mentioned, Jane is in Florida for a month, but I promised to check on her turtle and water the plants. There are better groceries down there anyway. This week, Jane sent a picture of a bald eagle in the top of a tree.

Jane's picture of a bald eagle in Florida

I meant to leave at 9:30 so I would have plenty of time to run my errands and get to campus for a 1:00 workshop I’d signed up for at the last minute. One thing led to another, and I didn’t leave until 9:45. I turned onto Maxon and drove into heavy rain. As I reached the stop sign at Graf, I realized I did not have my cell phone, and I’d promised to call Jane when I got to her house. Damn. I turned around and went back, making myself an additional 10 minutes late. Now I had to rush on my day off. This did not improve my mood.

When I got to Jane’s the house was dark and cold. All the lights were off, and the furnace was turned down. There was no beef vegetable soup simmering on the stove, no Jane sitting in her chair with a cat on her lap. The turtle was hidden under her bark. I felt more depressed than ever. I called Jane to ask if she thought I should put out more cucumber for the turtle and to tell her the ceiling in the bathroom had not fallen in even though she’d noticed a water stain spreading from the ceiling fan just before she left. She said no to the cucumber and was happy about the ceiling. After we hung up, I put in fresh water, took care of the plants, and looked for something that Jane put out for me. I was not successful in the latter because I couldn’t remember what it was or where she said she’d put it.

I had three stops to make before 1:00. From most to least urgent, they were Woodman’s, Trader Joe’s and a gas station. Earlier in the week, I stopped at Jewel in Woodstock on my way home to get milk. I had a few other things on the list including Charmin Essentials and sesame oil. Jewel had only Charmin Extra Soft and Charmin Extra Strong. Is extra strength in toilet paper an appropriate goal?  Really, it’s pretty much a unitasker, and at my house it needs to break down in the septic tank. I liked the Charmin Basic but they don’t make it anymore. In addition, Jewel did not have even one bottle of sesame oil. How was this possible?

I was delighted to find at least three brands and several sizes of sesame oil at Woodman’s, as well as Charmin Essentials and everything else on my list. On to Trader Joe’s where I bought what I usually end up with at Trader Joe’s—chocolate and a case of Two Buck Chuck. I always feel a little silly at the checkout.

I even had time to get gas, although it had been so long that I forgot what side of the car the tank was on until I had parked and gotten out. And I got back in a drove around to another pump.

I got to my office with just enough time to eat lunch and go through the mail that I’d retrieved from my box Thursday afternoon. It had been awhile since I’d checked, but I was surprised to find a card that went back to Thanksgiving. I didn’t think it had been that long.

The workshop only took 40 minutes. I was the only participant, for one thing. It promised to be an update of what I already knew, and not much had changed.

Then I talked to Pat S. for 40 minutes, so I was late getting home anyway. That sort of day.

When I got home, Hilda reported that Bella was looking poorly. We went out to the coop, and sure enough, she was cowering in a corner with her neck retracted and her beak pointing skyward. We assumed she was terminal, as chickens often are. Should we move her or leave her? “If she dies in the night, the others will peck her,” I pointed out.

Our first thought was to put her in a large plastic bucket. We quickly discovered that she was still pretty lively. She flailed around vigorously but did not seem to be able to keep her balance. When she settled down, she pointed her head back up and looked back and forth, back and forth. She seemed to have vertigo.

Stargazing--in chickens, not so fun

We took her out of the bucket and put her in the rabbit hutch in the greenhouse for the night. I started researching. The problem seemed to be something variously called wry neck, crookneck, and stargazing. Furthermore, it was caused by pecks to the head, vitamin deficiency, and/or genetic predisposition. Many chickens made a full recovery, but it could take a lot of weeks of fairly intensive care.

I was pretty low last night. Skippy did his best to comfort me. A cat really trusts you if he lets you rub his belly. It’s hard to feel bad with such a cute kitty on your lap.

Skippy in my lap

Bella was still alive this morning, although she was tipped over in the cage and not looking good. Still, after breakfast, I headed into town for supplies. Dad had vitamin E gel caps, so I would only need the B complex and selenium to help with vitamin E absorption. Also, a syringe to give the medicine would be nice, and two bowls to attach to the kennel for food and water. The rabbit hutch would never do. It’s fine for isolating a broody hen, but the door opens in, and if you have to get the bird out two or three times a day, it would be a big pain.

I struck out at Tractor Supply. The only kennel bowls they had were stainless, expensive, and a design I didn’t like. Furthermore, there was only one large and one medium bowl on the shelf. If I wanted two medium bowls (I really wanted small), I would have to find someone to ask and wait while he/she checked in the back. I went to Walgreens, which has pet supplies, but no bowls at all. I got the B complex. No selenium. The bloggers had not said that selenium was difficult to find. What if it was?

In the end, I was forced to go to WalMart. Had I gone there first, I could have been home 30 minutes sooner and saved money on the B complex vitamins. I soon and one small and one medium plastic kennel bowl (together they cost less than one of the bowls at Tractor Supply), an infant syringe, and a bottle of selenium. Done. It is clear why WalMart is so good at putting all its competitors out of business.

I got the kennel set up and Bella installed in it. I mixed up the meds according to the instructions. We were supposed to give the vitamin B and selenium once a day and the vitamin E twice for the first week. I cut the vitamin B in fourths and the selenium in eighths. I ground one portion of each to powder and mixed it with a little water. I thought I was supposed to squeeze out the contents of the vitamin E gel cap in with the water soluble vitamins. What a mess! I knew it wasn’t going to dissolve, but I thought I could at least stir it in. Not so. It was thicker than regular oil. I broke it up the best I could and put the mixture in the infant syringe. Meanwhile, I had been soaking some chicken feed in water with a little plain yogurt, since we were not sure Bella was eating or drinking on her own. This we had to put through a tea strainer in order to suck it into another syringe that I already owned.  And yes, by this time, Hilda’s kitchen was a big mess.

Hilda held Bella while I administered first the syringe with the vitamins and next the syringe with the food/water. She tolerated it well. I was glad we’d at least gotten some fluids in her.

That took us to lunch time. The whole damned morning shot to hell. I was exhausted, mostly from the stress and uncertainty.

Later this afternoon, I could tell that Bella had been pecking in the food bowl. About half the food was either in her or on the floor, hard to tell how much in either location. I also witnessed her drinking. Excellent. No more syringe feeding. She could stand up for and hold her head in a more normal position for brief periods of time before she flopped down and began scanning the sky again.

I did more research. Can chickens swallow pills? Why, yes they can. At 4:00, we went out again and popped a vitamin E gel tab right down her throat, followed by 5 ccs of water from the syringe.

So some things are looking up. As a bonus, the sun finally came out today. The chickens enjoyed running around in the mud and soaking up the rays.

Chickens frolicking in the sunshine

We are cautiously optimistic about Bella. At least this time, we have a little hope.