Chookie dramas

~ Bathing in the dirt and dust L to R Lucy, Beth and Sally standing, abit ahrd to tell them apart lol

In early August one of our lovely chookie, Sally became sulky, not eating and her crop was the size of a cricket ball and just about as hard as one.

Now if you ever have ever felt a full crop you would know they are ment to be squashy. Sally's was not. Diagnosis? Impacted crop. Twice a day for almost a week I filled the poor girl up with warm oil, massaging it in and hoping the 'stuff' would pass through. Ha this was not to be. So after much googling and consulting our vet, who said he would charge $60 just to see her - yicks! (She only cost $12.60 at the rural store!) I decided Surgery was needed!

Now I won't go into how exactly you do this, as I feel you do need a vets advice and it is rather yucky. But essentially it involves a small incision in the crop (thanks lovely hubby) and removing the muck with tweezers. You would never believe the smell....

It turned out our silly Sally had swallowed some pieces of baling twine(!) which had knotted and could not pass through.

It took her two weeks to recover, I really did think she was at deaths door for several days as all she did was drink water... But no 3 mths later she is fine and back to laying huge eggs.



Incredible! The tiny egg was Sally'e first one when she came back onto the lay.

The latest drama is during this time Lucy came to live with us. Aka little chook. Now our little chookie tractor was ok for two chookies but as we now have 3 (We also have Beth) it is a little squeezie.



So I am embarking on building a chook pen. I have ordered all the wire but I am still waiting on the steel posts (They were stuck at sea for a week, serves me right for trying to save $20 and buying imported crap!!! KARMA!!!)


Anyway they should be here tomorrow so this weekend will be designated to building a chook pen and converting their old house in to raised house with laying boxes. aka the chook hilton lol.
I will post a few pictures once we start building it.

Have a great evening.... and thanks for stopping by!