Sick Chick

Batty's rehabilitation plan involves a lot of tube feeding.  See that very long orange thing?  That's supposed to be carefully slipped past her trachea into her crop.  To do that, you use one hand to pry open the reluctant beak, one hand to thread the tube, and the space between your cheek and your neck to hold the syringe.  Okay, got that.  Now comes the actual feeding.  For that part, I'm supposed to use one hand to hold her beak open to keep her from shaking the tube out.  The second hand is supposed to push the gigantic plunger to move the mushy food substance through the tube and into Batty's crop.  Problem is I don't have super-hero-istic plunger pushing strength.  That THING just wouldn't budge.  "Bastard!" I cursed.  "Mother!" "Punk Plunger Puppy Jerk!"  It still didn't budge.  So, I had to let go of the bird and push with two hands.  Very quickly but not too quickly. Just right quickly. Which, as it turns out, is not quickly enough. Batty would then shake and cough and out would come the tube.  Sigh.  I did manage to get about half of the stuff into her, but neither one of us was impressed with the process.  

Oh, I forgot to mention how important the Batty Burrito is to the process.  Even in her weakened condition, she knows how to give me the wing.

Not wanting to repeat the tube feeding business, Batty decided this morning that it was time to eat.  The Backyard Chickens Listservers recommended scrambled eggs and yogurt as the best sickroom food.  Odd, maybe, but Batty approved.  Those Backyard Chicken folks know what's up.  Atticus the Cat may have influenced Batty's appetite as well.  He has that, "Are  you done with that?" look.

And then she was up on her feet!  All she could manage were a couple of seconds of drunken staggering, but it was more than she could do yesterday.  I just noticed that the poor thing only  has two tail feathers left.

Now she's resting in the sunlight.  As happy as it's possible to be, when two days ago you were this close to being a stray dog's lunch.

Brave Batty.