Dustbaths and Buzzcuts

North Carolina has been an inferno these past weeks, and everybody's got their own way of beating the heat.  I'm all about the Cook Out milkshakes, but the chickens have a different strategy.   They scratch the grass away in patches and then roll around in the cool earth below.  Batty is an enthusiastic dust-bather.

Tiny Dog suffers a bad haircut in order to get a little relief from the heat.

Batty Update

It's past time for a Batty update.  Here's what things looked like two weeks ago.

Today, things are still scabby, but continuing to heal.  Batty's new feathers are coming in, she's eating like a pig, and even though I haven't weighed her, it feels like she is packing on the pounds.  It is taking longer than I thought it would for the wound to heal, but there haven't been any setbacks, so I'm not going to complain. 

Today we hit a big milestone, Batty's first post-dogbite egg:

And after spending a few hours in the yard with her sisters today she didn't want to come back inside, not even for her nightly treat of sliced fresh strawberries.  Even though I'm not supposed to let her stay in the coop until the scab is gone, I decided to allow the slumber party.  I think Batty's fed up with being my patient and wants to just be a chicken again. 

Don't look if you're squeamish

What you need to fix a broken chicken:

40 cc of tube fed Harrison's Recovery Formula
0.8 cc Trimethoprim, an antibiotic
125 mg tablet Clavamox, another antibiotic
1 gram of Benebac Gel, a probiotic (because of the anti-'s)
0.8cc Carprofen, strawberry flavored, for pain
Chlorhexadine for flushing the wound
Tube of Golden Yellow poultice to pack the wound after flushing

As time has gone by, it's gotten simpler.  We dropped the tube feeding (but she's so skinny! i'm constantly worried I should forcefeed her again).  Then the pain reliever.  Last night we lost the first antibiotic and the wound flushing.  All we've got now is the second antibiotic for a few more days, the probiotic, and the Golden Yellow.  I want to show you the wound progress now, in case you are as morbidly curious about these things as I am.  If not, tune out now.

Here it was 15 days ago, after the surgery to close everything up.  I didn't think it looked that bad.  Of course, the feathers are covering half of the back wound and all of the tail bite.

Here's 11 days ago, when things got putrid and before the vet cleaned everything up.  Eeeew.

Nine days ago, after the vet took out the yuck and put the first application of the magical curry medicine.  This was the day I got so sad about how pointless it all was.  If you know where to look you can see that the wound is bone deep.

This is today.   Okay, I know it may not look that good from the aerial view, but trust me, the improvement in nine days is nothing short of miraculous.  It is dry, infection-free, and the bone and muscle is completely covered.  The edges are healing to pink and the center fills in more and more every time I look at it.  You can see that the feathers are coming back. 

Yesterday I put Batty in the yard for an hour with the other chickens.  She kept up with them, did all of the chickeny stuff like scratching, bug-catching, dust bathing, tail shaking (with her 2 tail feathers).  At dusk, she went to the coop and flew up to the roost with everyone else.

I let her sit there for a bit, but eventually had to take her back in to her hospital jail (formerly Tiny Dog's crate).  It will be a happy day for both of us when she goes back to the coop for good.

Chinese Medicine at the Vet's Office

Despite being on some pretty strong antibiotics, Batty wasn't doing so hot a couple of days ago.  To be blunt, she smelled like rot and probably felt worse than she smelled.  Tuesday morning I took her in to the Exotic Animal Doc and they cleaned up the infection, which went way deeper than it looked.  When they were done, the situation looked pretty dire and we began to talk about euthanasia.  Doc Exotic gave her 50/50 odds, but sent me home with a second antibiotic and a new herbal poultice to try.  I wasn't too hopeful, but two days later, Batty is feistier, more active, and the wound has completely dried up and appears to be shrinking.  Also, she has started pecking Tiny Dog again.  That's got to be a good sign.

The herbal stuff is blowing my mind. It's called "Golden Yellow" and stains like a mother. And it smells disturbingly like curry. I know it has a lot of turmeric in it, but I'm unsure of the other ingredients. I googled the heck out of it, but only found ingredients listed in Chinese. Apparently the recipe is a closely guarded secret. I did find story after tale after anecdote of the success people have had using this stuff on the most hideous of open wounds. Dogs with disgusting tumors that disappear and horses with gross facial boils that recover completely. All of the stories have to do with pets though. Seems like maybe humans might want to give this stuff a try, too, right?

So, I'm optimistic.  We'll see what Doc Exotic says tomorrow.  Give us all the love you've got.  We need it!

Both Kinds of News

Good news first.

Batty is walking more.  And eating more.  And she has started to drink.

She went outside today and enjoyed a grassy snack. 

Her sisters paid her a visit.

Her dog paid her a visit.

Her cat paid her a visit.

Everybody was very polite to Batty.  They told her how pretty she looked in the sunshine and ignored the big yucky thing on her back.

Now the bad news.

The Evil Hungry Stray was back today. 

 I chased him off before he could do any damage.

I think he saw the murderous gleam in my eyes.

Then I spent two hours reinforcing the coop.

Also, the yucky thing on Batty's back has a foul odor.

We're going back to the vet tomorrow.

Wish us luck.