Little muppet Racquel L’Oreal hasn’t been feeling too well this week. Unfortunately it took me a few days to notice because I thought she was just being friendlier to me. Then I realized “She doesn’t suddenly LIKE me, she’s just not feeling well.”
Racquel went to the vet on Saturday and had some blood work done. We should get those results on Tuesday. In the meantime she is on baytril antibiotics. I must say though, she is much less active, so it’s possible she may be on her way out. We’ll see what the blood work says.
Speaking of blood work, to get blood from Racquel’s leg, the vets wrap her up like a burrito so she stays still and doesn’t hurt herself. It looks pretty silly. She was very calm and didn’t seem to mind being a chicken wrap for a moment.
While we were at the vet, they told us about some bad layer crumble being sold in the Seattle area. Instead of making pellet feed and then crumbling it, someone is just mixing together a bunch of stuff and calling it “organic layer crumble.” This doesn’t get the right nutrition for chickens, as they just pick out the stuff they like and never get all the nutrients they need. So the vet has seen quite a few egg binding and soft egg shell issues in birds because of it. Of course I went to the feed store to pick up some layer crumble and sure enough, I got the bad stuff without realizing it. I’ll be returning this to Bothell Feed and exchanging it for REAL layer crumble. They need to stop selling it or start paying the vet bills for the hens who are sick.
But back to Racquel… she is probably 8 1/2-years-old now, so it’s possible she is not going to be able to recover from whatever is ailing her this time. Her blood work will be back Tuesday, so maybe we’ll know more then. In the meantime, she is eating well and doesn’t seem to be in pain or distressed, but she is much less active. She is taking her medicine like a good girl.
I told her she was a very good chicken, and that if she just wanted to rest and sleep, that was just fine by me. If she wants to rebound and get better, of course I would prefer that.
But whatever Racquel decides is best for her is fine with me.
Sweet dreams, little muppet.
