Pear Blossom from Hen Harbor in California.
“Pear Blossom came from an industrial egg facility several years ago. Like many of her sisters bred for excessive production, her oviduct ruptured and eggs spilled out into her abdomen, where they sat there, rotting. The only option to save her was to send her into surgery, even though she was very weak. She survived the surgery, but the ordeal left her very weak, and 3 days into her recovery, she fell down and could not stand up. She got progressively worse and was diagnosed with Marek's disease -- an opportunistic virus that is untreatable, incurable, and according to most vets -- 100 percent fatal.
With a few weeks of her diagnosis, Pear Pear was was completely paralyzed, except for her head. She couldn't eat on her own for over 2 months and had to be fed with a tube. She started getting pressure sores from lying down in one spot, so we made her a sling and cut holes in it for her legs, to relieve the pressure. We exercised her legs manually to keep her muscles from deteriorating should she ever improve. Many, many times we conisdered euthanasia, but my friend Jennifer Chong told me to keep trying.
The day Pear Pear moved her head and pecked at her food dish on her own, I almost started crying. From that day forward, she got progressively better and soon she was eating and drinking on her own. The day she stood up and took a single wobbly step, it was like Christmas. It was 2 more months before she was strong enough to go outside again. Although she will never be completely normal (she lives in the "special needs" area of the barn), watching her walk around today feels like a miracle.”
