#internal laying

[deweydecimalchickens]

A Very Angery Nyx who did not sign up for being manhandled by the vet and the vet student or implants on giant needles. Doubt she's going to like her week of antibiotics and painkillers much either.

But she got a lot of praise for being a very muscular ex-commercial hen who still weighs over 2kg and has made it to 4 years old before her ovaries started trying to kill her. She is apparently in very good condition!

(Update: she's slightly less mad now because I'm sharing my strawberry smoothie.)

[deweydecimalchickens]

I lost Miss Hesperornis Chicken yesterday. Necropsy found solid egg masses sticking her organs together. I'm normally pretty good at spotting internal laying but (Miss Archaeopteryx Chicken went the same way) some of them seem to lay just enough externally to pass as healthy.

Thing that gets me is if it hadn't been for the necropsy I'd never have known it was reproductive illness. She had no external signs. She would have been one of the ex-batts that 'just die', 'natural causes', 'must have been her time'. Nah. It's always bloody internal laying. And if they survive that, it's ovarian cancer. You CANNOT have a bird that ovulates every single day without consequences. Parrot-owners know this; if their birds get stuck in a laying cycle it's off to the vet. But because it's chickens, we think it's normal.

I guess the moral of this story is whichever hen I get to keep Medusa company, she's getting implanted immediately rather than waiting for trouble.

[deweydecimalchickens]

Rescue chickens, they said. It'll be rewarding, they said.

God I love that my vets are open on a Sunday. Dreadnought has a wicked case of Lethargic Fluffed-Up* Chicken. BEST case scenario is her contraceptive implant's worn off, she's laying internally again, and I haven't fucked up TOO badly in catching it in time. At least that's a known issue with a treatment plan (MOAR IMPLANTS). Got an appointment for this afternoon.

Oh well, I never liked having disposable income or stress-free Sundays anyway.

*That's a real thing, not me trying to avoid swearing. They will hide their illness as long as they can and puffing up their feathers is a really bad sign.