I know that many of you are concerned about Rudd. Here is a picture of her taken just this morning. Her neck wound is dry and it looks like the skin is starting to close up a bit. Her comb had turned gray after the attack and it is now starting to pink up. My magic 8 ball says that all signs point to success.
However, although Ruud continues to eat and drink, she’s lost a little weight and she still remains very quiet. She stays outside during the day protected by a “playpen” here we make sure she has plenty to eat and we continue to take her in at night.
Last night Marc mentioned that if any of our other birds were put into a crate at night, they would be flapping about, trying to get out. Rudd stays where she is put down and is still in that spot until we take her out in the morning.
When we can supervise her, we allow her to mix in with the flock – although we have to be careful because some of our other younger, stronger birds are challenging her and I worry about that neck wound opening up.
But no worries, when I see that, this mama hen challenges those youngsters right back in their faces.
Want some of this you little hoodlum????
Logan asked me how long we are going to keep doing this for Rudd.
Rudd is not in pain, she’s eating and drinking, she responds to me when I softly cluck into her neck feathers, she allows me to hold her.
The answer to Logan’s question is quite simply this – we’ll take care of Rudd for as long as she needs us to.
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By the way, I’m feeling a lot better. It’s still very sore where the root canal was done, but the TMJ muscle spasms seem to be letting up. Thank you for your kind wishes.
Wendy
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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