Sad week this week. Buffy went to the vet yesterday and we took the decision to let her go. She was so thin and couldn't stand. It has all started a week or so ago, when I noticed that she remained seated with her legs under her when I went in to give them treats, collect the eggs and generally check everything and. play with them. Normally Buffy would be crowding around with the others, waiting for me to give her her treats in her favourite place, on the edge of a particular piece of wood. I did sometimes hand feed her but she was so vigorous at pecking that mostly I wouldn't last very long.
The others were normal, Lucia has now decided that when I crouch to fill up the footballs with treats, her place is next to the treat bowl pecking corn as I scoop it out. Funny how. their little brains remember routines. Cordelia always heads straight for the perching tree where there is a doughnut shaped bowl that I fill with maize and Porche sometimes eats corn with buffy, sometimes with Lucia and sometimes with Cordelia.
But Buffy wasn't herself. I didn't want to spook her so I walked slowly over and offered her treats in my hand. She seemed fine and walked over and gently pecked a few times. I should have spotted that this wasn't normal and picked her up to check.
Same happened the next day, last Wednesday, but I still wasn't worried. I thought she'd just developed a new routine.
Thursday I was due to drive down to Cornwall and Buffy seemed to be having difficulties standing and was rolling over to her right and splaying her left wing. The others were starting to peck her which is a sure sign that there was something amiss.
I got Ant to assemble the hospital eglu as I had to leave, and put Buffy in it.
Over the weekend while I was away, he checked her daily. Tried to get her to eat sweetcorn (she wouldn't) so she was clearly not a well chicken.
I arrived home on Monday and gave her a thorough check. She wasn't egg bound, and her crop was empty. She was painfully thin. Chickens are very adept at concealing deteriorating health. I immediately phoned Scotts Vets - they specialise in exotics including chickens, and was able to get an appointment with a lovely and very good vet, Megan. I then gave Buffy some chicken tonic and used a syringe to drop a few mm of water to try to stop her dehydrating.
The vet was very good. She loves parrots and it was very clear that she was experienced with birds.
After a full examination, nothing obvious showed itself so the other other possibilities were cancer or something neurological. Yes we could leave her with them to stabilise and try to find out what it was, but after spending 3 weeks nursing Willow to ultimately have her die anyway, we felt it was kinder to have Buffy put gently to sleep. Megan the vet agreed and so we left sans Buffy.
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