Never a Dull Moment

Last night I went to put the chickens to bed, as is my usual routine. I always turn on the light and make sure no unwanted visitors are in the hen house before I shut the door for the night. Well, as I was checking the nesting boxes, looking for any last minute eggs, I noticed one of the friendly, fluffy black chickens (I can never remember the breed name) was molting pretty badly. I moved in for a closer look and realized she was injured. Not to go into gory detail, the injury looked pretty serious and it affected both sides of her body. Back at the house, I got one of my *doctoring* books out and decided on the best course of action. After tending to the chicken, whom I will refer to as Clara since she made me feel like that famous nurse, I logged on to one of my favorite farm discussion boards to see if I could learn the typical outcome of an injury as serious as this one. I felt better when I discovered most chickens recover from similar wounds. (I'm not sure how she was injured but it's most likely a predator attack).

I hate that Clara might be suffering - although you wouldn't know it from spending time with her - but there's not much that can be done for a chicken. I'm going to keep an eye on her to make sure the other chickens don't pick on her; otherwise, we'll just have to wait and see while I douse her with antibacterial medicine on a daily basis.