and posted in Poultry in Motion

LittleDiva1(Web)(RH)Well, this morning started off with a very harrowing experience. I was washing waterers in the kitchen sink and I could hear the chicks twittering from the living room. All the sounds seemed normal and happy, and then all of the sudden they didn’t! One of the chicks was cheeping very loudly. I waited to see if she would calm down, but she didn’t! I dropped the waterer in the sink and wiped my wet soapy hand across the legs of my jeans as I ran. I leaned over and looked in. The new little black chick was twisting her neck and thrashing around. She would stand up and twist and thrash and fall on her back. She was flopping all over the inside of the corral like this. I dropped to my knees in front of the corral (yes, dropped, there is no such thing as a graceful movement with late stage Lyme Disease). So many things raced through my mind. Head injury? Sudden illness? OMG, would the other chicks be okay? No, she’s choking! I ripped open the zipper and grabbed her. I closed my hand around the tiny creature and fumbled to my feet. I took her to my desk so I could see her well and try to save her. When I got to there, I uncurled my fingers and her little feet planted on the desk. She screamed and pushed back with all her might against the palm of my open hand. She was grabbing at her chest feathers. Still screaming, she was twisting her neck so hard to get to the feathers under her beak that she was losing her balance and falling over. She didn’t care; she was frantic to get to these feathers.

I sat back a little in my chair and watched this scene in disbelief. She wasn’t choking at all. She was screaming and tugging at the feathers because they had gotten wet. She must have gone to take a drink from the waterer and one of her siblings pushed her in. She was so dreadfully upset because her feathers were wet! I took a tissue and started to dry the feathers. As the tissue began to absorb the water, she started to calm down. Once she was dry and the feathers were all rearranged back into the proper places, she settled into my hand and twittered. She closed her eyes and nuzzled the palm of my hand with her fuzzy little head. All was right with the world again. Crisis averted. All I could think is I guess we have a little Diva on our hands… LittleDiva2-Long(Web)(RH)

One Comment so far:

  1. Hilarious (because of a happy ending.) When my cashmere doe Serafina was a yearling, she had a sudden, major freakout. I finally figured out that she had seen me sit down to rest in the summer evening and pull my boots off to cool my feet. She thought I had pulled MY FEET OFF!! How was she to know about human feet? Love your site. I have a small flock and all are with me to the end of their natural days. We even made an “assisted living apartment” for a dear old hen who’d had a stroke.

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