Friday, October 17, 2008

Miss Emmaline

We realized something was very wrong with one of our chickens, Emmaline, last weekend. It was so apparent that I rushed to find a vet here in the city that would let me bring her in. Thankfully there was one that would see chickens on an emergency basis only. She told me that Emmaline had been egg bound and after trying to lay her first egg she ended up with a prolapse (Info... in case you're interested). I will spare the details but I was shocked at the awful condition she was in and felt terrible at the pain she must have been feeling. If caught in time, prolapses can be fixed. Unfortunately hers had happened the day before and was a really bad case. We cleaned her up, gave her pain medicine, and received a week's worth of antibiotics to see if she could recover. Then we came home and set up a space for her in the spare bedroom where she would be warm and away from the pecking of the other chickens. I cleaned her again that evening but noticed that she was getting worse. By the next morning I could tell she was in so much pain that she didn't want to move. I called Jeremy at work and asked if he would come home and take her in to be put down. It was a hard decision but one that we needed to make for her sake.

The boys and I sat in the bedroom with her all morning and read her books and told her thank you for being a good chicken to us over the last 5 months. Jeremy came home and we said goodbye. Ian seemed to take it well although he was very sad and mentions her every day atleast once. She was the first one he took to and the one he called by name the most often.

It's hard for me to believe but the first two baby chicks we got, Clover and now Emmaline, have both died. We knew just simply getting them meant we would have to experience their death at some point, but we certainly didn't think it would be so soon. Poor miss Emmaline. We already miss her!

This was her just a month ago with Sawyer...


And here's a few pics from the first week we had her...






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Our other chickens, Ginger, Willow, and Guinevere are doing really well. Both Willow and Guinevere are laying eggs daily and we are patiently waiting on Ginger to join them. We could tell they were a little weirded out this week my Emmaline's absence since she was the queen around the coop, but it seems Willow has stepped up to the plate and is already putting the other two in their place.

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4 comments:

Adam and Raechell said...

The girls and I are so sorry to hear about your loss. :( We thought she was so beautiful. You obviously did the right thing, I'm sure it was a difficult decision to make.
We would love to see more pics of their eggs as they begin to lay. I found myself asking Bonnie stupid questions like, "Do they look like store bought eggs?" "Are they smaller, larger?" "Are they colored or white?" Interesting stuff...raising animals.
Thank you for letting us live vicariously. Much love.

Karli Del Biondo said...

That is so sad, Andrea! We need to reconnect soon! Maybe this next week. We've been sick this past week. I miss you guys & Sam misses Ian!

Karli Del Biondo said...

Okay, I know the part about having pets is dealing with death, but it really sucks! Sam's goldfish is dying, and it's breaking my heart and it's a GOLDFISH. I don't know, its personality rubbed off on me. Thank goodness the crawfish lives on. I'll NEVER attend a crawfish boil again in my life! I don't know how you made it through Emmaline's passing, but it's really sad, and makes me not want to get anymore pets!

Jeremy said...

I totally understand Karli! I'm sorry about the goldfish dying. It's just awful when you get attached and something happens to them. Even though you know going in that you will outlive them, it's still hard.