Realities of poultry keeping, for new young keeper!

[Marigold]

My friend Jim, who has lived 2 doors away for many years, has always looked after my hens when I go away, and I do the same for his. Unfortunately, he moved house last Thursday, two days before we went away for a week's holiday. Luckily I found a sensible 13-year-old girl nearby, who is very keen indeed on chickens, and with parental backup was only too happy to take on the job for the week, after various training sessions plus lots of written instructions, contact numbers etc.

24 hours into the holiday I got a phone call to say one of them had prolapsed, (though she didn't know what this was, and was rather upset, especially as the others must have been having a go and making it bleed.) So have been exchanging messages about cleaning it up and isolating her from the others, she's been pushing it in and it's popped out again twice, so Mum is going to try to get a vets appointment tomorrow to have the hen PTS. What a start to her career as a poultry keeper, poor lass!
My hens are usually so trouble-free and easy to care for, and in all my years of keeping them, this is the first prolapse any of them have had. Why do these things always happen at weekends, when you're away?

 

[dinosaw]

What a shame Marigold, for you, her and of course the hen. The law of sod operating perfectly it would seem. We always seemed to have some issue or other when we needed to go away, one year it was coccidiosis and another saw one of the hens go broody which led to us getting back to find around 20 eggs under Summer because our neighbours had mistakenly thought she was laying every time they had looked in the nest box, just as well we were only gone for 3-4 days or she would have been sitting on an egg mountain. I hope this doesn't put your new helper off and that it hasn't ruined your holiday.

 

[Marigold]

And, of course, in the nature of things, it's happened to one of my younger 3-year-old hybrids who is still a good layer. Part of the problem I expect.
Still, let's look in the bright side. Having lost dear old Marigold and also another older hybrid, this Spring, there will be room for some nice new POLs before the Autumn, to provide our Winter eggs.

 

[rick]

Oh, that’s really unfortunate Marigold. I hope it doesn’t put her off - its so easy to blame yourself in situations like that (but could also be the inspiration for a career as a vet - its often those things that are the spark.)
Good luck for the rest of the week.

 

[Marigold]

I emailed the vet to explain the situation, and to explicitly give permission for them to PTS the hen, as I wondered if their code of ethics would prevent them doing this without contacting the actual owner of an animal. I said she'd been in the care of a 13-year-old new keeper and her mum, so I hope they praised Katie for her efforts. Got an email from Mum yesterday saying vet diagnosed bad prolapse and hen had been PTS. Mum said the hen was calm and nibbling cabbage in her box all the way to the vets and didn't appear to be in pain, so that was good.
What good neighbours! I just hope the other hens stay upright until Saturday. It has occurred to me that, in an emergency or if nobody could be found to check them, I could go away and leave them for a couple of days in their secure run with plenty of food and water. But this has showed that, although you can go months with no incidents, things often happen the moment your back is turned. Mum said Katie had been going to see them several times a day over the weekend, before it happened, so Cinnamon must have been discovered quickly,before the others had a chance to peck her too badly. I had told Katie that her rates of pay would be £15 for the week, plus an unspecified bonus if I found all was in order and she'd done a good job looking after them. Bonus definitely earned, - plus nice bottle of wine for Mum, I think.