Transferable skills

This morning, L., who takes care of the chickens, noticed one hen was limping. Upon closer inspection, L. noticed that one of the hen's feet looked oddly swollen. The hen was immediately whisked off to quarantine and L. started doing research. 

It turns out the hen has a condition called bumble foot, which is when a chicken gets a cut on its foot and the cut becomes infected. It's painful and if not caught in time can lead to death as the infection moves through the body. 

I write this as if I know about chicken illnesses. This is merely my reporting of L.'s research. It seems that it was caught early, which is good for the hen. It's also good for the hen that I wasn't in charge because I'm not sure I would have caught it. 

Treatment involves soaking the infected foot in an Epsom salt solution, removing any scabs that have formed on the foot, treating with an antiseptic spray (it was a pleasant surprise to know we had this stashed in a cupboard), them wrapping the foot. It sounds fairly straightforward, but I also thought it had a ring of easier said than done about it. L. was on top of it though and discovered a method of soaking the affected foot that did not involve perpetually chasing a wet hen. But first, a new bin had to be invested in and modified. 


It worked far better than my imagination had envisioned. You could tell the hen didn't feel great based on her level of cooperation. The next step was to clean the foot. L. took care of that. 


The final step was to wrap it well so the wounds can stay clean. This became my job because of my mad wound wrapping skills complements of the horses. 


Based on L.'s research, having caught it early, if we continue to treat the foot and change the bandages, she should make a full recovery. I have a feeling we'll know when she is recovering by her level of cooperation with the whole process. 

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