Trouble Update

(old picture of Seth and Trouble)

I got a comment asking how Trouble is doing, so I guess I better update.  I was really hoping that if I waited long enough things would turn around and I would have good news.  I got so much good advice from you guys and have spent lots of time reading backyard chicken forums and such.  Based on what I read the best thing I could come up with is that maybe Trouble has a vitamin B deficiency.  She didn’t appear to be egg bound, nor did it appear to be Marek’s disease.  So based on what I read I started feeding her a scrambled egg several times a day with a vitamin B capsule sprinkled in (after the egg was cooked-I didn’t cook the vitamin.)  At first Trouble ate it happily, and we even thought she started to look better.  Today, though, I couldn’t get her to eat it or drink any water and she seems worse.  So I think she is probably headed in the wrong direction at this point and we will be making a decision tomorrow.  I don’t know of a chicken vet in our area, nor do I think we would necessarily take her (although we did take her to visit our friends who have been raising chickens for decades yesterday, and even they didn’t know what to tell us.)  We like our chickens, and Trouble is definitely the favorite, but they really are not pets, and that is just the honest truth.  We can’t afford to keep a large flock of chickens and vet them whenever they get ill.  We take very good care of them and  honestly, they have quite a life here. But, when one bird of many gets sick, a tough decision is usually going to have to be made.  We do what we can and hope for the best.  That is just life on a little farm.