Off to a rough start!

Welcome! So the idea of starting this blog got off to a bit of a rough start. While my daughter did a GREAT job getting me started. A bout of the flu struck our house and knocked the wind out of my sails. We were blessed to some degree...it wasn't the stomach variety, but the upper respiratory type. It also did not turn into anything more.

So, as I was recovering from that...My best layer developed a prolapsed oviduct.
What a nightmare! For those of you that don't know what that is...When a hen lays an egg, it travels through her oviduct. The oviduct will briefly exit the chicken through her vent, the egg will release and then the oviduct will contract back into the vent. Sometimes if the the chicken is over weight, too young or the eggs are exceptionally large the oviduct may not contract.
Well, Bea Arthur was a perfectly healthy chicken...Aside from the fact that she had a bit of a feather problem as she was Alejandro's favorite hen, (Alejandro is one of my roosters.) She was a Black Austrolorp and about a year and a half old. She layed the MOST amazing eggs! They were huge. Which come to find out did not work in her favor! As you have most likely figured out...Bea Arthur is no longer with us.
I learned a few lessons along the way.
Immediately after I discovered the situation, I removed her from the other chickens. Knowing that as soon as this was discovered by them they would begin pecking her. I isolated her in a warm comfortable cage in our garage. I contacted a couple of friends who have had chickens longer than I. Unfortunately, neither had experienced this before. So being thankful, for my Window's phone...I went online to see what I could find out.
It seemed that this wasn't such a big problem after all. I read how many people had experienced the same problem. So I started by following some of the same suggestions. I brought Bea in the house, put her and her "animal kennel" in my daughters room. (She is not currently home.) I ran a warm bath of about 100 degrees  F. I added some Epsom salts. I brought Bea in my bathroom to soak in the tub. I cleaned the area well, and using some A&D ointment I pushed her oviduct back in. She promptly pushed it back out. This went on for a bit. Suddenly realizing that this was not going to be as easy as I thought...I began scanning the internet again. It seemed that Preparation H was highly reccomended, along with mineral oil. So I dried Bea off with a towel. Returned her to the kennel in my daughters room. It was very important to avoid her laying another egg, I gave her minimum food and plenty of water and made the room dark. I ran to town got my items and returned home.
I again ran a warm bath, with Epsom salts, put her in the tub and cleaned the area. She did not at any time seem to be in discomfort. She actually seemed to enjoy the extra attention and warm bath. I coated the area with the Preparation H, and again tried to place it back inside her. Again she pushed it back out. I tried "holding" them inside. NO luck. I continued to read what was available what was on line. Several people had stated that this happened when they had an egg got "stuck". So I put some mineral oil on my gloved had and investigated, but could not feel and egg. I coated everything with Prep H and pushed it in, she expelled it. So I returned her to her dark kennel. I kept  a close eye on her the rest of the day. The next morning she was the same. I cleaned her (she was not having any problem with pooing etc.). I again coated her with more Prep H, and again tried to put everything the way it should have been. But no luck. I returned her to the dark kennel with minimal food and plenty of water.
I went to work. I called the vet we use for our dogs, but they referred me to another vet. I then contacted them and left a message. Mean while I returned to the internet. I saw that witch hazel was reccommended, as it helps to tighten the skin. So when I finished work I planned another stop at the drug store. In the meantime I received a message from the vet. They said euthanasia!!! I thought no way!!!
Mind you, even my husband...who is a true "Northwoods Boy" a great hunter and fisherman. Had wanted me to contact the vet, as he couldn't imagine the thought of putting Bea Arthur down.
SO, I stopped at our small local pharmacy and told my situation to the pharmacist. He reccommended cortisone ointment and the witch hazel.
Well, when I got home...my amazing laying hen had layed another egg. It was of course huge!
I again ran a bath for her and put her to soak. She still enjoyed the warm water, but now when I tried to cleanse her she was in obvious pain. I don't hesitate to tell you that I was beginning to feel panic. My husband had gone out ice fishing.
I took her from the tub and swaddled her in a towel, she was breathing a bit labored, and kept closing her eyes...
I texted my dear friend, Jen. She immediately said she thought it was time to put her down. I just looked at Bea thinking...HOW..???
Having difficulty picturing myself cutting her head off, I asked Jen how she would do it? She said wring her neck.
I just closed my eyes and prayed. This may all sound crazy but while all this was going on, I was preparing to serve appetizers at a dear friends celebration of life ceremony. She passed December 22nd from ovarian cancer.
So at this moment I just couldn't imagine anymore death.
I told Jen OMG....Why did I name this chicken. She said that she and her husband also learned that the hard way as well.
(Please understand I am not trying to sound inhumane. BUT we first got chickens for eggs. They were so kind that they included 6 extra chickens...ALL roosters. I of course named them all. I played with them daily, I could even see that some of them had their own personalities. But the roosters matured. The one rooster we wanted...Alejandro, wouldn't crow. The roosters were doing as God intended. Many of the hens quit coming out of the hen house to enjoy their yard. So, I arrived home from work one day to find my husband butchering Pip and the rest of his buddies.
Let me tell you, as I let the surprise pass...I helped clean and package them for the freezer.
That was the best chicken I ever ate!
Knowing that the chickens had a much better life than any of the chickens we buy at the grocery store and the fact that I knew exactly what my chickens ate... I thought lets get more chickens in the spring for meat.)
OK, back to the story.
I thought: Should I wait for my husband to get home?. But Bea was suffering...I was the one who wanted to be the farmer.
I asked Jen to say a prayer for me. I then grabbed her neck and thought, I started to wringing it. I thought she was dead...I went outside on our deck...Our Lab and my Petite Basset Griffon Venden in tow. I bravely opened the towel to look down and see Bea Arthur starring at me. So I tried again. Apparently it is a lot harder to break a chicken's neck than I thought. All I seemed to be doing was ripping out her neck feathers. (Mind you I am not a complete girly girl, I actually surprise a lot of people with my strength.)
 I layed Bea, wrapped in the towel on the deck and thought...ok, I will "crush" her head with the hedge hog shaped shoe cleaner. Well, our lab being a lab, was very excited about the prospect of fresh bird. Bea got away from me and flew off the deck into the snow below. By this point Skinner (our lab) was down there and seriously investigating. I'm yelling at him...crying...and shouting how sorry I was to Bea. I got a hold of her and Finally broke her neck.
Again, not trying to be a horrible person...but I can only imagine how all of this would have looked if someone were watching me.
In the process of "cleaning" up and putting everything away, I tripped and fell in the garage and landed smack on my knee cap! OUCH! It is still bruised but I can put a bit of weight on it.
I texted my husband that I had killed Bea and how awful it was. He was so sweet and said how sorry he was, offering to come home and try and cheer me up with a game of Scrabble or Cribbage. I told him that I was icing my knee and having a well deserved glass of wine.
Being so sweet, he said "no problem,...he would clean the chicken when he got home".
Being me. I told him I couldn't eat Bea Arthur. He said, "no problem, he would take care of her while I was at work the next day"!
The Celebration of Life went off without a hitch...We had about 200 people show up! It was amazing.

I don't believe I will ever name a chicken again. While there are still 7 hens from Bea's group still laying eggs...I am lucky enough to say that I lost track of who was who...Other than Bea. She had a bald spot on her head where Alejandro would grab her to mate.
We also have 13 other chickens...These were all to be meat chickens. Five of them are Wyandotte (one rooster in that group). The other seven are Buff Orpingtons, with one rooster in their group as well. They never got butchered as we planned as my husband and step son were both blessed with bucks during deer season. My step son's also got a buck and we have them all in our freezer. The hens started laying eggs and we get somewhere between 8 and 13 eggs a day. I am in the process of setting up a place to sell the eggs. Lots of people interested in buying them...but logistics of everything is not easy. Up until now we have been blessing our extended family with gifts of fresh eggs.
I will post a pictureof what it looks like when  a prolapsed oviduct appears...I hope to never experience that again.

blessings patti