One Year Ago: We Still Miss You Napoleon

One year ago our brave boy Napoleon was taken from us. We think it was by a hawk.



I still mourn for him. It was such a shock and my heart hurts. I miss him every day. I can't even explain how much I loved him.



Napoleon was the reason we became vegetarian and then vegan. How could we care so much for this rooster and know that millions upon millions of baby roosters are ground up alive as a part of the egg industry, hens are brutally debeaked and crammed into cage and millions more are abused and killed for us to eat.



Napoleon had been injured buy a dog several months earlier and was nearly killed protecting his girls. He was very good and brave during his care but he missed his girls. If you don't' think chickens have feelings you should have seen them calling to each other across the yard (Napoleon stayed on our porch during his recovery) and then the emotional reunion...



We love and miss you, Napoleon!

A Visual

I know it's hard to imagine the degree of depravity that can be done by abusive people.

Here's a visual from the investigation of a man, I assume, about to hurl a turky bodily into the ground or that cage.

In what world is this condoned? In what world do we not care.

How can we continue to support these atrocities by buying the animals killed for us to eat?

Napoleon Recovery - Clean Bill

Just a quick note. I'll update more tonight or tomorrow.

We're taking Napoleon for a final visit with an avian specialis tonight. His feathers are really sprouting now and we hope she gives him a clean bill of health. Our goal is to have him back in the coop in the next day or so. I know he is eager to be out and we hope the girls will not have a problem with him (or should I say them not give him any problems).

If all goes well he'll be out scratching around by the weekend!

Hedgehog Butt!

As I mentioned - Mr. Napoleon is on the mend. He's even regrowing most of the feathers on his back! We're going to keep him on the porch until they fully "sprout" but he's looking like he will get most of them back.

As he is right now, he looks like a hedgehog!

He's been very good about being on the porch and in his crate. I know he's bored but he's been wonderful. And I think he and our kitten have a new bond. They love to stare at each other through the windows.

But I'm sure he can't wait to get back out in the coop to see his girls and scratch around.

Napoleon Recovery - Day 14

It's been a while since we did an update on Napoleon. He is doing amazingly well. The biggest news is that he's started to grow feathers again. His back looks like a hedgehog! I think by next week he'll be ready to go back into the coop. He should be done with the antibiotics today but we'll keep him on the porch until his feathers really sprout and cover his back.

Then we'll have to see how he and the girls get on at their re-introduction.

Napoleon Recovery - Day 7

On Friday night we took Napoleon for a follow-up visit to the After Hours Vet. The good thing is that they are only open evenings and weekends, so we took Napoleon Friday night around 10pm, which worked out perfectly since he would be sleepy and easy to transport in the crate.

Let me just say the emergency vet late on a Friday night is a very depressing place to be.

All in all they said he was doing well, but the vet said that the green spots might be a bacterial infection. She wasn't sure so we decided to continue giving him the antibiotics. Since the vet admitted she is not an avian expert, she referred us to another vet in the town over. However, that vet is out until Wednesday. So that's where we will be taking him Wednesday night.

There was one big development yesterday. I walked out my door to do some errands. I was wearing a jeans skirt and some sandals and a black top. I looked out into my yard which goes pretty far back. About 50 yards or less out we have a pile of brush for a burn pile. Yeah, well, who was messing around in the brush probably chasing a rabbit or something???

IT WAS THE DAMN DOG! The same dog that hurt Napoleon.

I called out softly, "Hey Puppy." The dog looked up and took off at top speed back behind our property towards the woods which back up to our area. I dropped my bags and took off running down the gravel road which leads back to our neighbor's house which is up there.

Now, after I had come back from the taking Napoleon to the vet last week we had gone back to our neighbor's as he raises hunting dogs. And sometimes these dogs happen to get out. So, suffice it to say, these dogs were prime suspects to me from the start. But I couldn't prove anything and they had said the dogs had not gotten out.

Well, it just so happens they let the dogs out to run around and get exercise in their woods. But this dog happened to be going up onto our property since neither of us have any fences. When I got up to their house I had a little chat with the dog's owner about the whole situation.

Net result, we made it clear that not only do we not want their dogs on our property again, they would be paying for all the vet bill...which will probably end up being in the $700+ range.

It would be an understatement to say that I'm very happy we found and were able to prove whose dog it was.

Napoleon Recovery - Day 5

Hi there!

Napoleon continues to amaze us with his recovery. He's even tried to flap up over his barrier on the porch. He's getting restless and probably bored with being on the porch, away from his girls with nothing to scratch up or play with.

His back seems to be healing and he is walking better. He is getting an odd discoloration on the skin on this back, though. We are going to take him in for a follow-up vet visit tonight. We want them to look at his back and make sure he doesn't need more antibiotics.

We plan on taking him at night, since the vet is an after-hours vet anyways. This way, he'll be in his crate and sleepy. We hope!

More of the saga to follow.

Gruesome

So the pics are a bit graphic but you can see the level of injury Napoleon sustained. It's a bit hard to tell from this angle but his back is scraped raw and the puncture wounds are there. He's lost some of his balance too. Some of that is due to soreness probably but also because his tail feathers are missing.



The less severe puncture wound is the one you see here towards the back. The worse one is just at the edge of the feathers.



Given that he was in the dog's mouth when we saw this happening and that he was completely in shock and limp when we rushed him to the vet, it is amazing that he avoided broken bones or worse. That he is now standing, eating, drinking and crowing is even more of a miracle.

Let's hope he keeps on improving and that the antibiotics do their work!

Napoleon Recovery - Day 2

Just a brief update.

Napoleon is hanging in there. He's being very good on the porch and seems to like sleeping in the cat crate in the dog carrier.

He's even eaten some of his feed and been drinking water. We've been cutting down on the pain shots just to try and help space them out a bit but he's been getting his antibiotics regularly.

He's walking around and crowing although we are keeping an eye on his left leg because it seems a bit wonky. We're not really sure what's up - if it's just sore or if it is hurt more than we can tell.

Last night we zipped him into his crate when he had gone to sleep and left him on the porch. We probably won't do that again because the light wakes him up far too early.

His back is scabbed over, which I think is good. It helps to heel and keeps out any dirt, dust or buggies. Not that we are really getting many since the porch is screened in.

Napoleon is outside my window crowing right now. We did not give him pain meds this morning so we'll see how he does today. I'm going to go into work but may have to come home early if he starts having trouble.

Thank you for all your kind words and thoughts.

- Poochie

Please Send Good Thoughts

I can't write this all out again. Please read it at Shoe Daydreams.



Please send your good thoughts to Napoleon. He needs them right now. We all do.

Eggbound

Eggs courtesy of Gertie and Meg

A few weeks ago we noticed that the girls laying schedule had significantly reduced. It was especially noticeable in Meg who has, so far, been a very consistent layer. Nothing was happening.

The season was changing and getting warmer but we didn't think that was likely to make her slow down so much. If anything we thought she would be laying regularly every day. She also didn't seem to be getting ready for a moult, but hey, what do we know.

I tend to worry when things happen with the pets and I'm not sure why. So of course, my mind thinks that maybe Meg is egg bound. This is when, essentially, the egg gets stuck inside the hen and can be very serious, even fatal.

I tried to get to pick Meg up so I could examine her and see if I could feel anything but she was not having anything to do with that. I was going to take her to the vet (more chicken vet visits!) but ended up asking our friends who have lots of chickens and have had them for a while.

Their response was that if she was egg bound, she'd be dead by now. Alrighty then.

This has gone on for a few weeks now and she's still out there. She's been eating well and moves around fine, especially when she gets to free range. She hasn't gone back to laying but she has gone through a bit of a moult. It's not as extensive as the Fall moult but I'm assuming that is the cause of the interruption.

We're keeping a close eye on her just in case.

Back in the Pink

So just a brief update to let you know that Gertie is feeling much better. The limp is mostly gone so I guess the sprain is healing. She'll be happy to get out into the yard tomorrow and over the weekend for lots of yummy bugs, worms and grass.

For all of you who thought we were crazy to take a chicken to the vet, just hope I'm not responsible for your health care in the future.

That's all I'm saying.

Trauma Center

We had a bit of trauma here today. I let the gang out to free range yesterday because it was such a lovely day... finally a Saturday without rain! Everyone was happy to get out into the sun and the grass.

But then I noticed Gertie was favoring her right leg. She was limping along, trying her best to compensate for something.



I don't usually pick the girls up because they really don't like it but I had to look at her foot. So I put Meg and Napoleon outside and cornered Gertie so I could get her. Once I picked her up I felt all around her foot and up her leg. I couldn't see anything stuck in her foot anywhere and couldn't feel anything wrong. We decided to wait to see if it cleared up by the next day.

But when I let them out this morning, she was still limping. Even though we are in a semi-rural area there do not seem to be a lot of vets who'll treat farm animals and chickens in particular. I guess chickens don't rate health care generally. Well screw that.

So we found an After Hours vet, wrapped Gertie in a towel and drove her in.

She was actually better in the car than the dogs and cats. She seemed to like looking out the window and had a funny habit of flinching when we went under and overpass. I think the shadow freaked her out a bit.

The good thing is that we got to the vet okay and she got examined by a vet who has chickens herself. She said that Gertie did not appear to have a break or mites or something in her foot. She thought it was just a sprain. She gave her an injection for the pain and we were able to bring her home. We were worried that the other two chickens might hurt her when she came back in but all was well.

I hoping that she will be feeling better in the morning.



The chickens are watching you!