Update on sick Pippy

Good news! Pippy is back from the vet, where she apparently responded very well to antibiotics and devoured crickets and mealworms.

Last week we took her to the vet where she was gasping for air and being quite miserable. We didn't have high hopes when we took her to the vet, but he took her in and started medication straight away.

The next day we brought some of the other chickens down for a check up by the vet to see if she had passed on her infection to any of the other chickens. He told us that Pippy was already responding quite well and the other chickens in the flock didn't have any problems. There was no fee for this checkup, he just wanted to make sure that we didn't have a bigger problem.

This evening, I picked her up. She's no longer gasping and I was told just to keep her warm and to bring her back in another week's time. She's still pretty light, and they want to weigh her to make sure that she puts on weight. The vet also reckons that she has a reproductive problem and may need a hysterectomy later on!

So up in the Adelaide hills it will be dropping close to 1 degree at night, so I couldn't keep her outside. I could keep her in the laundry, but that gets pretty cold too and that room doesn't have a lot of sunlight. That means, she's in the dining room where she'll get some sunlight during the day and keep relatively warm at night, well, currently it is about 15 degrees with the heater on (I'm writing this with a jacket and scarf on). I've covered the cage with a blanket to keep out the light at night, but she'll just have to listen to the TV till I go to bed.

She was pretty hungry, put a jar of the RedHen 17 crumble when we got back and she ate lots. Hope she recovers well.

For those that want to know. The whole treatment was $267, which included a week's vacation at the vet clinic.

The vet we went to is:
Somerton Park Veterinary Clinic
40 Diagnonal Road
Glengowrie, SA 5044

Cuddle your chicken!
Night Night