I have a chicken named Camilla, (remember the muppet show in the late 70's / early 80's – Gonzo the great had a similarly named chicken) … Camilla is a very friendly, personable humongous avian version of a rescue puppy. She regularly begs at our picnics and will come running as fast as her chubby body can motor if I call to her.
Well, at least she used to.
About a week ago, I felt like she looked "off."
Chickens are so resiliant, until there is something wrong with them, and then they seem to go downhill quickly. I felt like she needed to be wormed, but in the back of my mind there was this hesitation. We have had some bad luck with several of our birds, losing a duck to a respiratory issue and another duck to a mysterious thing and then a chicken to something else unknown. One duck was saved via diagnosis of worms and then an injection; so now I regularly de-worm everyone. But the mysteries … they plague me. I have tried a variety of approaches to this … purchasing OTC antibiotics and electrolytes to no avail. The last bird we took to the veterinarian right away and he did injectible antibiotics and IV electrolytes to the tune of $100 and the bird died 3 hours later. So it is a discouraging thing.
When I saw our favorite bird looking strange, I thought, I should worm her. But I had company and other issues and I put it off. Each day she looked worse and I kept thinking I should do something but I didn't. Yesterday, she looked terrible and I fell the end was near, yet her eyes were bright, so I didn't pursue putting her down. So what did I do? I wormed her. Today, she is in the house, warm, I'm giving her electrolytes every fifteen minutes and a high concentrated energy food. I probably will go to the feed store when I finish this post and get some penicillan and inject her and do sub-cutaneous fluids.
Heroic, right?
Um, not so much. I bet none of it will work. And I will be ever more so sad, because now I will really have TRIED.
But why didn't I do this sooner?
And, for that matter, why don't others do anything sooner to save their marriage or their job or their relationships with the neighbors or children or co-workers when they see signs of distress? Why don't they change the oil when the light comes on or get the car looked at when the indicator says there is a problem?
We see the warning signs and we ignore them. Why?
Laziness? Avoidence of cost/hassles? Yes, surely.
But I know myself, and my biggest issue with this chicken is that I didn't want to fail AGAIN.
And so, by doing nothing until now, I have almost guarenteed that this will be the case.
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