#cockerals

Hello my name is Boots! I am a 2 day old Barnevelder chick. Mom had to help me out of my shell as I was incredibly sticky, parts of my membrane dried out and stuck to me, and I pipped at the wrong end. And I was noticibly smaller (despite being fully developed) than my other clutchmates. I also bruised my nose pretty good trying to get out. The odds we're stacked against me. My mom had to give me 3 baths to get me un-sticky enough that my wings weren't sticking to me so I could balance. I also had to get some boots fashioned out of blue taped because my toes curled in from being badly positioned in my egg. Hence the name I was given. 😆

The other day I went to pick up this boy, PicklePi, for some lovin and notice that his right side and lower chest had ballooned. Like literally ballooned. It felt like air. And it was making some crackling noises. Alarmed, I immediately brought him in the house to be put in ISO. I did a quick needle aspirate to be sure there was no liquid, and it was all just air, like I initially guessed. Some quick googling and it sounded like he had subcutaneous emphysema. Which is basically where one of the air sacs through a chicken's body tears and releases are underneath the skin. at least that's what I got from my quick Google searches. He's been acting normal overall, no sneezing or weezing or decreased energy, so I probably wouldn't have noticed that there was anything wrong until it was too late if I hadn't had picked him up. We have no idea how he did this. our guess is that since he's the lowest man on the totem pole he probably got trampled by the other chickens cuz they all like to sleep in one spot. We've now blocked off that spot.

Why yes, I do have a chair in my chicken pen! Why?