My first chicken spay...

Well it's been a bit of a week! Not only have we gotten more rain in 3 days than we normally do in the entire month of June, but Minerva is sick. I noticed a week or so ago that she seemed a bit less active, but she was still eating. This week she was fluffed up and her belly felt very firm. After a trip across town to the avian vet, the presumed diagnosis was salpingitis and yolk retention. Sort of like an ectopic pregnancy, chicken style.

Unfortunately, there's no way to get all those yolks out of the body without surgery. And apparently removing the ovary of birds is a REALLY big deal and very dangerous. So the best we can do is to remove the oviduct and the uterus and hope the ovary stops trying to produce eggs. If the ovary keeps up production after surgery, the eggs have no place to go and the chicken will eventually die.

I adore my chickens. And Minerva and I have great history, since she survived her dog encounter. But even with that, I just couldn't swing the (very reasonable) $650 for surgery

with the avian specialist. However, she said it's straightforward surgery (no doubt for her it is). Since the other option was euthanasia, I gave it a go myself...

figuring out the anatomy

1 3/4 pounds of oviduct!

Three hours post op she's up and around and drinking water.... I won't rest easy until we're a few days out, but at least she got a chance to get back on the farm. If she makes it, I'm a bit worried about how she'll try to use up the other seven of her nine lives.

Sleeping off her anesthetic