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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Farm Friday on a Sunday: Chicken Surgery

I was doing some barn chores yesterday.

In the course of events, I saw one of our little hens settin' off by herself, real quiet like.

So I picked her up, and noticed something looked off with her foot.

At first glance, I thought she had a bit of a manure ball stuck to her claw (it happens).

But, horror of horrors, I realized it was not a manure ball, but rather some baling twine that had gotten wrapped around her feet. And the baling twine had gotten all frayed and tight and tangled, and

HER TALON OR CLAW OR TOE OR WHATEVER WAS NEARLY AMPUTATED!!

I brought her in the house and called Daniel over. Nugget is, after all, his chicken.

I sent one of the kids to the pantry to get the surgery bin.

Doesn't everyone have a surgery bin in their closet?

I put a surgical drape in Daniel's lap and set Nugget down on it.

I cut the twine off from around her feet with some bandage scissors and reassessed her talon. It was dead, but still attached to her foot by a bit of live flesh.
I don't know, is that what you're supposed to call it, or did I just coin a new phrase?

So I got a scalpel out of a wrapper, had Daniel hold on to her pretty tight, and cut the talon off.

I. Cut. The. Talon. Off.

Where else can you read stuff like this?











Look at all that stinkin' blood. Is that not disgusting?







That is a TALON.

In my HAND.





OK, you just HAVE to vote for me now, don't you?

You know the drill by now. Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.

Top Mommy Blogs - Click To Vote!

Thanks!

20 comments:

  1. Poor Nugget! Hope she's recovering! As for the vote - you bet I did!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I voted.

    I would vote twice if I could because I could never do that. I'm glad you discovered it before it got worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Rosey! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it, but I girded my loins (whatever that means) and pushed through. She was a trooper!

      Delete
  3. I keep telling my husband how awesome it would be to have chickens. Maybe I'll not tell him about this part of it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha! Need to know basis, right? Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. it amuses me to no end that you, my sister, and i,
    1) both have blogs
    2) both used the word "talon" in our respective blogs on the same day
    of course, you used it in it's literal context of belonging to a chicken (which, as you said, is... well.... what other mommy blog would detail the amputation of a chicken's talon?), whereas i used it to describe john mccain "he has the talons of a hawk but the heart of a dove") (shameless plug: http://marybirdsong.com)
    weeeeeeeird!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know if I can even list all the things in this post that shocked me. The surgery bin got it started. The fact that you just pick up your chicken so easily. That you brought it in the house. THAT YOU CUT A TALON OFF!!

    You rock.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, YOU rock, Coop!
      Come on, girl. I know you could've done the same thing.

      Delete
  6. Are the other chickens going to tease her and call her Two Toes?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm, I'll have to watch out for that. Our barn is a bully-free zone.

      Delete
  7. ...and you managed to photograph the whole thing! Epic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Had to call someone else over to do the photographing!

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Yeah. Fun. That's the word I was searching for. LOL!

      Delete
  9. Good grief! It's always something with animals, isn't it? Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

    ReplyDelete

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