Pebbles has gone

We have had a really bad run of luck here lately. I have never before lost three girls in quick succession, in fact, I have never lost more than one girl at a time before.

I took photos of the girls at the water yesterday morning and I was intending to use the photos in a post later on in the day. However I took Pebbles for her appointment with the vet in the afternoon and didn’t bring her back with me. After that I didn’t have the heart to write a post, but today I know I need to do this, so I am going to use yesterday’s photos as they are the last ones of Pebbles.

My post was going to be about the way Pebbles liked to stand on the side of the pellet or water dish. She sometimes stood on the edge of the pellet dish but she always stood on the edge of the water dish. She was the only one of the girls to do this.

Pebbles stands on the edge of the pellet dish

Pebbles stands on the water dish

This is how Pebbles always drank from the water dish

This is the first time that I have seen Rusty drink from the other water

Well done little Rusty!

And back to Pebbles

I had been increasingly worried about Pebbles because she had been wheezing for a month and on the antibiotic, baytril for three weeks, but wasn’t improving. Added to that she had taken to sitting on her favourite perch all day and dozing. She was eating but then so was Caramel right up until the end.

I also thought she was spending a lot of time with one eye closed and was rubbing at it and shaking her head vigorously. I took her to the vet at four o’clock yesterday afternoon.

I put Pebbles on the vet’s table and we immediately noticed that her right eye had swollen and was foaming. She was shaking her head and it was obvious that it was really bothering her. At that moment I knew with dread that she probably had the same thing Caramel had. The vet took some photographs and asked me to wait while she called the specialist.

While sitting in the waiting room with Pebbles in the cat box I could hear that her breathing was worse. The specialist confirmed my worst fear that it was mycoplasma. I have since looked it up again and the symptoms are foamy eyes, swollen eyelids and breathing problems. I had researched it before and it is one of the worse respiratory illnesses for chickens. Even if the bird does recover it can come back again and can potentially spread through the entire flock.

I told the vet that I really felt it would be best to have Pebbles put to sleep because I couldn’t bare her to go the same way Caramel did and I couldn’t risk the rest of the flock getting it. The vet said she felt that I was making the right decision to both spare Pebbles suffering like Caramel and to protect the rest of the flock.

She suggested that I treat the rest of the flock with tylan, which is a powder, in the water for five days to protect them.

I held Pebbles while the vet tried to inject a vein in her wing but Pebbles was struggling so the vet took her away and gave her some gas to put her to sleep before giving her the injection and returning her to me. She seemed to be gone ages and said it was because Pebbles breathing was so poor that it took a while for the gas to work and she didn’t want to give the injection until she was asleep so that she wouldn’t feel any pain. I am so lucky to have found a good vet.

I hated having to make this decision while Pebbles still appeared lively but I know how Caramel fought this when she was in such a terrible state and I couldn’t let that happen again. I also couldn’t risk the rest of the flock especially  Rusty and Freckles who were in such close contact with her.

This morning I started the five days of Tylan in the water. I can only hope and keep everything crossed that the other girls are okay. If we can get through this I will add two more seramas in the spring but I want to be sure we are through this first and get these girls settled and through the winter. I am feeling very sad right now that the flock has so quickly diminished to six and I have a dread of losing any more girls but I must stay positive and concentrate on keeping the remaining girls happy and healthy.