Last night I pulled in the driveway after church and saw a pile of feathers outside the small hen house. NOT a good sign. And the more I looked, the worse it got. Most of the carnage was outside the dog's fence line, but there was one bird inside the fence line, which made me yell at him. Of course, he brought the dead chicken to me. I could only see the bantam rooster and three hens inside the large hen house, so I thought we'd had lost 2/3 of the flock. Once I realized the fence was still working, I knew there was no way Buster could have killed them.
This morning, the main rooster and two white hens showed up, so we only lost 1/2 of the birds. The big rooster is hurt, but I think he'll heal.
What we didn't realize until this morning is that Buster is hurt.
After a visit the vet, I got to spend the afternoon taking apart his pen and closing off the back porch, as he is now in quarantine there for the next 9 days. We return to the vet Saturday to see how his bite wounds are healing. Evidently he jumped on top of/or cornered one of the animals (the vet seems to think it was a pack of dogs), as all his injuries are underneath him.
He's still scared, a little skittish of people, and for Buster, is calm. We'll see how things go in the morning when I have to wash his wounds.
This was not how I planned to spend my day, but I'm thankful Bobby is retired now and was able to drive us to the vet (I don't think Buster could have climbed up in my car) and did a morning inspection of the carnage so I knew whether or not my night-time assessment was correct. Thankfully there wasn't too many surprises in store for us.
I guess the rest of this week I'll be working on re-inforcing the hen house. On days like this, I'm don't think animals are worth the trouble and heartache.
OH...and after four days of no phone service and internet (thank you DOT mowers for cutting the weeds/trees on the side of the road, but must you always mow down the phone boxes on our road?), we finally had service returned a little before 7pm tonight. That was a very positive note to end on.
This morning, the main rooster and two white hens showed up, so we only lost 1/2 of the birds. The big rooster is hurt, but I think he'll heal.
What we didn't realize until this morning is that Buster is hurt.
After a visit the vet, I got to spend the afternoon taking apart his pen and closing off the back porch, as he is now in quarantine there for the next 9 days. We return to the vet Saturday to see how his bite wounds are healing. Evidently he jumped on top of/or cornered one of the animals (the vet seems to think it was a pack of dogs), as all his injuries are underneath him.
He's still scared, a little skittish of people, and for Buster, is calm. We'll see how things go in the morning when I have to wash his wounds.
This was not how I planned to spend my day, but I'm thankful Bobby is retired now and was able to drive us to the vet (I don't think Buster could have climbed up in my car) and did a morning inspection of the carnage so I knew whether or not my night-time assessment was correct. Thankfully there wasn't too many surprises in store for us.
I guess the rest of this week I'll be working on re-inforcing the hen house. On days like this, I'm don't think animals are worth the trouble and heartache.
OH...and after four days of no phone service and internet (thank you DOT mowers for cutting the weeds/trees on the side of the road, but must you always mow down the phone boxes on our road?), we finally had service returned a little before 7pm tonight. That was a very positive note to end on.
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