The story you are about to hear is true, the names have not been changed to protect the innocent...
The call came in at 7:03 pm. I was standing in line at the Chipolte ordering dinner. It was my daughter, frantic, on the line. Daboo (she calls me Daboo), get home right away there's a fox in the yard. Calmly I asked her, "Are the chicken's out?". "Yes Daboo, the birds are out and they are screaming, the fox got Biscuit!"
In my mind I was picturing the carnage. One fox in the yard. Three chickens. I immediately began thinking about setting up the incubator, ordering some fertilized eggs, and hatching another brood. No chance three chickens survive a fox attack. It's been a good run. Over three years and we've never let the chickens wander haphazardly into the jaws of a fox, teeth of a raccoon, or beak of a backyard goshawk. Sure we have had foxes in the yard before and coyotes. Typically during the winter months when the chickens stay in the coop and the fence falls into disrepair. But we know when they have access. We've captured their coming and going on surveillance cameras. After I fix the holes in the fence, however, they are banished. And have been so vanquished until tonight. We let our guard down.
As I drove quickly home I called my wife. "Yes", she said, "The chickens were screaming and Biscuit was attacked". "Is the fox still in the yard?", I asked. "We don't know," was her reply.
When I got home my daughter had "Biscuit" upstairs in the bathroom I feared the worse. Preparing myself for what I imagined would be a severely mangled bird. And I thought of the speech I gave my daughter when we first decided to keep the chicken's and fight the city for legal residency. The birds do not get to go to the vet. We had previously been to the exotic pet clinic a few years ago, before the chickens arrived. On that occasion it was with a rabbit with over grown teeth. But while in the waiting room in came a mother and daughter with a pet chicken. It was when the doctor asked them to sign the form approving, or disapproving, the resuscitation clause, that I thought deeply about the worth of chickens. A live hen is worth about $5 dollars. That's not much money. How much is it going to cost this family to have this chicken cared for by this doctor, and, what exactly does chicken resuscitation look like? In my mind, so many years ago, well in advance of having chicken's of my own, I was already marking that form, "No".
Given that experience, when we began our chicken journey, I told my daughter, "No vet visits for the chickens". This meant, a number of things. One, we had to do all of our own chicken medical training on-line. There is definitely a wealth of knowledge. Chickens are pretty hardy. Keep them warm and dry and they tend to stay healthy. After all, they pretty much eat dirt. How sick could they become? Turns out mold is a problem. But if you keep their feed dry, mold stays out of the equation. Other nasty creatures that would tend to harbor weird things, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, small snakes, worms, snails, slugs...things you don't want in your house...the chickens welcome...because they eat them. Yet still, they have problems. But if you give them dry dirt, they will take a bath in it. If you give them a brick or a rock, they will trim their beak on it. If you put vinegar in their water, they will love you for it...and stay healthy. But we have had to do medical things. Beak repair. Turns out it's like auto body repair. You use a small tea bag and super glue (gel) to do a fiberglass repair. It's helpful to trim their claws and spurs, primarily so they don't hurt one another. And you watch them. Until this night, 3-1/2 years running, there were no trips to the vet.
So as I ascended the steps to the up-stairs bathroom, I wondered how I would tell my daughter. "The fox won this round, it's been a good run, it was only a matter of time". My first hand knowledge of fox attacks include, Hondo, who lost 10 birds in one attack. And Chris, who lost 5 birds in one attack. I entered the room and saw Biscuit was squatting on the bathroom rug. She was looking around. I could tell she was stressed but she looked intact. She was breathing heavy. Other than that, she looked like she always did. I was surprised. When I reached down to pet her, she looked at me with one chicken eye and tilted her head sideways. She was totally aware of my presence. Then she tried to stand up. I could immediately tell she was injured. She struggled to stand up and she looked like she was limping, and pretty badly. But, she was able to stand. I thought to myself. "This bird was just attacked by a fox and she looks like she might survive". The decision was clear, I can't let this bird try to survive on her own. We would go to the exotic vet. Breaking my long standing rule.
I called the vet ER...it was about 7:15. Within minutes we were driving in with a pet emergency. I thought about the incredible Dr. Po. I thought about Dr. Dee in Alaska. I wondered who was on call. By 7:30 we were being admitted. And as I had remembered, so many years earlier, they presented me with the Resuscitation Form. I immediately thought, "No", primarily because I had made that decision five years ago, in advance, of this day. But my daughter was with me. Biscuit was her pet. It's her turn to make a critical life and death decision. It's yet another chance to learn about the real life, during real life. Yet still, I had a question. So I told my daughter, "This is your decision". And I asked the vet technician, "What exactly is chicken resuscitation?" The tech said, "Its very difficult, if the heart stops, they can do CPR, it probably requires breaking ribs". Even though, you may think the next answer, is going to be yes, my daughter had a break-through moment in clarity. By all rights, we shouldn't be here. The fox should have won. That said, Biscuit was clearly in a lot of pain. And wait, if she was going to die, you would have to break her ribs to keep her heart beating? My daughter, made the decision, I couldn't make. She said, "No, do not resuscitate". It felt like the right decision.
That said, we still had a bird to save. The tech took Biscuit into the back, she was breathing heavy. And my daughter and I waited in an examination room, spending our time looking at the multiple pictures of exotic pets that blanketed the wall. Birds, lizards, turtles, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rats, snakes, rabbits, chinchillas, ferrets, peacocks, and yes, one chicken. When the doctor came into the room with us, it was a very happy prognosis. Biscuit would survive, they needed to clean her up, stitch-up some broken skin, and put her on antibiotics and pain killer. The bill for the treatment would run anywhere from $900 to $1,200 dollars. And they were scheduling her for surgery to do the stitching the next morning, obviously the chicken would have to be sedated for the stitches. She also would have to remain over night. Now we had another decision. What is a $5 chicken actually worth? We had already signed the "Do not resuscitate?" but that wasn't based on money, that was based on doing more harm than good. Exactly what was the current value of the bird? It was time to do some quick math...would I be willing to pay the $1,200 for medical care?
Hatching ~$400
Brooding ~$600
Coop ~$2,400
Pest Eradication ~$600
3.5 years care and feeding ~$1,200 x 3.5 = $4,200
Battle with City and Licence ~$1,800
So far, with incidentals but without intangibles like love, the household investment in these birds now approaches $10,000. That makes the decision easy. I'm not paying for the medical care of the single bird, per se. I am paying into the total investment we have made to have and keep birds as pets. And we are not ready to give up on this experiment turned hobby turned lifestyle just yet.
Just so you don't think the bird was lucky, and the fox, didn't get a good hold on her, the sight of the attack looked like the Manson family had visited. Feathers everywhere. The chicken was well in the jaws of the fox, and probably flapping and squawking like, well, a chicken in the jaws of a fox. Can there be a better analogy? And my daughter did run into the back yard flapping and screaming, "Drop my bird". She made eye contact with the fox, he dropped her bird and retreated. But the trauma had been inflicted. Biscuit had a two inch diameter rip in her skin that required 12 stitches. She had two punctures wounds that required one stitch each. But it wasn't until all her feathers were removed along her belly and upper thighs that the real damage was revealed. Her legs were severely bruised. What should look like white, raw, chicken skin, looked dark green with massive bruising from internal bleeding that must have resulted from the jaws of the fox and the wild subsequent flapping.
I'm happy to report, 9 days into Biscuit's recovery at home, she is doing very well. She goes back to the vet today to have her post-recovery check-up. Since she was crowing for the first time yesterday, I think she will be ready to be returned to GenChickPop (GCP) in the not to distant future. Her sisters miss her... They have been visiting her in her recovery cage throughout the week...
