So, one of our chickens, Millicent, has avian malaria. No lie. It’s so weird. I guess the vet has never seen it in a backyard chicken. Millicent has been looking bad for about a year and a half. She’s lost a ton of feathers and is very skinny. Usually chickens go through a thing called “molting” where they lose some feathers at one point in the year–but this never stopped and she never regrew her feathers.
That’s her on the right–on the chair. And no, they’re not supposed to be on the table. Forget about elbows on the table, we have to deal with feet and poop on the table.
Anyway, I finally took her to the vet this week and they did a blood panel (on a chicken!) and found the malaria. She’s going to call around to some poultry vets (who knew?) to see if that’s what is causing all of her symptoms. We’re not into taking heroic measures (she’s a backyard chicken of advancing years), but I also didn’t want to see her freeze to death because of no feathers. Now I feel bad–do you think she’s been having fevers and sweats for a year and a half? Poor baby!
Robin: Do you think merino is too much for a chicken? Since she has no feathers, I don’t want it to be itchy…
Oh My….maybe you should knit her a sweater?! Now that would be a funny picture! I dare ya!