Atreyu (named by her rescuer) is home. Her leg is shattered and her wing is also broken, but her bloodwork and internal radiographs look great. She has splints on both fractures and is on pain medication. However, she looks... pretty awful. She was tube fed and given fluids and the vet said she perked up, but it’s pretty clear she is still struggling. So disturbing her with as little movement as possible, I placed her outside in the sunshine. She deserves to know what that warmth feels like on her skin.

Atreyu made it through the night. She still has no interest in eating on her own, but I was able to get some more pain medication into her. She is sitting more upright today but keeps her eyes closed and her head lowered most of the time. We have a looooong way to go.

Bit of a rough morning for Atreyu. She seems agitated today. I don’t know if it’s because she finally has the energy to show her agitation, or if something else is bothering her. She hates her medication and she hates her tube feeds. She has been flapping around a lot in her crate, but I’m taking that as a good sign that she’s able to move more. Even so, I think she’s been pretty miserable the whole time but not able to do anything about it, so the vet is going to call in a stronger injectable pain med. The bruising on her side has lightened up a bit, so that’s hopeful. For now we’re still just hanging in there.

The vet believes that Atreyu no longer has any feeling in the broken leg. She sustained some pretty severe nerve and tissue damage, and it looks as though that leg is paralyzed. But honestly - we can deal with that. There are options for one-legged chickens, although none of them are cheap. But if she is with us mentally, and starts to get some strength and life back, we will absolutely do what it takes to make it work physically. As long as she keeps making progress, we will give her everything she needs to live a good life.

This beautiful girl ate today. All by herself. She ate, and drank, and has been mostly alert. She yells at me when she isn’t happy. She tries to move around. She started preening her backside. Today has been a truly excellent day. Come on, Atreyu.

Our specialist visit today went worse than I could have imagined. She is still alive. We are still fighting. But x-rays show potential cancer in her spinal cord. Completely unrelated to any of her breaks. We will head to another specialist later this week to have a CT scan done and get a better picture of what’s happening in there.

Atreyu is about to undergo an emergency wing amputation. Her avian vet thinks it needs to come off right now, whether she has other issues or not, because it’s causing her so much pain and not setting properly. It’s in multiple pieces. So we are going for it.

Atreyu and I are back at the vet since her leg fracture decided to open up this morning and send a pinky-sized bone fragment through her skin. This poor babe can’t catch a break. The specialist is trying to save the leg though, so we are resetting and resplinting with a higher cast. She will have 30 more days in this cast.

Just a little girl, 1 out of 140,000, who made her way to Michigan and got to touch grass for the very first time.

Atreyu went to our avian vet ito have her leg amputated. Not long after she went into surgery, a vet tech ran in and said, “She’s crashing. We’re doing CPR. Should we continue?” Her broken body was giving up. This was it. I told her not to continue CPR. Everything this poor girl had been through, and she couldn’t get through the final surgery.

Soon after, another doctor came down the hall. “By some miracle she came back. She’s alive. We were able to stabilize her. We’re going to continue with the surgery.”

That was a miracle,” she said. “I guess she wanted to live.” And live she will. Today is the first day of the rest of her life.

Today Atreyu visited the adoptable shed. Many of the kitties sniffed her but Peter in particular couldn’t get enough of her. Some of the cats she didn’t seem to mind, some of them she was slightly afraid of, but Peter she let get close. Their interaction remained very gentle and peaceful. Two incredibly beautiful souls.

Atreyu had her first spa day today. Up until now she’s always had an open wound or delicate broken bones. Things are finally closing up so we decided it was time for a bath. She relaxed in there until the water cooled down, and then we took another bath for rinsing and she wanted to stay in that one just as long.

Atreyu did two tiny hops today! This is a HUGE deal!! Many hens with one leg learn to hop around, regaining their mobility despite losing a limb. But not many hens also have a wing missing on the same side. Atreyu is quite lopsided and although she can usually right herself when she falls, she has never tried to hop to move around... until today!

This is HUGE because 1) we don’t want her body to have to endure the process on top of everything else it’s dealing with, but 2) her body feels that it has healed enough to send resources towards making eggs! She has not laid the entire time she’s been here. She had too much healing to do to put any of her energy toward egg making. So this is a GREAT sign that she’s making progress! However, we are going to get her a hormonal implant as soon as possible so she can avoid reproductive issues and keep using that energy for better things.

Chris and Dave from Chubby Goat Acres are some of my favorite humans. Dave came out to help us finish off our pig building for winter today, and brought this awesome painting of Atreyu for me. They are top notch people running a top notch sanctuary and I am so grateful for both of them. Atreyu approves!

Shoutout to Gretchen at Lucky Day Animal Rescue for my ATREYU CARRYING POUCH! I mean seriously - could there be anything better than this?!

She’s BORING you guys. Which is the most INCREDIBLE thing ever, considering where she came from. Boring is the absolute best. She’s healthy and normal and just doing her hen thing. Other than missing half her limbs, she is a typical leghorn. She is still the most boring, beautiful miracle.

What a day to be outdoors - 60° and sunshine! Atreyu arrived in May of 2020, which means she has been here nearly 2 years. This is particularly mind-blowing when you consider that we didn’t think she would make it through her first night. But here she is, rolling in dirt, hopping through the grass, doing… well… chicken things.

Atreyu saw the avian vet today for her check up and reproductive care and she passed with flying colors! 2 years ago we never would have imagined her this way. The vets recounted together when she died during her leg amputation and they managed to bring her back. Everyone at the office remembers her. She yelled at them all and showed off her beautiful, sassy personality. That’s our girl!

Trixie and Atreyu were introduced and…. They get along GREAT! Atreyu has been so difficult to find friends for. She’s always had the humans as friends, but life is so much better with a buddy of your own species. She is also sassy as hell, and needs to be top bird! Girlfriend knows what and who she likes. And Trixie has fallen beautifully into that role. Trixie was lonely herself, picked on by flock mates because of her disability. They both needed a friend and they both found one.