Every bag and piece of trash I see on the side of the road, I always think it’s a chicken. This time, it was actually a chicken. Our vet is amazing and they let me bring her immediately. She can’t stand up and she has a large gash on one side. X-rays reveal a potential fracture in her back and a “loose” hip. She was likely hit by a car. We certainly weren’t planning on taking on a case like this right now. There’s no way I was going to leave her there though. She’s in rough shape, but we’re going to do everything we can.

Please welcome, Katie.

This sling has turned out to be the best thing ever for Katie. I think she is MUCH happier letting her legs dangle beneath her. After I took her out of it, she continued standing on her right leg until I set her down! She can’t hold herself up, but she seems much stronger than even a couple days ago. I haven’t dealt with spinal fractures in birds before, and I’m grateful for an amazing veterinary team who answers all of my questions and cares about her just as much as I do. I genuinely have no idea if she’ll walk again, or what to expect for her future. I’m liking the progress she’s making though and I’m confident we can make some good decisions for her.

Katie went for her recheck and she is doing AWESOME. The vet was very pleasantly surprised! Birds are such rockstars when it comes to healing. Her wounds are already mostly closed (it’s only been a week!) and she had 15 of her 17 staples removed. She’s still not eating on her own but she’s alert and gaining strength every day. She is regularly trying to stand now and although she can’t do it on her own yet, the effort is really encouraging. So that’s exciting.

Oh nothing to see here.

Just Katie standing up on her own!

Katie is such a rockstar. Truly. She’s limping around, taking dust baths, and she even jumped up a small step today!! She STILL doesn’t want to eat on her own though. I don’t know why. The vet doesn’t know why. Katie knows, but refuses to tell us. Her poops are beautiful. She’s got the best poops in town. But sister refuses to create them unless I tube feed her. That’s ok. We are still pretty early in the healing process and I’m blown away by how far she’s come in such a short time. I think she’s happy at this point and even if I have to tube feed her the rest of her life, for whatever reason, I think her life is worth living.

Not the most exciting photo, but it IS the most exciting photo because that’s Katie in the center! She has been successfully integrated into a “regular” flock (ie not disabled) and has been settling in beautifully with her new friends. She still has a bit of a limp but no one seems to mind. It’s hard to believe that a couple short months ago she was unable to stand and needed to be tube fed. She did it. She lived. She is living. And she has many more glorious days ahead with friends.