So this morning Tom was getting ready to go out to pick apples, and I was going to do the animal chores.  I had just started when I noticed a white hen in trouble in the fencing.  It was a hen I had named Cocky Lucky.  She was not looking good. When I picked her up, she had bad fly strike.  I will save you the gory details, but you can look them up if you want.  I tried to treat her, but I realized it was only prolonging her suffering.  Tom hadn’t’t left yet so he killed her.  I couldn’t have done it as she was one of my favorites.

She had been dumped here with another hen on August 10, 2015.  Here they are after we finally got them into the barnyard 3 days later, starving.  

They were named after the infamous reading of the Henny Penny book by Ketchikan the Animal Man (AKA Bob Newman).  The video is at Henny Penny if you are a member of the J.P. Patches Pals facebook group (which I would highly recommend).  Henny Penny was named first as she is the color of a penny so her friend got the Cocky Locky name.  But actually in the book that Ketchikan read, Henny Penny looks most like my Cocky Locky.  So maybe I messed up in naming them.  But they kept these names and photos of them were included in holiday cards to Bob Newman who reportedly got a kick out of the fact I have named many of my farm animals after characters from the show.

and here she is in 2018.

She as a beautiful bird, and I feel bad she had to suffer in the end.  I will miss her.

I proceeded with the animals chores, getting the donkeys ready for the farrier.  I then hung out by the house so I could let her in the gate when she arrived.  She ended up being 2 hours late.  So while I was weeding and other tasks waiting for her, I noticed that Steve seemed to be bleeding her his collar.  Tom had told me that he had a rash under his collar yesterday and had loosened it.  I was on my own and could not catch him despite lots of attempts with treats.  Finally the farrier trimmed the donkeys hooves, and I had a very late lunch.  I had the front door open to let Rocky in, and Steve came in.  I knew something was very wrong at this point because he absolutely hates being inside.  I shut the door and called Tom.  He was in Acme and started heading home.  Steve smelled like that hen we had put down earlier so I was terribly worried.  I took off his collar, and it was really stinky.  I made an appointment with the vet and they kindly double booked me for an appointment 1.5 hours later (Puget Sounds Vet Group is the greatest!).

Steve had rolled his neck in some nasty mud.  I somehow manage to get him into the bathroom and then into the tub and gave him a bath.  I noticed he had several wounds around his neck.  So I got him cleaned up as best I could and dried him.  Tom got home, and we were able to get a harness on him.  I made sure he had tags on it just in case he got away.  And we loaded him into the trunk and took him to the vet.

There they shaved him to see the extent of his injuries.

You can see how awful it is.  The rest of him looked good though. So he was prescribed antibiotics and steroids.  He has to stay in the house a few days while this heals.  He is absolutely going to hate it.

All plans for the afternoon went out the window as we tended to Steve.  But at least he should be OK, unlike Cocky.  So, a bad farm day.