the thing with fancy chickens-caring for sick chicken

"fancy" chickens are bred for ornamental purposes. not for meat, eggs, personality, or being healthy. its like having a persian cat (or a pug or pom for dog lovers). they are especially cute and more unique looking, but boy do they come with lots more problems! i declare Belle, my ameraucana (which isnt really that fancy of a breed) my designated problem chicken! there's no end with her! first it takes her almost TWO years to lay consistently, then she gets a cold or some other sickness i dont know every other month, a few weeks ago i thought she was going to die because she had something hanging out of her vent (butt hole) and was acting very weak and sickly for a week. so i called my chicken expert (hey, even shrinks have shrinks :) and said that if it was tissue coming out there was nothing to do to help her. or it could be an egg shell, which would come out eventually. i tried to check it out, thankfully with belle's cooperation, by cuts probably a pound of chunky poops that were stuck to her fuzzies. then i saw the tube like thing hanging out. i gave a little tug to see if she just needed help to get it out. i had to get another opinion, and dad was the only one brave enough to look. he thought it was tissue. so that got me very concerned. so here's what i did:

i got:

-a box/cage,

-light/lamp,

-newspaper or hay,

-and water and food bowls.

then i set those things all up in my room (or a place that is warm inside) and turned the light on. i got belle, and put her in there. the reason you should do this is so the sick chicken can get rest to heal, be less stressed by being in a quiet place without the hassle of the other chickens, and get warm to get her body temp up.

i had to keep belle in there for 3 days. then at 6:00 in the morning i heard a squealy high pitched "eeee" or like someone was really trying to get something out. (its the sound they make when the egg is coming out.) but of course i thought she was dying. so i jumped out of my bed, rushed over to help her. and then i get this AWFUL whiff of all the rotten fishy dead smelling things in the world combined. i gagged. and then, while holding my breath, i looked to see what it was. and sure enough it was a very rotten crushed egg shell mixed with poop. yeah! i was right! it wasnt tissue! i was an egg shell, but it got stuck because it was shaped like a lolli-pop (but not that extremely shaped). belle almost immediately perked up and at the end of the day i put her back with the others. but of course she cant be all the way better, that would to much for her little princess self to give me. no, she is still weak and slow and sleepy. but she is definitely better than with that thing stuck in her. oh well. i has been worth it so far. when she was "dying" i promised her i wouldnt make her lay any more eggs (like i even could) if she would just get better. thats the thing with pure breeds, or fancy breeds, is that they have a great personality. belle is my little baby who will always jump on my lap, burrow her head in my side, and fall asleep. i love her.

now, because of this story, i am not saying dont get fancy breeds. most of the time they are perfectly healthy like any other chickens breed. especially ameraucanas, many other people i know who have ameraucanas have not had any problems with them. belles just...special.