Sassy (the chicken) needed emergency surgery

Last night two of our chickens were attacked by what we believe was a fox (although the PITA dog next door was also seen in our yard yesterday but don't believe she was the culprit this time).

One chicken didn't survive and the other was in rough shape. Fino and the girls wanted to do everything they could to save the chicken, which required stitches to close her gaping wounds.

***WARNING - the photos below are GRAPHIC ***








They quickly set up a surgery area in the bathroom and got to work. (It was too cold outside to handle this one like Lucy's broken leg.)

Since Fino is a vet tech, he's familiar with surgical techniques (and not squeamish). But he needed a second set of hands and asked for G.'s help cleaning the wounds. She did that surprisingly well and without complaint. The chickens are after all her beloved pets that she works hard to take care of them everyday (even when the tasks aren't fun).

Fino didn't have the surgical supplies he needed so he had to improvise by using dental floss to make the stitches. And the sock was his idea too so G. and L.'s hands wouldn't be pecked mercilessly while holding the hen in place. She actually seemed calmer with the sock over her head.

The whole process took about 45 minutes and the chicken ended up with about 15 stitches. She's doing well this morning and we're hopeful she'll make a full recovery.

The girls have renamed the chicken "Sassy" after handling this ordeal so well.

During the 'surgery' the hen made some weird noise that gave us a surprise and had us laughing the rest of the night. It was definitely a YouTube moment.

Chicken surgery