Tough as they come, Double battery weekend, Greenway surfing

So after Lucy’s miraculous recovery from being on her back with feet in the air Thursday and a night in our tub she seemed pretty alert on Friday morning.  She seemed to actually be pretty normal.  As a precaution we put her back in the chicken area but into the chicken tractor so she would be isolated from the other hens, just in case.  We put a few big chunks of watermelon in there with her, she wasted no time going to town on it.  It seemed amazing that this was the same chicken that was on her back the day before.

So when I got home from work Friday I looked out the window and was glad to see Lucy standing in the tractor and not on her back.  I walked out there to let her out.  Although she was standing she seemed off and her face looked very pale.  She continued to stand there as I tended to the other chickens.  As I was moving stuff out of the tractor I noticed a few drops of blood on the frame.  I quickly looked at Lucy and did not see any blood on her feet so I wasn’t sure what was up.

When Cindy got home I told her how Lucy was acting odd. Cindy looked at her and noticed some blood on her beak.  She looked at her bad wing and found something horrible.  Evidently Lucy spent a good portion of the day pecking herself, right around the swollen area.  There was an ugly bloody wound as a result.  I could only imagine why she did this, perhaps the swollen area was hurting her and she was trying to do whatever she could to relieve the pain.  Whatever the reason, we now had another problem to deal with.  We had to try to bandage the area in a way that she would not be able to peck herself.

I held Lucy as Cindy did the best she could with the bandages we had.  I felt terrible.  After covering the area we again set her up in our bathroom where we could keep an eye on her.  She was acting very lethargic and I thought we may lose her Friday night.  Low and behold we woke up Saturday morning and she seemed alert, her resiliency was pretty amazing.

So I figured we will put her out in the open with the other chickens, perhaps being isolated and bored lead to her pecking herself.  We immediately threw more melon in the yard which Lucy and the other chickens started working on immediately.  Once again, besides a swollen, bandaged wing, she seemed pretty normal.  I left the hens be as I worked on some other stuff in the yard.  Later in the morning I glanced out there and saw a chicken on her back, feet in the air, by the melons, it was Lucy.

I ran out there and she was looking at me so I at least knew she was alive.  She was flat one her back with her wing bandages laying on the ground next to her, wtf?  I scooped her up and took her inside the coop to one of the nesting boxes.  She sat there with her mouth open like she was hot but otherwise seemed pretty ok, this was almost a carbon copy of what happened on Thursday.  So once Lucy calmed down we again wrapped her up using better bandage supplies we bought from CVS that morning.  We put her back out in the yard and this time threw corn on the cob in there.  Once again all of the birds, including Lucy, went nuts for it.

So late afternoon Cindy said she saw a chicken in an odd position in front of the run.  I went out and once again Lucy was on her back, looking at me, with her bandages by her side.  I then started to realize what was happening.   She wanted the bandages off so badly that she dropped to her back and used her feet to grab them and pull them off.  However she was physically not able to flip herself back upright after doing so.  I felt terrible that the bandages were bothering her that much but I felt we had to prevent her from being able to peck the open wound.

So once again we wrapped her up.  When I took her back out to the run I stood there to observe.  She stumbled backwards as she tried to pull the same trick, making noise like she was in pain which broke my heart.  As she fell to the sand, one of the other hens, Pumpkin made an aggressive move towards Lucy which I immediately shut down.  I scooped Lucy up and took her back in the house, it was our third night of having an indoor chicken.  Before bed you could see she was still trying to get the bandage off but too tired to do so.  I totally expected to wake up Sunday morning to have her be alert and fine, again.

Well instead shortly before 4 AM Cindy awoke when she heard a noise in the bathroom.  We got up and went inside just as Lucy moved her legs for the last time.  We literally watched her stop breathing as her eyes were closed and her head was tucked down.  It instantly brought tears to my eyes but in reality I was relieved she finally passed.  She was suffering and was not going to recover.  I was glad her suffering was at it’s end but sad and somewhat guilty that we were not able to save her.  Later Sunday morning we buried Lucy in the back of the property, next to Peaches.  It was a solemn and sad event.  Lucy, despite being the most skittish and scared around us was amazingly tough and sweet in the end.

There were non-chicken related things during the weekend as well.  I installed a new 12V battery into the Prius since the installed battery was starting to read low which can cause of myriad of issues with the car.  The battery is located in the trunk and is not convenient to replace but not all that tough either as illustrated in the video.

On Sunday morning I was feeling very sad about Lucy’s passing.  I tried to temper that sadness by taking the OneWheel down to the Greenway to ride.  It was my best ride yet with the board.  The varied terrain and twisting pathways made for a very enjoyable riding experience, more fun than any prior ride I had there on EUC’s.  I took the board all the way to the gulf and back.  You can get a good sense of how much fun it was from the video.

The hybrid battery installer was supposed to arrive early afternoon to replace the Prius pack for the third time.  of course that ETA was missed.  While I was waiting I decided to get out and mow despite very threatening skies.  I mowed through several rain outbreaks, luckily none of them were deluge intensity.  As always, it felt great to have the task completed.

The installer said he was delayed in Miami and showed up somewhere around 6PM.  I asked him if normally they have to come back multiple times to replace packs.  He said out of the 100 or so repairs he has done I am only the second customer that had two failures, lucky me. Once again Jonathan and his dad worked quickly, getting a new pack installed in roughly an hour.  He said I should be good to go but once again, if I have any problems to let them know.  I assured him I would do exactly that.

It was an emotional, rough weekend.  I look forward to smoother waters ahead.