Life Lately: Pets Edition

Hi friends!
Once again, I've been a little scarce on social media lately—between rehabbing my knee (more on that soon) and caring for my sick pets, it's been busy. Let me introduce you to my patients:

🐱 Kaylee (cat)
She has been the light of our lives since the moment I saw her as a kitten at the humane society. Unfortunately, she has inflammatory bowel disease and brutal seasonal allergies, which flared up badly this spring. She's finally stable now, and we're all relieved.

🐔 Butterball (Buff Orpington chicken)
She is my “Teddy Bear” chicken in that she’s very huggable. She’s 7 years old (which is old for a chicken), and recently she acted like she was dying... turns out she was just going broody. Now she’s finally coming out of it.

🐔 Barbara Jean (Lavender Australorp chicken)
She’s the one most likely to sit on my lap, and she has the most beautiful iridescent plumage. Last week, she got flystrike—which is virtually 100% fatal if not caught early.
Decades ago, while volunteering for a wildlife rescue organization I helped save a mallard hen from flystrike, so I knew what to do:

• Brought her indoors (first time I’ve ever brought a chicken inside)

• Gave her Epsom salt baths every 1.5–2 hours

• It took 4 baths for the water to come clean

• She ate easily but needed coaxing to drink (ChatGPT helped!)

It was intense!

By morning, she was well enough to rejoin the flock. Birds have an amazing ability to heal quickly once you get them over the hump, much greater than mammals.

And I’ve been doing this all while healing my own injured knee, but that’s another story for another time.

Now that I’m catching my breath, I will endeavor to get caught up on my social media connections. I’ve missed you all!

What have you been up to?

~*~

Soon I will have room for two new clients. Watch this space!