{"id":10984,"date":"2015-05-10T17:56:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T17:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=10984"},"modified":"2015-05-10T17:59:13","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T17:59:13","slug":"sparkle-is-in-the-sick-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=10984","title":{"rendered":"Sparkle is in the sick bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning when I went out to the girls Sparkle was stood under the bush. This is never a good sign. By the time I had done my morning chores Topaz had gone to stand next to her.<\/p>\n

I soaked a bit of bread with her liquid baytril and offered it to her but she refused it. I put her in the cat box with one ramekin dish of water and one of mash, some sunflower seeds and some chopped grapes. Sparkle refused to eat anything.<\/p>\n

There was nothing for it but to put her medicine directly in her beak. I held her while my husband administered it a drop at a time in the side of her beak waiting for her to swallow each drop before giving the next. We managed this without any being wasted.<\/p>\n

I left her in the cat box because she has everything she needs and doesn’t have to compete with the other girls which she is unable to do at the moment. I can watch to see if she eats or drinks and I can see if she poops. She is comfortable in there and hasn’t complained.<\/p>\n

\"Sparkle<\/a>

Sparkle in the cat box<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sparkle<\/a>

Sparkle settled in<\/p><\/div>\n

I saw her drink from the water dish but was disappointed that she wouldn’t be tempted to eat anything. I know from past experience that if you can get them to eat and gain strength you may get them better (Amber and Emerald) but if you can’t get them to eat then it’s probably a losing battle (Treacle). The problem is you can’t force them to eat you can only keep trying to tempt them.<\/p>\n

I am hoping that once the medicine kicks in she will get her appetite back and start to eat and gain strength. I am willing her to eat something. I am hoping that she may eat in the late afternoon like yesterday and then I can return her to the run.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we will put her medicine in her beak again in the morning. I then have to go out and do my deliveries but on my return at lunch time I will put her back in the cat box with food and water. I will repeat this until she starts to eat in the run.<\/p>\n

At six o’clock Sparkle suddenly got her appetite back. She started eating the chopped grapes then moved on to the sunflower hearts. She suddenly started pecking at the slice of melon which I put it in with her at lunch time and \u00a0she wouldn’t even look at, at that time.<\/p>\n

\"Sparkle<\/a>

Sparkle suddenly starts pecking at the melon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Look<\/a>

Look at her go!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hurrah!<\/a>

Hurrah! Melon in Sparkle’s beak<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This makes my heart sing<\/p><\/div>\n

I can’t describe how this simple act made my heart soar. Sparkle then moved on to her mash and then my husband gave her a big worm and after a bit of a struggle she got it down. My heart felt fit to burst.<\/p>\n

I then offered her some spinach leaves which she ate with gusto. Hurrah, I think we may be back on track. I decided it was time to return her to the flock and she joined them eagerly. She was moving around after having sat for a whole day. I think (hope) we have reached a turning point. After a day of worry I am feeling so happy at the moment. Lets hope tomorrow continues as well as this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning when I went out to the girls Sparkle was stood under the bush. This is never a good sign. By the time I had done my morning chores Topaz had gone to stand next to her. I soaked … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10984"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11023,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions\/11023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}