I am a bad hen mum. As in the bad mum of a hen. I'm bad. Not the hen.
Lotti, our loopy Exchequer Leghorn has a deformed foot. It was probably broken when she was a chick. Her "fingers" are all bent round, and the nails don't really wear down when she walks. This means that they need clipping from time to time, otherwise they chafe on the finger.
You know what's coming, don't you.
I can't believe I did it.
I also can't believe how much blood there was.
Nor can I believe how long it kept bleeding. I didn't put her back in with the others. She came in the house and left bloody fingerprints all over the floor. I had some septic powder which is designed to staunch wounds. I got lots of it in the right place, and even more of it down me, on the garden seat (which was minding its own business in the background) and all over the patio.
I tried pinching it. Lotti got very very upset at this, and escaped, leaving a trail of bloody prints all down the garden path.
I tried again with the powder. I ended up with blood and powder all over my jeans. And my jumper.
I shut her in Tilda's pied a terre, while I looked for help. She went nuts. She couldn't calm down to see the feast in front of her - apple, cucumber, mixed corn, bird treats.... all she knew was she was SHUT IN. And Lotti cannot stand being SHUT IN anywhere.
I tried covering the p.a.t. with a towel. BIG mistake. Lotti seemed
to interpret the looming towel as some sort of scary monster, and
shrieked her head off.
I looked through my plasters. In the end I picked one laced with silver, and I taped the end of her claw. She's back in the pied a terre (p.a.t.) at the moment, I'll leave her there for a while and see whether it stops bleeding.
She's discovered some of the treats, and the frantic "let me out, help help" bokking is reduced to a mumble every so often as she has a beak full of something.
I need to go and mop up the blood.
