Beth's Boogy Shoes

So early this morning I packed Beth up and we headed out to the vet's office. I sat in the waiting room with all the dog and cat owners eyeballing me with their smug grins. Beth got to meet a pit bull up close and personal and wasn't all that impressed. In fact she pretty much just sat there good as can be. But even so we caused a bit of a stir. Seems they don't get a lot of chickens in the office. Go figure.

As we waited in the exam room we could hear the technicians talking about what scale they could use to weigh "the chicken" and whatnot. I think they were excited about having a chicken as a patient. A nice change of pace from all the four legged furballs. When the doctor examined her Beth just lied there and let her do it. She was as calm and sweet as she always is. Only pecked the light thingy they were trying to shine down her throat once.

The doctor was obviously intrigued by the ailment. She knew exactly what needed to be done. It was down right entertaining to watch the discussion between the vet and the vet tech. We were the highlight of their week. And while I had only signed up to get some antibiotics they really, really wanted to do surgery on her. And made me an offer too good to refuse.

You see, one of the reasons they wanted to do the surgery was to try out making a cast for Beth's foot. One of them had the brilliant idea to use an epoxy compound that was designed for equine use. It creates a foamy substance similar to a Nerf ball that can be custom formed to the hoof or in our case foot. It cushions the injured foot allowing it to heal faster. So they basically made her a little tennis shoe.


Lot's of photos were taken which I understand may be making the rounds in certain veterinary circles. So not only did she get her foot all fixed up, Beth's going to be famous. Of course, Beth doesn't care about that yet, she's still trying to figure out how to walk with the darn thing.

For the fellow chicken owners out there, the post-op procedures will be to change the dressing every two days and apply a triple antibiotic ointment. They prescribed an antibiotic, Baytril 68 mg 1/2 tablet twice daily and an anti-fungal Ketoconazole 200mg 1/4 tablet twice daily for 14 days. They stressed the anti-fungal needed to be taken when taking antibiotics because the antibiotic lowers their natural resistance to fungal infection. They stated her eggs should not be eaten for a month.