(11/2019) I really enjoy working on chickens. Having owned chickens personally for many years, I enjoy their individual chicken personalities, each chicken's distinctive appearance, as well as their varied relationships with their owners. An added bonus is that chickens are usually very cooperative patients. While most veterinarians will not see chickens in their practices, I admit that I am pleased when I know my next patient is a chicken

One client had a chicken named Harriet that was attacked by a dog. The neighbor's dog frequently came over to her house but had never bothered the chickens before. Harriet's owner saw the dog chasing the chickens but didn't think the dog had actually grabbed any of them.

The chickens all seemed fine and she didn't notice any injuries until a few days later when she noticed that Harriet had an odor and clumped feathers. She immediately made an appointment and brought the bird in to me to be examined.

I carefully moved Harriet's feathers with my fingers and could see that Harriet, had multiple wounds on her right side. The skin on her wing had been torn exposing the muscle below it. The wound was also full of maggots. I told the owner that I would like to take the chicken in the back of the clinic, where we have a big sink and good lighting so I could thoroughly clean out the wound. Harriet's owner had no desire to see maggots and happily agreed to the plan of sitting in the waiting room while I took Harriet to the back.

Harriet was like most chickens and very easy to work on. She sat perfectly still and didn't even need a vet tech to help hold her in place as her wing was washed out. In addition to giving Harriet a medication that would kill all the maggots, I also picked out as many of them as I could find. Harriet thought the maggots were the best part of her clinic visit. She immediately ate all the ones that I pulled out and turned her head to help me pick out the ones that were in her wing. While the majority of people would find this disgusting, my tech and I thought it was the funniest thing to watch the chicken happily gulp down her maggots. However when I told the owner about how her chicken helped us clean the wound, she was amused, but also slightly disgusted and nauseated. She told me that she only bought the freeze dried mealworms and not the live ones because she was grossed out when she had to touch them to feed them to her birds. I was glad that she decided to stay in the waiting room while I cleaned Harriet's wing.

After I had thoroughly washed out Harriet's wing, I applied an ointment, and showed the owner how to give Harriet antibiotics. Chickens are fairly easy to pill, especially when comparing them to your average cat that can easily spit out the pill plus also tries to bite and scratch when you administer it. Once the pill is in their mouth they usually just swallow it. Harriet was no exception and I easily

opened her beak, put the pill in, and she promptly swallowed it. I also told the owner that she could hide the medication in food and that fig newtons and pieces of fruit or cake were usually the most

successful pill hiders. I also instructed the owner not to eat the eggs and on proper withdrawal time for the antibiotic before the eggs are safe to eat again. Unlike horses, dogs, and cats, in this country

chickens are considered food animals and certain medications including antibiotics are banned to use even for pet chickens. Other antibiotics can be used but proper withdraws must be followed. Food

Animal Residue Avoidance Database (FARAD) establishes the medication withdrawal times so that people aren't inadvertently exposing themselves to unsafe animal products.

Harriet did well. Her owner reported that Harriet took her antibiotic, and was back to good health in several days.