Ruby

This is Ruby...She was a good girl. 

• brown speckled egg
• lethargic, not producing eggs, poop was not solid/almost watery
• almost 3 years old
• top of pecking order
• Red Star

Since I knew the signs, I was calling imediately around at avian vets (there aren't very many here) and the only that could see me right away was someone in Sandy, just past Ikea.  The tech that examined her first thought..."yep she's eggbound" then the dr. came in and examined her and said...nope she's not eggbound...But he offered to keep her overnight and to do xrays to see if she had swallowed something foreign.  But being the practical girl I am (I was attached to her though) I opted to just take her home and see what happened.   She became better and less lethargic but still not producing any eggs and was just somehow less.  She was like that for about a year.  Then in the summer of 2011 she started being sedentary and only moving to eat or drink...(thankfully she was still doing those things).  I started to notice that when she pooped it would stick to her backside.  We cleaned her several times and one time I noticed a big mass to one side of her bum behind her leg.  All of the symtoms when googled indicated that she had cancer and then when I felt that mass I was pretty sure she had it too.  So I  just tried to keep her comfortable.  But at the end she wouldn't even get up to go to her normal bed in the garage at night time when all the other chickens would.. she stayed in a nesting box in the outdoor closet.  I was worried because a predator could come and she would probably just let them eat her.  I couldn't stand to see her like that anymore so I did the only humanely thing I could think of...I had my son put her out of her misery.  Sad day.  But she wasn't in pain anymore.