June and the Pneumonia

There has been a problem at our home.

June, one of our Buff Orpington chicks, contracted pneumonia and it infected her brain. We rushed her to a vet that put her on antibiotics and she seems to be doing much better.

That was the sweet and simple story, now for what really happened...

I'm lying in bed on a lazy spring morning when my eleven-year-old son runs in saying that one of the chicks is being trampled. He says that she won't move at all. This is all being said in a very panicky, sad voice. So, good-bye lazy morning and hello drama.

My son brings the chick into the house to show me. It was one of the most pathetic sights I have seen in my life. She couldn't even hold her head upright.

We googled vets and found one 20 minutes away that dealt with chickens. He told us to be there at 2:00 p.m. since it was first come-first serve.

At 1:30, we packed up June and started driving from Texas to Oklahoma, when we were met with an imposing sight. A semi-truck had exploded right over the Red River and caused damage to an overpass. The police had closed the highway. (No injuries other than to the truck and bridge.) We finally arrived at the vet 1 1/2 hours later.

After looking at June, the vet said that she had pneumonia and it had traveled to her brain, causing an infection there. He flipped her over and proceeded to give her two shots, one in each breast muscle. Then he handed me the syringe and calmly stated that I was to do the same for the next four days.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The highway was still closed when we returned, so my son and I went the back way the locals told us to use. After driving down a road called Peanut Trail, we drove over a ONE-lane bridge - the cars on the other side had to wait for us to cross to get their turn.

We were running so late by then, that we had to go straight to the dog groomer to pick up our three dogs. They really liked the smell of chicken and tried their hardest to find out from where it originated. My son was tilting June's box in his lap and covering it with his body.

Our one hour trip became four hours and our chicken was suffering from pneumonia-induced dementia. The dogs were clambering to find the chicken. I still had to drive and pick up my daughter at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.

You just have to stop and laugh sometimes. Not at the bird's sickness, but at life. As they say, truth is stranger than fiction!

Now I have to go shoot the bird - with antibiotics, I mean!