chicken triage: in conclusion

So.

Guess who laid her first egg (!) since the big crisis three weeks ago?
Yep, good ol' Margaret.  Love that girl.  I kind of thought maybe her egg laying days were done, to tell the truth.

Here I am about to reveal how very little I knew about chicken anatomy prior to getting up close and personal with Margaret and her parts.

I thought they had two, you know........ holes.

Well, before the whole ordeal, I honestly hadn't given it all that much thought.  There are other things on my mind, typically, than chicken privates.  Typically.

So, when I assessed poor Margaret's "situation", and I saw two distinct holes, I kinda just thought "huh, alright, two then."  I assumed that was normal and then proceeded to tend to the one that needed the attention.

Fast forward a week or so when I checked on her nether-regions to make sure things were looking alright.  Two holes, check.  Second one still a bit sad looking.  Okay.  No big surprise there I guess.  I attempted to check on the undersides of our other hens.  You know, to compare.  But they saw me coming and apparently knew just what I was thinking, because those girls steered clear.

Fast forward to today.  I'm outside watching the girls, thinking "you know, I really ought to check her out again, and make sure her parts are getting back to normal."  As though I had the vaguest idea of what that would be.

Imagine my surprise then, when, after stealthily swooping up first Rose and then Pearl, I found that our other hens each had only one hole.  Huh.  I looked once, twice, I moved feathers around in order to more easily reveal their suddenly missing second holes. (those poor girls! they didn't even seem to notice they were missing anything)

Next to be swooped up and flipped over was, of course, Margaret.  I had to get to the bottom of this. (the bottom of this...ha)

Well then.  Margaret indeed has only one as well.  (duh! of course she does, turns out that is what normal is) And located approximately an inch and a half below her one and only rear orifice?  A round, quarter-sized wound that is almost completely healed.  My jaw dropped.  I couldn't believe it.  Could not believe that the hole I had tweezers a full inch inside of three weeks ago was one that wasn't supposed to be there.  Those bastards were literally eating my poor girl alive.

That of course makes it all worse in retrospect, but it also adds to my elation over the fact that she is still here, not only alive and well but healed enough to have resumed laying.  I liked her a lot before, but now.... now Margaret and I are tight.