Poor Little Chook

Having celebrated our lovely chickens' adaptability in my last post, less than 24 hours ago, this morning we find one of our little hens is unable to walk. Gentle examination reveals, eventually, a huge paralysis tick that has burrowed into her neck just beneath her beak. It has obviously been there for some days now - it's size at start of feeding would have been around 2-3mm.

As shown in the photo, the horrid little beasty had grown to nearly 1cm across, engorged on our poor chook's blood. Tam quickly and in one fell swoop removed the tick with her bare hands (I was impressed!). We have administered a homeopathic remedy "Ixodes", which was developed some years ago by our very own Nimbin apothecary particularly for paralysis ticks, given how rife they are in this region. However we now have to wait and see if the hen will recover. She's sitting quietly in the chicken house, having got cosy in the nest box, which is the best thing for her - movement and excitement will encourage the paralysis 'venom' to travel around her body and have more effect (usually on legs and lungs). We have no idea whether she will survive.

Here's the engorged tick photographed beside an unfed paralysis tick. I found this crawling through my hair today. The extent to which they expand while feeding is remarkable.

We'll keep you posted on our poor hen's progress. In the meantime, Tam says please send universal loving, healing energy to our littl'Un.