Christine Columbus on sick leave.

Christine Columbus, the explorer chicken of our flock, is on sick leave. She doesn't have a headache or a toothache. As befits an explorer, Christine is recovering from an injury she got in a perilous encounter with a chicken enemy.

Since yesterday, she is with us at home, resting in a hastily repurposed dog portable carrier.

Thank chickengod, she's eating well and doing fine.

Her encounter with the chicken enemy happened last week. One late afternoon four days ago, I got a call from a neighbor informing me that there are a lot of feathers fallen on the road nearby the farm. Something might have happened to The Chicken.

I biked to the crime scene and found this:

Closer look:

These are indeed chicken feathers. But I was slightly relieved that there were no blood stains nor dismembered limbs spread around.

I found Christine, alive,  in the back of the farm. As Christine is the only chicken that regularly flies out of the chicken run, no doubt she was the one attacked. But she looked fine. She was standing on her feet, making her chicken poker face as if nothing had happened. There was no obvious injury.

So the enemy just grabbed her by the tail and she managed to flee -- I tried to reconstruct the scene. The enemy was probably a dog? It cost Christine a few feathers but that is acceptable price for all those days of exploration and freedom she has enjoyed.
Content that everything was fine, I returned Christine back to the run and I went home.

But the next day, Christine was limping.  One leg was causing her pain when walking, so she wouldn't move much and would often sit down.

The sticky feathers between the wing and the leg are the only visible
part of a larger wound hidden under the wing. 

Christine sitting in the mud. It's very unusual for chickens to sit in the mud.
A chicken would normally find more comfortable and drier place to rest.
Unless she's wounded and walking is too tiring.  

Christine sitting outside in the mud again .

I checked Christine again and found the wound under her wing. The wound didn't look very serious, but if it caused her so much trouble walking, it must have been more serious than an amateur eye could discern.

So we took Christine to the vet.

"I weight 1.75 kilos!" ("Does it mean I'm slim?!")

After the doctor cleaned Christine's wound, we could see an exposed chunk of pink flesh, torn apart deep inside. No wonder she was limping.

Fortunately, there was no damage to internal organs nor any broken bones, so if only the wounded muscles recover, Christine should be fine.

Christine exploring the surroundings of her 
private room (in our home).

Nothing fun to peck in here.

See the egg? Christine keeps working 
even on sick leave.

Christine will spend a few more days with us. (I was promoted to a chicken nurse.)
After that, let's hope she'll be able to go back to her flock. (And I will be demoted back to incompetent sales manager.)
And hopefully Christine will remember this lesson forever and won't fly out to fight with chicken enemies anymore..