I just have no words to say right now, so many tears I'm having trouble typing this....
Iona wasn't a cuddly or lovey dovey leghorn but she was still a sweet baby..
Iona was the only girl to hatch out of 3 eggs along with her 2 brothers. I had lost Sandy to an odd problem around 4 years ago. Sandy passed away at the vets office, I scrambled around and grabbed 7 eggs out of the refridgerater which were around 2 weeks old at the time. They sat for 2 days while I looked for an incubator. Finally was able to get a LG still air and set it up and put 7 eggs from my beloved Sandy into the incubator. Days went by as I watched the incubator and posted questions on here making sure everything was right.. One night we had a horrible power outage while the eggs were incubating. We were without power for around 6 hours while it was cold and snowing outside. I kept the incubator as warm as I could with handwarmers and hotwater bottles along with a deerskin over the incubator. Finally around 3 am the power came back on and the incubator got back up to temp. Out of 7 eggs only 4 were developing. After the power outage 1 embryo died but still 3 more lived on and hatched. On New Years day I was blessed with 3 little leghorn chicks which turned out to be Iona and her two brothers.
I watched her grow and kept her company when her brothers were given new homes. She grew up in the safty of the house and got to freerange before I went to school. Did I mention Iona has been the only girl that has crowed here? Yup the little bugger let out 3 pitiful sounding crows one morning. Never did it again though.
Everything started going downhill a few weeks ago. On Tuesday she had a trip to the vet because she was swollen up in her rear end almost like a water balloon. The vet carefully drained her over 30 minutes and ended up getting around 1.2 quarts out of her swollen bottom. We and even the vet thought she would get better after having all the fluid out of her. She ate and drank like a champ for a few days and then started going downhill even worse..
Sometime early this morning my sweet Iona was relieved of her suffering. As I opened her cage I didn't get the usual purr as I always did then I reliezed she was gone.. Yet another one of my beloved angels taken away from me and another piece of my heart torn apart. Why?
I have lost 3 of my greatest girls this year. Krispy, Coco and my Iona.. No crows were crowed today. My poor little bantam leghorn girl Pearl wasn't herself today...I believe she knew her sister was gone. Taken away from her aswell. Kernal did not take his treats asusual. The roosters did not fight at all...
Iona would of been 4 years old on New Years... Almost exactly 4 years ago her mother passed away on 12/07/08...Why does this happen to me...
If you'd like to read a couple threads about her mother or Ionas hatching:
Her mothers fight with life.. :https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=110315&p=1
Sandys eggs, Ionas hatch: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=112171
I'm just crying so badly right now...I don't even have any pictures because of when my computer crashed...
Iona wasn't a cuddly or lovey dovey leghorn but she was still a sweet baby..
Iona was the only girl to hatch out of 3 eggs along with her 2 brothers. I had lost Sandy to an odd problem around 4 years ago. Sandy passed away at the vets office, I scrambled around and grabbed 7 eggs out of the refridgerater which were around 2 weeks old at the time. They sat for 2 days while I looked for an incubator. Finally was able to get a LG still air and set it up and put 7 eggs from my beloved Sandy into the incubator. Days went by as I watched the incubator and posted questions on here making sure everything was right.. One night we had a horrible power outage while the eggs were incubating. We were without power for around 6 hours while it was cold and snowing outside. I kept the incubator as warm as I could with handwarmers and hotwater bottles along with a deerskin over the incubator. Finally around 3 am the power came back on and the incubator got back up to temp. Out of 7 eggs only 4 were developing. After the power outage 1 embryo died but still 3 more lived on and hatched. On New Years day I was blessed with 3 little leghorn chicks which turned out to be Iona and her two brothers.
I watched her grow and kept her company when her brothers were given new homes. She grew up in the safty of the house and got to freerange before I went to school. Did I mention Iona has been the only girl that has crowed here? Yup the little bugger let out 3 pitiful sounding crows one morning. Never did it again though.
Everything started going downhill a few weeks ago. On Tuesday she had a trip to the vet because she was swollen up in her rear end almost like a water balloon. The vet carefully drained her over 30 minutes and ended up getting around 1.2 quarts out of her swollen bottom. We and even the vet thought she would get better after having all the fluid out of her. She ate and drank like a champ for a few days and then started going downhill even worse..
Sometime early this morning my sweet Iona was relieved of her suffering. As I opened her cage I didn't get the usual purr as I always did then I reliezed she was gone.. Yet another one of my beloved angels taken away from me and another piece of my heart torn apart. Why?
I have lost 3 of my greatest girls this year. Krispy, Coco and my Iona.. No crows were crowed today. My poor little bantam leghorn girl Pearl wasn't herself today...I believe she knew her sister was gone. Taken away from her aswell. Kernal did not take his treats asusual. The roosters did not fight at all...
Iona would of been 4 years old on New Years... Almost exactly 4 years ago her mother passed away on 12/07/08...Why does this happen to me...
If you'd like to read a couple threads about her mother or Ionas hatching:
Her mothers fight with life.. :https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=110315&p=1
Sandys eggs, Ionas hatch: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=112171
I'm just crying so badly right now...I don't even have any pictures because of when my computer crashed...
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